Filed under: General
So, after a few years of putting it off, I finally went to get my hearing tested today.
Sensing that things were getting worse, I went up to see the specialist, I put the headphones on, and away I went.
Now, I already knew that things weren’t great in my left ear..
Since an ear infection that hospitalised me when I was thirteen, and way too many years as a roadie/bass player/radio announcer/TV guy I have adjusted to the situation gradually.
I sit on the left corner seat at tables to I can hear people to my right, I can’t hear people very well when I’m driving and they’re in the passenger seat, and I turn my head to get people to speak into my right ear in noisy environments. I can’t hear you if you talk to me from another room, and if the TV’s on when you say something to me, I hear “blughblughtblguhJonStewwartBLurghblugh”
The loudest noise I’ve heard in any room since I was seventeen is my tinitis.
So I knew that things were going wrong already.
Needless to say, when I put those test headphones on, and held the button in my hand, I had a calm and almost resigned feeling about what was about to happen. I knew it was not going to be great.
If you’ve never had a hearing test, you put on a serious pair of headphones, through which they play you a set of tones that increase in octaves, yet decrease in decibels.
“Just face the wall and push the button when you hear the tone” said the technician.
“Ok”, said I.
Off we go..
OOO [push]
…Ooo…[push]
…….ooo…..[push]
EEE [push]
..Eee…[push]
….eee…[push]
IIIII [push]
…..i…….[push]
………………
…………..
……………..
………………..Tech: “can you check if the button’s working Andrew?” [push]
……………..
………….
……….. Tech: “Oh..”
In walks the lovely specialist and gives me the “Oh Dear” look.
“Looking at this, and looking at your age, I’d say you worked as a boilermaker without hearing protection”.
As it turns out, at Thirty-Four years of age, I have the hearing of a 60-70 year old.
My hearing graph looks like an Olympic Ski Jump after 4000Khz.
By 6000Khz I’ve got nothing.
At 8000Khz there’s just a whole lot of white noise.
8K is where all the important speech stuff happens, “s” “t” “d” “f” “p” “k” all happen around here.
No wonder they were all sounding the same!
It’s not really that bad when there’s no background noise, but once there’s anything other than your speech there, I can get a bit lost sometimes.
Three years as a roadie, four years as a bass player, five years in radio and nearly ten years of TV in-ear monitors have taken their toll..
So I feel like Yul Brynner when I tell you this next bit:
Wear earplugs, whatever you do, just wear earplugs.
Permanent nerve damage is what we’re talking about here folks, so there’s no turning back once it’s gone.
Any environment where you can’t carry on a normal conversation without yelling is a danger.
Wear earplugs. And headphones? What can I tell you. Turn ‘em down.
I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve heard the hi-hats on a record.
Really.
So folks, I guess your loyal servant here will have to keep getting better at lip-reading, and ask you to speak
clearly into my right ear when next we meet.
Looks like the record producer career will have to wait a while, and this photography thing might have to step up a notch..
x aa
And one for Yul:
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Ah man I feel for you I really do. I’m in a bit of the same situation myself, except mine rolls off at 6k not 4k.
Too many years of bass playing and standing right next to those damn cymbals being splashed crashed and panged by heavy hitting drummers has left me with right ear high frequency rolloff.
And I even wore earplugs for the last 3 years too (of 7 years playing in rock bands two times a week on average)
I guess the rot started when I got my first walkman in the early 80′s and thought how cool I was blasting Judas Priest and Van Halen so loud that everyone around me on the school bus could hear the songs too.
Nowadays my wife keeps telling me (out of frustration having to repeat herself 3 times) to get a hearing aid but I am resisting because my left ear still works reasonably well… and I’m not even 40 yet (just
)
I am getting better at lip reading, but it’s a hassle if you are driving
At least it’s my good ear faces the passengers.
My mother in law has been deaf in 1 ear since she was a kid (her sister jabbed a knitting needle in her ear… ultra-damn!) and she is a master of lip reading (having grown up monaural).
Thankfully the behind the hear hearing aids are getting smaller and smaller, and there are even some uber small “in-ear” ones just come onto the market which I looked into, but they are just too new to be reasonably priced.
The other sucky thing is the frequent battery replacements. Surely someone can invent some micro small rechargeable docking hearing aid. Once they do I will no doubt be wearing them.
That’s my GenX 2c take on the whole “approaching deafness by 40″ subject.
Oh No! That’s no good. If you did have to get a hearing aid at least your hair is kinda long enough to hide it.
You wouldn’t be able to hear the idols perform properly, damn!
Andrew ~
Hi there. That truly sucks. The digital hearing aids they do today are much smaller, and less expensive than they used to be. (I know, because I work for an Opticians here in the UK which also does Hearing Aids, and I have done a hearing care course).
A good message you’re putting out as a warning to everyone though – the level at which some young ‘uns play their music through their headphones is almost too loud if you are sat next to them. Seriously scary stuff.
Things aren’t as bleak as they are probably feeling right now (and hey, your photography skills are great by the looks of it).
Take care, and all the best, mate.
~Debs~
PS…nice blog! I’ll be back…
You could always get one of those horns you stick in your ear and sex it up with a flame job.
My dad swears by a wind chime to distract him from his tinitis. You may not notice the tinitis so much but the chimes will drive you friggin’ bonkers!!!
Seriously though I’m sure that there is a way to accomodate your hearing loss so that you can continue your career for a long long time.
You could always keep photography up your sleeve though as your shots, like you, have real soul. Love the Hula Lady pic. So simple and so lovely.
Appreciated the gig you did in Adelaide a few weeks back. Tiny gig by your standards but you were charming and upbeat and made everyone have a great time. Warmth, talent and professionalism make a career not perfect hearing. You’ll be right!
I SAID YOU’LL BE RIGHT! xoxo
So the loud ringing in both of my ears at the age of 33 isn’t simply a lovely tune? Whoops……….
Here is something else I just thought of Mr G. Why does it seem that 99 percent of the time, Mr James Mathison is on your left side ? Are you trying to tell him something? Should he be offended by this? Hmmmmmmmm………….I think you need to ponder that thought.
Angel: I wear an Interruptable Fold Back (IFB) in my right ear so that I can hear the live mics in the studio, so I always hear James – even when he’s whispering on the other side of the studio.
We’d make a good pair chatting, as it’s my right ear that has the loss. I always positioned myself on that side at concerts, right in front of the speaker. I started wearing ear plugs about eight years ago at the suggestion of a friend who introduced me to the indies rock scene in Osaka. Eventually I was seeing bands almost every week, so lucky she did suggest the ear plugs or I’d be even worse off.
I once missed the last train home and spent the night in a dance club without ear plugs until they started again (didn’t want to be out on the streets that late by myself). By 4am my ears were shot. I dropped into a convenience store on the way to the station and the guy behind the counter sounded like a cartoon character. Seriously. Took four days for the ringing to stop and I felt like such an idiot.
hey, AG–nice blog. i’m glad i stopped by!
i’ve been known to pound out some aggression via some heavy music now and then, and i started detecting some loss a few years ago. got tested, and luckily it wasn’t too bad. right ear (drummer’s side) worse than left.
we all agreed that turning it down wasn’t an option, so we started wearing plugs. lol!
ken
I learned early on in the rock’n'roll industry to wear ear-plugs and I’m glad I had long hair to cover them! Being in punk and rock bands and seeing bands 4 nights a week, for well over a decade, I’d probably be deaf by now if I hadn’t. Thanks to ‘plugs I have perfect hearing… some of my musician friends are not so lucky!
BTW Good on ya Andy for being so open and honest about your experience.