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How Santa Clarita Doctors Helped Reverse My Hearing Issues

I am completely deaf in my right ear. It’s not the best thing for a career radio guy. My hearing had been terrific for the first sixty-three years of my life, although if you asked my wife, Jeri, she’d say my listening skills have needed improvement for quite some time.


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I’ve been diagnosed with acoustic neuroma, which is now also known as vestibular schwannoma. I just call it “I can’t hear out of my right ear.” Whatever it’s called, I have a tumor that grows between the inner ear and the brain. Only 1 in 100,000 people are likely to get it. Lucky me. The good news, it’s 99.9% non-malignant. No cancer. The bad news, the only way to be 100% sure is through surgery.

When I first went public with my challenge last March, I heard from many people who were concerned about me. I also heard from a few who knew they had a hearing problem, but were avoiding doing anything about it. I had shared how Nola Aronson, owner of Advanced Audiology, had diligently assisted way beyond the call of duty in guiding me through my medical journey. She is now assisting many others who were motivated from my story. More about that later.

I’m usually asked when did I first notice I had a problem? It was spring of 2017, right after our annual KHTS Sacramento trip. I rarely get sick, but I had come down with bronchitis along with a high fever for a few days. As I was recovering, I noticed my balance was a little off. The doctor thought it was water in my ear and recommended I leave it alone for a few months to see if it naturally cleared up. It didn’t. In fact, it got worse. Had I visited Nola Aronson at that time, I would have saved myself a lot of grief and might have saved a portion of my hearing.

Instead, I listened to my doctor who proceeded to prescribe a cocktail of steroids and antihistamines. When that failed, I finally was referred to an ENT specialist, but had a two month wait before my appointment. During that wait time, I noticed the hearing in my right ear was impacted and I had a slight ringing in my ear. I couldn’t hear very well through headsets on the airplane, talking on the phone or even sitting in bed watching television. Again, had I visited Nola early on I would have made my journey a lot easier.

I was frustrated. During my wait time to see my ENT specialist, I went to the hospital emergency room. The physician on staff assured me my primary physician was correct. The ER doctor prescribed a new stronger concoction of antihistamines, nose-drops and Benadryl. “This will DEFINITELY do the trick,” the doc assured me. I became a very cranky, walking zombie. My hearing condition remaining the same. Now not only was I not listening to my wife, I was also very grumpy with her and anyone else who tried to communicate with me.

A month later I finally visited the ENT specialist. A simple two-minute test determined it wasn’t water in my ear. The ENT doctor referred me to Nola Aronson to take a hearing test before scheduling an MRI. Nola also gave me the water in the ear test. In two minutes, she also confirmed that wasn’t my problem.  Had I taken that test six months earlier I would have eliminated a lot of grief. That test is as easy as taking my temperature, so I am baffled why my other doctors didn’t administer it. It became another learning lesson and a good reason moving forward to stay very proactive with my health.

My MRI confirmed I had a small tumor. After visiting the House Hearing Clinic and later a specialist at UCLA, it was determined my best option was to continue to monitor the growth of the tumor with an MRI every six months.  If the tumor remained small my best option was to do nothing. That’s where Nola took over.

Nola Aronson and her team at Advanced Audiology are the premier hearing specialists in Santa Clarita. Having witnessed my Father-in-Law go the Costco route for his hearing challenges and seeing his continued struggles, the individual care and expertise at Advanced Audiology left no comparison.

This past summer the hearing in my right ear shifted again. I am now virtually deaf in my right ear. However, my tumor size has remained the same. A recent MRI confirmed it.

Over the past year, Nola continues to work with me, monitor and adjust. Each time I visit, I am given another subtle adjustment that fine tunes and makes it possible for me to hold an intelligent conversation, even in a very noisy setting.

Nola Aronson has been one integral part of my hearing loss journey. I am determined to keep my tumor from growing so I don’t have to face either surgery or radiation treatments. I will continue to receive an MRI every six months to monitor my tumor’s growth, or hopefully lack of growth.

During my journey, I reached out to a team of homeopathic specialists who have given me a new way to look at my health.

Dr. Thomas Polucki is a Santa Clarita chiropractor whose medical knowledge is decades ahead of everyone else. He has been working with me on restoring my balance. I am now bike riding, skiing and doing everything physically I had been doing prior to my tumor. Dr. Polucki is also guiding me on my diet and exercise.

I’ve also added acupuncture to my treatments. There have been many success stories of acupuncture eliminating the growth of tumors. I had long since eliminated my skepticism about acupuncture when Kathleen Kenneally of Kenneally acupuncture cured my springtime allergies years earlier. She is now working on keeping my tumor in check.

My third health support system expert is Dr. Steven Gundry. Dr. Gundry is a cardiologist who was the former head of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Loma Linda University. Through his research he discovered diet was the most critical component to just about every ailment. His current best-selling book, the Plant Paradox should be must reading for anyone concerned about their health. It has been an eye opener for our family. I’ll share that part of my medical journey in Part 2 of this article to be released later this week.

My hope is that through these articles I can continue to motivate others to become more proactive with their health. I believe I can make a difference by being open and transparent. If you have your own personal questions, please feel free to email me.

Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or send an email to newstip@hometownstation.com.
Report a typo or error, email Corrections@hometownstation.com

KHTS FM 98.1 and AM 1220 is Santa Clarita’s only local radio station. KHTS mixes in a combination of news, traffic, sports, and features along with your favorite adult contemporary hits. Santa Clarita news and features are delivered throughout the day over our airwaves, on our website and through a variety of social media platforms. Our KHTS national award-winning daily news briefs are now read daily by 34,000+ residents. A vibrant member of the Santa Clarita community, the KHTS broadcast signal reaches all of the Santa Clarita Valley and parts of the high desert communities located in the Antelope Valley. The station streams its talk shows over the web, reaching a potentially worldwide audience. Follow @KHTSRadio on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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How Santa Clarita Doctors Helped Reverse My Hearing Issues

One comment

  1. Thanks for your kind remarks Carl. Happy to help!

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About Carl Goldman

Carl Goldman, along with his wife, Jeri repurchased KHTS AM-1220, Santa Clarita’s hometown station on October 24, 2003. They owned it from 1990-1998, and then sold it to Clear Channel Communication in 1998, buying it back from Clear Channel in 2003. Since then, they have rebuilt KHTS as a critical voice of the Valley. In 2015 the radio station moved to its new headquarters on Main Street in Old Town Newhall, in the original Newhall Hardware building. In 2018 an FM was added, 98.1, with its signal being simulcast with AM-1220. In January 2020, Carl and Jeri cruised on the Diamond Princess. Carl was one of the first Americans to come down with Covid-19. Months earlier he was impacted by Guillain Barre Syndrome as a result of a Shingles vaccine in September 2019. He is still in recovery from the vaccine.