Monday 23 November 2009

I think I'm going deafer

Something is happening to my hearing.

I think I am going deafer!

It's been bugging me for about a week, so let's look at the evidence?

Every day in the office last week my colleagues laughed and joked. Normally when they do this, I can turn around and begin to lipread what's going on. But last week, I turned around to lip read, lips moved, I heard noise, but I understood nothing. There didn't seem to be any aural back up at all.

It was most odd, it was as though they were speaking in tongues!

Then, there's my TV – it's up 10 volume markers on its usual placement. Is that loud? I have no idea!

Then yesterday, when I saw my friend Salsa Dancer, she was talking, and I understood nothing! OK, so she's from Romania and she speaks with an accent at the speed of light, but normally I can catch enough of a conversation to piece together the rest.

*sniff

Positive takes on this situation are: That I'm just tired at the moment, which always makes me deafer, I'm stressed with moving house, work deadlines and getting better, which could make me deafer, and erm...

So anyway, I looked at my life over the past week to see if there has been anything I've been doing differently.

There has been one thing – I've been listening to an MP3 player that I got free from work.

I don't listen to it in public as I'm worried my need to have the volume high will make me one of those inconsiderate public transport users and everyone will scowl at me, but I have been listening to it.

Maybe that's affected my hearing? You read about it all the time in the papers about the dangers of prolonged headphone usage...

Could this have made me deafer? My love of music? And my inquisitiveness as to what is all the fuss about mp3 players is?

Pah, that'd be annoying. But just in case, I'm retiring my headphones. Instead I'm going to invest in some speakers and my free mp3 player is going to become my free stereo.

And if I keep going deafer, well, I'll have to come back to you about what I'm gonna blame it on next...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i hope not! Why not get a check from the friendly audiologist.

SpeakUp Librarian said...

Sending a hug your way. My guess is the stress of the move may have affected your hearing. I'm hoping once you've settled in a bit and have a new routine going, perhaps you'll notice your hearing improve.
My hearing ability seems to go up and down based on my physical health, energy level, and stress level. Keeping my fingers crossed that you'll be hearing better soon, Sarah

Anonymous said...

http://www.connevans.co.uk/store/productSearch.do;jsessionid=BCCDC22F3DC86ADDD7E1A2304CE5A931?query=earhooks

Hi DG - try these headphones - you dont need to use use hearing/normal headphones - these are my greatest discovery - the earhooks work on your T switch and plug into ur MP 3 TV iIPod etc - before discovered these I lost countless hearing aids or left my aid on in my pocket while trying to listen to music - happy listening....only thing I dont like about them is that they pick up electric atmosphere/currents on the undergrounds and sometimes buses Grrrr...but all the samw wwaaaayyyy better than "normal" headphones Lu xx