Perhaps you can learn from my list of Memorable Assaults on my Hearing
Get rid of Loud Alarm Clocks
I started with perfect hearing. As a child I clearly heard the
overtones on the piano with each note. I loved Debussy' music because his hearing must have been similar to mine, in
what we should hear from striking the wire with a felted hammer. As a sleepy child I had a Big Ben alarm clock placed right next to my ear. As
an adult plagued with constant tinnitis, the first thing I hear in my head every
morning is exactly that alarm clock. So if you have a loud alarm clock
next to your child's head, get rid of it. If your hard of hearing child sleeps
like the dead, get a shake-awake alarm clock.
Selective Hearing is how we all deal with the auditory world
My father had beans in his ear when he did not want to do something. People talk about selective hearing loss as funny or annoying, but when you
understand the implications of how hard people with any type of hearing loss
have to work to listen, especially in noise, selective hearing is what goes on
all day. If you are thinking or doing something else, it is normal not to hear.
Sticking Your Fingers in your Ears is a great Skill
My Grandfather had an ear trumpet and hearing aids in the 1950's. I think my
dad had a mild hearing loss which would be normal for most musicians, and he
certainly liked making noise at home. Dad used to use his power tools and
call me a whimp for putting my hands over my ears. It is still the single best
thing you can do, and kids do it naturally, and get scolded. Machinery in my
house have hearing protectors attached to them somewhere. When I realized that I
had a hearing loss, I decided that it would be great music which I listened to,
rather than the noisy vacuum.
The Piano and the Pots
When my dad was
playing the piano he was surrounded with sound of about 80 dB. My mother was a
nurse, my dad a doctor. My mother regarded it as her only job to get my father out of
the house to do his rounds at the hospital. She would say "George, time to go to
the hospital." and he would ignore her, morning after morning. Finally she would
open the pots cupboard and bang the pots until he got up and went to the
hospital. I guess that at some point every day she succeeded in making sound with
the pots which was louder than the wash of 80 dB coming off the piano in my
father's body as he played. With perfect pitch and very sensitive hearing
myself, in the morning cacaphony of piano and pots I was always on my
dad's side. I loved listening to him play the piano.
Hearing Simplified
We know that listening to a noise makes the little hairs on the hearing nerve
carve a pattern for that noise. If the noise is too loud it "damages" that
sound, and our ear gets used to the sound. If it happens to be a sound that we
like, we turn the sound up to get the same effect. This is a complex
physical-chemical reaction, which explains why we keep making sounds louder and
louder. On the outside of the body is the rest of the world with an acoustic
wash which changes. Hearing is such a complex operation. I notice this effect
when good old music comes on the radio and it is never loud enough. When the
"kids music" comes on the radio, it is always too loud.
Too Loud Music at Party
My hearing was severely damaged at a company Christmas party twenty-five
years ago. It was a lovely dinner with dancing after. The sound seemed to be
turned up louder and louder but we were all yelling at each other and having a
good time dancing. I went to the bathroom, and when I went back into the room
after the acoustic break in the bathroom, my ears just could not crank back up
to the level of dealing with the sound which was blaring, compared to being in
the room. The pain in my ears was like knives into my brain. I put my hands over my ears and
announced that I did not care that the president and his wife had not left
therefore I could not leave. I was nine months pregnant, and probably the only
person who was not drunk too. Is there a correlation between enduring more
louder noise with alcohol in the blood too...and less when hung-over?
Personal Acoustic Alarm
About ten years ago a store had an acoustic alarm which they were
demonstrating at the cash. This thing went off when I was holding it, and it was
so loud that I pitched it right across the store. I felt sick from the noise,
and fear-fright sequence which it set off, while the stupid cashier was trying
to tell me that I had to buy it because I had thrown it.
School Dances
I became a critic about excessive noise long ago. Every year I would arrive
at school dances and be appalled at how loud the speakers were cranked up.
Impossible to talk, possibly that was the point. The principal knew what I
was going to say and would hide. Often he would say "It's just for one day." but
having a hearing loss affects your whole life. I would point to Reid's hearing
aid, and advise him to buy shares in a hearing aid company because all the
children were going to be deafened. I think the education profession should be
leading the way in protecting hearing, and if the speakers were turned down at
the school dances, it would be one less level of attack on the children's
hearing and mine. Also if the schools would use their own sound equipment at a
moderate amplification instead of renting the DJ and the speakers, probably many
children would have better hearing as adults.
Stop Buying Louder and Louder Equipment
We have industries which make sound louder and louder from walkmans to loud
speakers. The whole DJ business is about deafening young people in large rooms.
Young adults put sound systems in their cars which blow out the windows and sun
roofs. They have contests for the loudest speakers, and then they drive down the
road making me put my hands over my ears.
No One Cared about Industrial Workers Hearing in the 1970's
When I worked at Alcan many years ago, it was corporate policy for everyone
to go to a smelter and rolling plant to see how aluminum was made. In the plant
we visited every employee had earplugs issued by the company, around their
necks, not on their ears. The new employees would use the earplugs until they
"got used" to the noise. It only took a few weeks until a worker could stand the
noise. Of course they were all deafened by the job. Obvious that there was no
care for worker's hearing from the union's point of view because the workers
would not wear the protectors which the company supplied..
Pain Threshold and Ability to Hear getting Closer and Closer
About ten years ago, I began having
real difficulty with not too much louder sounds causing pain. To listen to the
TV I have to sit two feet away and crank the volume up to just under distortion.
I only watch 3 shows, "Judging Amy", "Dogs with Jobs" and "ER". The rest
of the time, I might be in the room with the TV but I can not hear it. As I find
TV awful and violent and amoral, I do other things. I played the piano for
several hours a day.
Christmas Carollers in the Mall do not Need Amplification
Last year I was at the mall walking through the Santa area where the little
children are waiting with parents for the moment with Santa. . To celebrate the
season, there were several groups of singers, each with their own sound set-up.
The sound was turned up so loud that I started crying from pain as I walked
through. I felt violent urges to get a gun and shoot the sound systems. I felt
it was irresponsible of the mall administration to have such loud sound around
the children.
Rock Concerts
There have been a few instances of people trying to sue for hearing loss at
rock concerts. So far the legal system considers going to a rock concert as
choosing deafness!!!
My Hearing Aids Progress
So my hearing aids have arrived. The hearing aid dealer thought the audie was
doing the earmolds. The audie thought the hearing aid dealer was doing the
molds. So I have beautiful blue Phonak Perseo 311 with FM now waiting for the
molds.
PAM Candlish 6 November 2003
.
