We bought a new refrigerator about three weeks ago, I guess. Today it made a sound and I kind of freaked out for a second because I couldn’t understand the source. It’s the first time I’ve heard it make a noise and that’s because I had minor surgery this morning on both my ears. I was almost deaf, and my hearing had been going downhill since I got a bad cold around Christmas time. The last time I could hear even halfway decently was about mid-January, so I’ve been living in this little cocoon. It’s been horrible, and now I have some relief. I’ll go back in a couple of weeks for a follow-up because there’s some nerve damage that needs to be evaluated. My hearing is never going to be 100 percent again, and that’s probably from going to so many concerts in my youth. But the cause is something we’ll examine. In any case, I hope with my hearing mostly restored, my winning personality will come along with it. If I’ve been especially distant and grumpy, now you know why.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
That’s definitely good news, but was there something wrong with the fridge?
I know! WTF was that?
He starts with a personal tidbit, we are expecting some devastating condemnation about domestic appliances, and we get `turns out the Grateful Dead causes hearing loss’. That’s no shock….just listening to an album, let alone a live concert, causes ears to bleed.
Oh well, it was probably the ice maker dropping a cube.
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The Dead actually played at an annoyingly low volume, which is something I am “grateful” for today. I’m sure one Pink Floyd concert did more damage than twenty Dead shows.
The fridge just started cooling. I haven’t even connected the water for the ice machine yet.
Good luck with the ears and the new fridge!
Try Jimi Hendrix, 8th row center. Holy crap, that hurt.
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Erm, you do know the effects of aging on hearing, right? ‘Cause I can tell you all about it.
Just sayin’…
Been dealing with minor tinnitus for a good couple decades – again, too many rock concerts and raves. Learned eventually not to get so close to the speakers, and to enjoy music from folks who don’t turn the amps all the way to eleven.
Nothing minor about mine. It’s the real deal. 50 years of power tools will do that.
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. . . milieu, then I’d really worry about you.
Glad to hear there’s improvement, though.
So I started out with some minor tinnitus that was the result of an accident a few years ago and compounded it with “barotrauma of the inner ear” on a recent scuba trip. Now everything sounds like a slightly out of tune radio. Told it will get better eventually but boy is it irritating for now.
Here is my problem
I was up on a scaffold and stepped on a board that was not designed to hold my weight, and down I went. Knocked myself the f&*k out. Now my left ear always feels plugged with water. My doctor said it might fade away, or it might not. It fades away, but in my work I am constantly bumping my head, and every time I do, it immediately comes back.
Right now I have a plugged left ear, with tinnitus. And I’ll be using the table saw today.
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I”m waiting for AG to give you a zero for this.
I zero no one. Only the bot-people do that here.
AG
Hope your hearing recovers, Boo. I can only imagine how frustrating it would be for somebody who likes music so much to have serious hearing troubles.
I also have tinnitus, as a number of other have mentioned. In my case it’s from the whine the old CRT displays made. I hear it always – it’s like being in an TV store in the 70’s, at least for those who were young enough to hear it. I can’t actually hear anything in those frequencies anymore – most people lose those frequencies before 40 – but I guess that whine will continue until I die.
Music is an issue, definitely. But my family is the one that really got to me. Especially not being able to understand or hold a conversation with my son. I can’t wait until he gets home from school so he can tell me everything and anything he wants!
Geez, you guys, Booman and commenters, I feel for ya! I’ve managed to keep most of my hearing intact as I verge on 70, but I never had to be subjected to noise at work, rarely went to concerts, and stuck my fingers in my ears when rounding curves on Boston’s MBTA (even if I was the only person on the car doing it). Who knew being an overcautious dweeb would pay off all these years later?
Anyway, I hope you all see some relief from your current crappy hearing problems. They sound dreadfully annoying.
I have had terrible nerve damage to my ears for years. Tinnitus 24/7 (you get used to it). I can’t hear for shit out of my left ear and my right is declining too.
Feeling your pain man. Hearing aids aren’t generally covered.
We feel for you, Boo. I have had a lifelong hearing loss, caused mainly by getting too many colds after swimming during my youth. Also am recovering from a very nasty case of shingles (y’all PLEASE get vaccinated with Shingrix!) and that has caused additional hearing loss in my right ear.
After not having hearing aids for a decade, we decided to take the plunge and get some modern and very expensive hearing aids. We went through a local vendor whose father had run the business beforehand, and the daughter now is the audiologist, and we trust her a lot.
We started by initially by almost purchasing a set of generic aids from Eargo, but at $2K, they would be underperforming and overpriced. Then we looked into another vendor and almost purchased these. They required a professional hearing test graph to be done, and that was their undoing.
We made the test appointment locally, and I was dismayed to see how much high-range hearing I had lost. Just f*king incredible.
Audiologist fitted me with a set of Bluetooth programmable demo aids, and the difference was immediate. I adjusted to them very quickly. To give you an example: I normally watch movies at home using a ZVOX soundbase (great sound, BTW). The best volume for me would be 17. After I got the aids, I had to turn the sound down to level 13! By my lousy math, that is a 23.5% difference.
Audiologist put us on a one-year, no interest payment plan (still at the outer limits of affordability for us), threw in 3-years of all-risk insurance and a Bluetooth TV interface receiver. I get the final aids this week (Sonotone $5800), just in time to teach a one-off class. Future hearing adjustments are simply a matter of another hearing test and Bluetooth reprogramming.
I am hearing things sometimes now I would rather tune out, but overall, it’s a remarkable recovery for my hearing.
And yes, some loud concerts in the past. I especially recall being 4 feet from a huge speaker at a Steve Miller concert. My brain was blanking out with the high notes.
“Hear’s” hoping everything works out with your ears, Booman. My dad lost most of his hearing due to the constant deafening din of giant printing presses at work. When Mom took us kids to church and Dad stayed home, we’d come back to find him stretched out on the floor in front of the stereo, music blasting loud enough to blow our hair back.
Dude, I’m HERE for the distant and grumpy!
Hoo boy. I’ve had tinnitus since high school. It was set off by my first rock concert, but to be fair to the musicians (Canadian power trio Triumph, if you want to know), having done a ton of shooting with zero ear protection, it was going to happen eventually.
My other issue is that my hearing in a hearing test is okay, but something makes it really hard to pick out voices in a noisy environment. I actually find it exhausting. It doesn’t seem to be a thing normal hearing aids can fix; it’s not a volume issue, it’s a frequency one.
I also get really tired of having to ask my wife to repeat herself around the house.
One last thing. I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket until one time I stood in for my son at a singing lesson (just to keep the time slot) and the teacher zeroed in on my tinnitus frequency and taught me to hear around it (my best description). I can actually sing now.
I am so glad you have found some relief, BooMan. Can’t imagine how not fun that must have been. Thanks for letting us know.
I am feeling with Boo and all the other commenters with hearing problems. It is so annoying if you have to ask repeatedly what people were saying, not to mention that they presumably think you are a rather dense person:-)
My late mother in law couldn’t hear it thunder. Over the years you just learned to yell whenever you were having a conversation with her. My wife finally convinced her to let us buy her some hearing aids. She didn’t wear them a month before she decided she hated them. It boiled down to the fact that, after living with severe hearing loss for so long, she couldn’t tolerate the sensory overload she experienced by being able to actually hear normally. She never wore them again.
I began to notice that my wife’s hearing was deteriorating when she needed the television to be at higher and higher volumes, and she was always accusing me of “mumbling”. I kept pointing this out to her, until she finally agreed to see a hearing specialist. She told the doctor about how, at work, she had trouble hearing during board meetings, and that everyone at work was always mumbling and talking in hushed tones on purpose, just to piss her off. The doctor leaned over, patted her on her leg and said, “Honey, I’m here to tell you, those people at work aren’t mumbling”.
She ended up with hearing aids, which she only wears at work, so I still have to suffer through the increased television volume, and I have learned that when I talk to her, I have to raise the level a notch or two to keep from being accused of mumbling. Tried and tried to talk her into wearing them at home, but she won’t relent on that one just yet.
Recuperating from surgery myself, Booman, so I fully understand the limitations and frustrations. All the best to you.
rest up … speedy recovery and know that the legume gallery will persist, and the next Help / Slip / Frank was will be that*much better. 🙂
Screw that!
Give me Help>Slip>Drums>Samson>Slip>Franklin’s.
Protect your hearing. I’ve got tinnitus and now I always use those foam earplugs whenever I’m around anything fairly noisy. Using lawnmower, grass trimmer, etc. You need to squish those foam earplugs before putting them in your ears. Then they’ll expand once in. You’ll be able to tell if there in snugly enough.
Also – keep your jaw open when putting them in and while they expand – when you close your jaw after that you will notice a much tighter seal.
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How am I supposed to hear you when you mumble like that?
Speak up for Pete’s sake!