What's Buzzing In My Ears
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It's been a few months since I've written anything and I confess this is being composed at a school meeting that's descending from heated argument to heated shouting. When better (to paraphrase Gil Scott Heron) to move to action from the countless stories I've written in my mind?
In the last few months my hearing has degenerated to a state that doctors describe as something I'd repeat to you if I could only hear what they're saying. I can pinpoint the exact date this happened: September 2, 2010, when The Stooges napalmed their way through the 'Raw Power' album. It's one of my favourite albums, one I was lucky to see played when it was new, so seeing the original line up revisiting it almost 40 years later had both nostalgia and celebration. Watching James Williamson (just retired from his job at Sony!) blazing through a performance-perfect solo of 'Shake Appeal' was pleasure without equal.
The ringing and cotton wool feeling in my ears didn't stop for four days and has never fully left. I learned from a specialist the faint hum I'd had for years in my hearing is tinnitus, now exacerbated into a wide spectrum ranging from near-silence to the noise heard by Quasimodo riding the bells. It also changes the world around me: The pitch of sports mums shouting encouragement and the crack of boot heels on a wooden floor are excruciating. From this disadvantage point, silence really is golden.
My hearing was mapped and I learned that at quiet levels parts of the mid-range has been missing from my hearing for years. No wonder I don't like folk music. The catch-22 is that LOUD lets me hear the full spectrum, while damaging me more. That's some catch.
I got fitted for hearing aids. I didn't need them, but curiosity and amusement made me agree. This being the 21st century, my aids were electronically mapped to my hearing. But - and this is the bit the futurists forget about - the result is as only as good as the doctor's skill. On the second visit we got it right, but what both fascinated and scared me was that after using them off and on for the first few days, my brain started modifying my non-assisted hearing into the scratchy, thin, distorted mess it was getting from the hearing aid. That's my brain…inherently believing that the machines know better.
If there is anything to be learned from my trials, it is this:
Don't shout to Black Sabbath, "turn it up!" They might agree.
[Apologies to Dashboard for using his Headline.]
Feb 7 - 14 is Tinnitus Awareness Week in the UK.
Locating MOG account...
Comments (10)
I feel your pain.
I got fitted for custom earplugs a few years ago, and have attached them to my house keys, so I don't forget them when I go out to hear live music. Frankly, considering the years of abuse my ears have taken, it's amazing my hearing isn't worse.
I guess these are our work-related injuries.
Jonh...Thanks for the post, it's been quite a while. I went back and read your old "punk" stories from 1976. Too cool. I hope your brain can wrap around your hearing & things improve.
Life is a strange dark ride, full of twists, turns, and tribulations. The big print giveth............
.......and the smalll print taketh away.
thats unfortunate mate. makes me wonder of my own listening practices.
As a fellow listener, I am sorry--sounds like you have a sense of humor, which is the best thing.
One of my music professors doesn't even listen to live or recorded music anymore because he says that he can just listen to it in his head and adjust accordingly, depending on his mood. Of course, he sometimes wakes up in the morning to find that his brain has churned out new compositions overnight, so perhaps his brain is a better acoustical environment than mine (I don't think I have ever dreamed in music, sadly).
Don't go out to concerts without my earplugs, thanks to my right ear getting hammered by Little Steven's Underground Garage Tour with The New York Dolls.
Jonh, I hear your pain, that is why I use that tag line, coz I have had ringing in both of my ears for over 20 years now. Every 3 years I have to get a physical & hearing test for the railroad. When I took the hearing test in the quiet little claustrophobic both last year, I was lucky to hear 3 beeps. Afterwards, the doctor asked me if I wear a hearing aid, I said no,but how do you expect me to pass a test like that when the beeps sound the same as the ringing in my ears? He had no answer, and guess what, the railroad said nothing about my hearing loss. I guess they don't want to be sued.
There are some herbal supplements out there to help reduce the noise. Also, my ears also seem to ring louder if I drink to much caffeine(so bring it down to 4 cups of tea a day).
After so many years, you get use to it. psssst... it also helps when my wife asks me to do something, later on I just tell her I didn't hear her.
Dash - I got cold-tweeted by a guy with a tinnitus book that actually looked reasonable. He mentions diet, herbs/vitamins, relaxation and some other things. I'm still reading. I find that interest and focus on something, like a film or music, can often wipe it out.
Well Jonh, at least we are in good company, Jeff Beck, Bono, Pete Townsend, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, David Letterman, will.i.am and a host of others suffer from tinnitus. Now if you could get interviews with musicians with tinnitus, that might be something a lot of people would read.
Known Triggers include;
Noise Induced Hearing Loss – 90% of all tinnitus sufferers
Earwax impaction Ototoxic medications – even aspirin Ear/sinus infection
Jaw misalignment – *note PETscans can show areas in the brain where tinnitus activity occurs when patients can change or bring on their tinnitus through jaw position.
Cardiovascular disease – 3%, hypertension, heart murmur, hardening of arteries
Tumors of the auditory, vestibular, or facial nerves (these tumors are VERY rare)
Head and neck trauma
Going to a concert, use plugs!!!
This is a good warning that ongoing hearing damage can be sent "over the top" by a single event.