How much hearing loss do you have?

[BubbaVO]

Right ear - rings and sounds are muffled.  At its worst, it sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher talking. 

[kizanski]

I'm used to it now, but every now and then it can be very frustrating.

After several trips to that ENT, I learned a couple of things.
1. I am prone to ear infections because of my ear canal, which has a tendency to let liquid pool up, rather than drain out. Because of this, he suggested that I always keep my ears dry. He said I should avoid swimming. "So, wear ear plugs," you say?
2. He said never to put anything in my ears, including ear plugs. It turns out part of my issue with my ears is Dermatological. In other words, the actual skin in my ears gets irritated when I use ear plugs, so that's out too.

 

 

[MCChris]

4 minutes ago, kizanski said:

I'm used to it now, but every now and then it can be very frustrating.

After several trips to that ENT, I learned a couple of things.
1. I am prone to ear infections because of my ear canal, which has a tendency to let liquid pool up, rather than drain out. Because of this, he suggested that I always keep my ears dry. He said I should avoid swimming. "So, wear ear plugs," you say?
2. He said never to put anything in my ears, including ear plugs. It turns out part of my issue with my ears is Dermatological. In other words, the actual skin in my ears gets irritated when I use ear plugs, so that's out too.

I think it's finally time to simply cut your head off. I'm happy to make a slight adjustment to the Open Field Contingency™ to help you out in this regard.

[kizanski]

1 minute ago, MCChris said:

I think it's finally time to simply cut your head off. I'm happy to make a slight adjustment to the Open Field Contingency™ to help you out in this regard.

Don't let me know when it's coming.
That's all I ask.

[Steve Haynie]

1 hour ago, kizanski said:

After several trips to that ENT, I learned a couple of things.

2. He said never to put anything in my ears, including ear plugs. It turns out part of my issue with my ears is Dermatological. In other words, the actual skin in my ears gets irritated when I use ear plugs, so that's out too.

There are some earplugs made of soft wax.  Is it possible you can use those?

[kizanski]

54 minutes ago, Steve Haynie said:

There are some earplugs made of soft wax.  Is it possible you can use those?

I don't know. I wasn't aware there was such a thing.
I think if they were made out of ear wax, that would be ideal!

[sonic1974]

6 hours ago, jisham said:

GREAT TIMING FOR A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:  Below are the results of a hearing test I took a few weeks back. I've played in bands either as a drummer or guitarist going on 40 years or so at this point and I never wore any type of hearing protection. The test showed my hearing is pretty much completely trashed (the doctor considers my hearing "severely damaged"), especially the highs which are shown on the right of the test. I can hear fine talking one on one for the most part, but anywhere there's a lot of background noise (ie, large meeting rooms or restaurants) is a real challenge. Two weeks ago I picked up some insanely expensive hearing aids, which are great, but all of this was totally preventable if it wasn't for me being afraid hearing protection didn't look cool.

This whole experience has made it important for me to encourage those of you who are much younger to please consider wearing some type of hearing protection whenever you jam in a band setting. My doctor said those $2 foam ear plugs would've saved my hearing but I always thought it was "uncool" to wear them. Any way, hope this helps someone. 

Sorry to hear of your troubles. 

Are the hearing aids helpful?

Also, do you mind me asking how expensive they were? I have a feeling a pair might be in my future. 

[it's me HHB]

I have background white noise but can still hear a clock ticking in the next room or any faint electronuc whine. Ive never used stacks always cabs on floor and have always set the volume for the room. 

[sonic1974]

5 hours ago, kizanski said:

 

I've never been a litigious person, but I still kick myself in the ass every day for not suing the ever-loving shit out of that fucking quack who, essentially, deafened me.

Fuck Kiz..that story really sucks. That was the first thing I was thinking when I read about that useless doctor, was there some kind of malpractice suit that followed. 

Did you ever try a white noise machine to help with sleeping? I have sleep apnea, and kind of by accident, I found that it makes sleeping easier, cause it has this constant gentle kind wooshing sound, that masks my tinnitus. I know they sell white noise machines that do basically the same, sounds of waves or whatever. 

[kizanski]

7 minutes ago, it's me HHB said:

I have background white noise but can still hear a clock ticking in the next room or any faint electronuc whine.

Isn't that the cruelest part of all?!
I can't hear people talking to me, but I can hear a streetlight buzzing a half a mile away.

 

2 minutes ago, sonic1974 said:

Did you ever try a white noise machine to help with sleeping?

Yeah, those things annoy the hell out of me -lol

[sonic1974]

2 minutes ago, kizanski said:

 

 

Yeah, those things annoy the hell out of me -lol

Well, now you're just trying to be difficult.  

[Brooks]

i also have noticed some loss in the last 5 years, esp some quiet talkers & mumblers. i have used ear plugs most of the times in all the rock bands i've been in. strangely enough, i think most of my hearing loss comes from plying in an acoustic duo w/ my pal dave for the last 14 years. daves freakin half deaf, and he always complains that he can't hear on gigs until the monitors are CRANKED. i usually end up turning my monitor away from my head and slightly towards dave.  you'd think i'd remember ear plugs for our gigs by now, ha.

[Cary]

I developed Meniere's Disease in my right ear about 10 years ago.  Fluctuating hearing loss, stuffed-up feeling, raging tinnitus, occasional dizziness or vertigo for hours at a time.  Luckily I haven't had the vertigo for several years (valium stops it in it's tracks, BTW).  Vertigo SUCKS.

The tinnitus varies.  I have days where it is nearly on the level with my left ear, but there are days when it is so loud it drowns out everything I can hear in my left ear.  Like a lot of you, I have a really hard time hearing in loud restaurants or at parties.  Also, environments like that make the tinnitus worse - I carry ear plugs at all times, and I also have to turn my head to hear someone talking to me a lot of the times.

Ironically, my neurotologist (and all the literature) claims that it isn't due to loud music, but I've heard of enough musicians with it that it makes me question that.  (I think Les Paul was diagnosed with it, and Ryan Adams has it, for starters).

I avoided playing bass or guitar for quite awhile because there were times early on when loud noise - or even the sound of my own voice - would LITERALLY make me dizzy.  After ten years I decided I want to play out again, Meneire's be damned.  The old "get busy living or get busy dying" thing.  I'm nervous, but so far, so good.  But this time I will be wearing hearing protection.

 

By the way, you haven't lived until you get a series of shots of steroids through your ear drum into your inner ear....

   

[kizanski]

2 minutes ago, Cary said:

...even the sound of my own voice - would LITERALLY make me dizzy.  

You have the same effect on me.

[Cary]

4 minutes ago, kizanski said:

You have the same effect on me.

I knew someone would say that....

[jisham]

28 minutes ago, sonic1974 said:

Sorry to hear of your troubles. 

Are the hearing aids helpful?

Also, do you mind me asking how expensive they were? I have a feeling a pair might be in my future. 

The hearing aids are incredibly helpful...I've only had them a little more than a week and am constantly amazed at what all I haven't been hearing -- little things like paper crumpling for example or listening to a favorite CD only to now hear instruments or parts I never knew were there.  Even playing guitar at home brings new sounds.  It's weird and totally awesome at the same time.  Plus, I talk much lower than before.  People tell me I had a very loud voice.

As for price, they are insanely expensive.  You can get some cheaper ones online these days (iHear is just out and seem pretty revolutionary) but I decided to spend the money to get something that will last at least 10 years and have "more gas in the tank" should my hearing get worse.   Mine are called Widex Unique 220s. Bluetooth enabled so I get phone calls or even listen to music right into my ears if I choose to do so, and it also lets me use an app to control the devices, choose different programs and change EQ settings.  And they are pretty unobtrusive.

 

[tommy p]

Tinnitus at multiple and constantly fluctuating frequencies, roaring, the whole 9 for me.  Can't hear certain people's voices even if we're in an otherwise quiet environment.  People are wasting their time if they try to whisper or talk under their breath to me.  Can't pick out a conversation in a crowded room, can't hear high end very well in music any more (can't hear the high hat in 90% of recordings), etc. etc.  I use the closed captions watching TV 100% of the time now. 

I had a couple of incidents in my 30's (before I started wearing ear plugs) when I either went to a loud concert or my own band played too loud and it took weeks for the ringing to stop and my hearing to get back to "normal".  Part of mine is also genetic.  All the males on my dad's side of the family lose their hearing.  About 10 years ago I got custom made plugs and have worn them 99% of the time when I'm around or playing loud music ever since, but the damage was done.  I wear muffs running the leaf blower but this year I will start for mowing and weed-eating too.  I'm just trying to save the hearing I have left for as long as possible at this point.

One odd thing is that from the time I started playing music, I've stood stage right (drummer, well, whole band really, to my left) but my hearing is worse in my right ear.  It was better in my right ear from the time I noticed I was losing some and then almost overnight the hearing in my right ear noticeably dropped.  If I cover my left ear while listening to music in the car, everything is just a mush in my right ear.  I can't make out lyrics at all.

I've played with a few people in the last few years who I noticed were wearing hearing aids and I've had long in-depth conversations with them, and I read jisham's post in this thread with great interest.  A few years ago they had a free hearing screening at my work and the audiologist there said "You'd be a great candidate for hearing aids" as if that was a compliment.  I'll be looking into them soon, I'm sure.  One cool aside - I wear my work ID on a checkerboard lanyard and she said I should come to her office when I was ready because one of the other people that worked there was a big Cheap Trick fan and would love my lanyard.  I had to tell her that's why I had it!  Pretty funny.

I emphatically agree with all those who have commented to protect your hearing.  It's one of my biggest regrets that I didn't start earlier.  Given my family history, I should have know better.

[Willie G. Moseley]

My hearing loss was due to an abrupt head trauma not rockin' too loud. Hearing aids since 2001. Main reason I emphatically switched to wordsmithing instead of continued efforts in a bar bar. Has declined more in the ensuing decade and a half but supposedly I will never go completely deaf. It's so bad that I have a behind-ear unit + clear plastic inserts for the canals. Hate the behind-the-ear style; next time I'm going back to flesh-colored in-ear units again. This is also one reason I don't really collect anymore, and a disproportionate time for listening is simply because I have to listen to prepare for an article I'm writing. I rarely listen for pleasure anymore.

With hearing aids, you hear louder. You don't necessarily hear better but you get used to it.

 

[jettster]

No ringing but definitely don't hear as good as some others of similar age that didn't play loud music for years. Luckily the last 10-15 years I've been using ear plugs at concerts and jams for the most part. 

[diablo175]

21 hours ago, Jeff R said:

21 hours ago, Jeff R said:

I enjoyed 20/20 vision for the first four decades of my life. I could split a frog's hair at 40 paces using iron sights. Then, within two months after my 40th birthday, I began to notice how hard it was to read and see objects up close. Pill bottles, text messages, serial numbers, etc. became damn near impossible to discern. It happened rather quickly, and it has gotten progressively worse in the following years.

^^^^^ Me to a "T"  

I'm sure my hearing is equally fucked. I've gone so long with white noise faint hum in my inner skull when I'm in a quiet or silent setting, and hearing what my mind interprets as scatterchatter, particularly through phones. The latter has been and still plagues me professionally and socially.

Yup. I could spot and identify various birds of prey in trees from 200 yds out and could read shit too small for my dad's glasses to catch. Then I hit 45 and BAM! Started having trouble reading the menu in a dimly lit restaurant or even the comics at the breakfast table.  For a visual artist/designer and art teacher, that's some disheartening shit right there. Luckily, despite a few years of pretty loud amplifiers, I managed to save most of my hearing. I've always had an issue with certain frequencies interfering with or cancelling others out but never with having white noise or anything like that.