I was partially deaf for the last couple of years
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'Gunner' McIntosh (or similar: this was Glasgow, Scotland) had been deaf since he operated a big anti-aircraft in the Second World War. He would sit in the corner of the bar and the regulars would have to shout at him to be understood.
According to the taxi driver, the night before giving me a lift, he had walked into his local bar and bellowed a greeting at the old man, as usual, and in response the old man had jumped out of his skin.
It transpired that earlier in the day, during a medical check-up, a doctor had discovered both his ears had been blocked by a massive build-up of earwax and behind that there was ancient cotton wool that had most-likely been placed there by a young Gunner McIntosh during the war.
Once removed, he said, he had the hearing of a healthy 21-year-old man.
Finally got it cleaned out by a doctor, and just wow. It really is as if you have bionic hearing. Everything sounded enhanced, and had a lot of extra treble. Very much like you've turned up the volume by 50% or so. Things like the garage door opening became too loud to bear, and I had to cover my ears for it.
For a few days, I had wondered if this was how we were supposed to hear, and that my hearing was just impaired for a long time. But it quickly fades back to what you're used to as your ear builds up a normal, healthy amount of wax again. Still, for those brief few days, it's quite the experience.
No, it fades back because your brain re-adapts. It's somewhat similar to day/night vision, during blockage the ear/brain complex cranks up sensibility to try and hear things, once the ear's clean it dials back sensibility because there's no need for it.
There's no such thing as "heatlhy amount of wax" because it's not supposed to build up (let alone build up so much it block out the ear canal or presses against the eardrum, which is how it lowers hearing). Normally, earwax is secreted in the outer third of the ear and slowly travels outwards before flaking out.
(I say that being a frequent sufferer of accumulating and impacted earwax, earwax buildup is one of the banes of my existence)
Once my ear got clogged,as happened with the original poster. However, the auditory impairment was nowhere that much. It seems that, as long as there is a path to the outside, you can hear almost as well.
Once it happened, I now have to go to the doctor 2 - 4 times per year to get it cleaned. If I don't let it build up that much, then the cleaning is easy. And, as the doctor is a specialist, he will not use the syringe, unless as a last resort.
"I haven't pooped in a week." "Hmm, how many servings of roughage do you eat per day?" "All of them. I eat ten apples for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and I eat the solids left in the juicer after making my all-organic smoothies." "OK, I guess we'll have to do a DRE. Do you mind if my interns help?"
"How often do you floss." "Ten times a day." "That's curious, because your gums started bleeding like a Tarantino movie when my hygienist waved the box of floss in your general direction."
I learned the hard way when I faked appendicitis and ended up in surgery when I was 12. :-)
Awesomly put... and funny as hell too.
I would hear stories of folks that can't see anything, look up and can make it out alright. Finally get in for a vision test at 34 to find that glasses help out tremendously. Sure, I could read before, but now it is just easy.
So, it isn't that I would avoid the doctor. But for many things, if you don't go to a specialist, the answer to the question of "how are things" is usually "getting along, no major complaints."
However, there is a different phenomenon. Sometimes, going to the doctor is not so straightforward. You have to go to a clinic, wait an unspecified amount of time to see the doctor. Once there, he'll prescribe several inconvenient things. And you know, we got stuff to do.
I went to a doctor a few months ago. I then had to do two tests, an abdominal ultrasound (which was fine, and I did), and several stool tests. These, I took my time. When I finally got around to doing them, I found out there is a time limit and the lab won't do them. I now have to go back to the doctor so that he can order them again. It's been months now.
I'll go back there... someday.
1.Money 2.Takes forever to get an appointment with any specialist 3.Busy schedule 4.Money 5.See 1and 4
Really, all this could be solved if more medical school were allowed to be opened and get rid of the arbitrary ceiling on the number of students med school are allowed to accept .
This is only the easy part. If you don't have insurance, it's a nightmare.
In the case of my father, he went to a general doctor. Got referred to another specialist. Who then referred him to another specialist. $600 later (a huge amount of money to most normal people) and no diagnosis, he decided to just "deal with it".
1. We have a local doctors surgery which has offices for around 5 GP's and 2 nurses. You can request an appointment with a specific one but most people just take whoever is available soonest. Although I've come across a few bad doctors for the most part people seem to trust the system to weed them out.
2/3. For me this means calling a number and asking for the next available appointment. If work is a problem they have a few nights where they work late and you can request the next available appointment on a late night. No need to take time off unless it's imperative you get seen quickly.
4. This is true but I find with an appointment that hasn't been arranged last minute I get seen within 10 minutes of turning up.
NB: I'm in the UK so obviously there are differences to how the systems we're both describing work.
So of course a couple of weeks later I was at the doctor with a blocked ear. When it came out, he was rather surprised - said that he'd removed all kinds of things from kids' ears, but never before a tooth...
Hearing loss sucks as even with modern aids, hearing in crowds tends to be difficult at best. Oh, watch your meds for things that can cause sudden loss (aspirin?).
I'll admit that's its nice to feel music, though, rather than just hear it...
As for the unease with noises, I guess it's understandable; one, the people that don't mind are probably used to it. Two, if you haven't been able to hear for a while, your hearing will get sharper and it'll have much more of an impact.
Three, I too get uneasy when having to listen to busy train stations and the like. I usually wear earbuds (with music) for that reason. And get stressed / uneasy whenever those don't work.
http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2012/03/about-the-time-i-went-d...
Problem: Cars delivered to India come in for warranty repairs of the horns unusually often.
Root cause analysis: The horns are designed for 50k activation cycles. Due to the more intensive use in India, this is insufficient.
They were still debating whether to build in a sturdier horn everywhere or just for the Indian market...
"§5 Passing (5) Outside of cities/villages it is allowed to notify of a planned passing by short sound or light indicators. " (Uff, legalese is hard to translate.)
Nothing like 500Rs, to be sure. But not quite four figures yet.