Here’s a link to a very good hearing test provided by the National Institute for Deaf People. Headphones will help.
https://rnid.org.uk/information-and-support/take-online-hearing-check/
I ‘eard that. pardon?
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Thanks @niallb . I just ‘took the test’ which basically confirmed what an audiologist told me about 3 years ago. This was that I have moderate hearing loss. Since then I have been using Phonak Sonova hearing aids which cost rather a lot. Whilst these have pretty helpful, I reckon that, as with everything else, the technology has moved on substantially with bluetooth and the like being introduced. I don’t imagine that the cost has reduced in that time. I sent the organisation some feedback. I blame Wishbone Ash myself.
I hope that your health treatment is still proceeding as well as possible. I read all of your diary entries avidly and find inspiration in them. Ted
Being deaf is fun! It’s different and interesting. Embrace it.
I’m pretty much totally deaf now and use either a transcription app or smartglasses. The smartglasses are great, but a bit of a pain cos people think I’m trying to secretly film them. (I’m not. Mine don’t have that function.)
I recently read the novel Deaf Sentence, by David Lodge (who was himself h.o.h). It’s about a retired linguistics professor who is going deaf, while his elderly father is approaching death. The protagonist’s wife is Winifred, who he calls ‘Fred’. Anyway, the following conversation in its opening chapter made me laugh, as it’s a conversation I seem to have very regularly (substitute “transcription app” for “hearing aid”).
Fred: Murr murr murr.
Me: What?
Fred: Murr murr murr.
Me: (playing for time) Uh huh.
Fred: Murr murr murr.
Me: (making a guess at the content of the message) All right.
Fred: (surprised) What?
Me: What did you say?
Fred: Why did you say ‘All right’ if you didn’t hear what I said?
Me: Let me get my hearing aid.
Fred: No, don’t bother. It’s not important.
I had a hearing test a couple of years ago when I last had an eye test
(I really must get another eye test soon, and at the same time another hearing test).
Problem was at the time I was suffering a head cold and a dying tooth, which combined to knacker my already dodgy left ear.
Right ear – good as gold, all in the green (maybe a slight high frequency deficiency)
Left ear – oh dear …
And right now am only just getting over an ear infection that has stuffed my left ear again.
Will try the test in a few days if my left lug starts clearing more.
On the plus side, I can at the moment justifiably claim not have heard instructions from Mrs D “because of my dodgy hearing”
(although how much longer I can get away with that I’m not sure)
Hopefully I’m getting new ones next month, I had the moulds taken in January after a rebore to remove the cerumen (wasn’t he a Tolkien character?). I’ve still got my old ones until then.
I just took the test and was pleased (but slightly surprised) when it said that I do not appear to have hearing loss. I was quite convinced that it would pick up something. I am pretty sure my hearing in my right ear is not as good as in my left.
Mrs Pajp often accuses me of becoming deaf. I say that it is just “selective listening” on my part.
Seriously, I do find conversation in crowded places difficult, but I understand that this is a sign of aging anyway.
Mrs thep mumbles, talks to herself and addresses me from distant rooms (I now ignore her when this happens), which is why she accused me of going deaf. Turns out I have hearing loss consistent with my age, which mostly means there’s no point in her talking to me while the kettle’s boiling.
I get comments from distant rooms too. In addition, they usually turn out to be on a topic that Mrs Pajp has been mulling over in her own mind completely unrelated to anything that we might have been talking about lately so, even if I heard what she was saying, it would be about a subject out of the blue.
This!!!
Yep. I’m never sure when Mrs M says words while her head is looking for something in the pantry and the water in the sink is running whether I’m actually meant to hear them. Many times it turns out it’s just her musing to herself. OTOH sometimes it’s important. In which case I point out the aforementioned audio situation. Which she agrees was a problem. Then it happens again…and again. Ah well, 38 years of marriage and the rest is all good…
Talking of water running, leaving taps running is one of the biggest problems I’ve encountered as a deafie. I never realised to what an extent turning taps off was prompted by the sound.
That’s why in just about every spy movie/series, they run the taps while speaking in the bathroom. So that the bugs can’t pick them up.
I’ve managed to flood the kitchen twice.
My wife always waits until I’m at the other end of the house before asking me to mnkhf thrdv yhfhjjlr.
As long as we can still hear the music, eh?
Thank you @niallb via Uncle Stavely played by Leslie Sarony (who sang Jollity Farm originally) who carried the ashes of Corporal Parkinson—one of his comrades from World War I—in a box around his neck.
‘Whatcha reckon, Carter?’
‘Aye, well, mmm…’
Am a tinnitus sufferer (has got worse since Covid) and earlier this year lost most of my hearing in my left year. Doc prescribed oil drops and it came back quite well. Bit scared to do a hearing test, but I generally can hear most of what I need to.
*ear!
The day I put hearing aids in I was driving home and thought what is that sound? It was rain on the car roof.
Got home and put on Miles Davis – gosh listen to those cymbals!
When I lost a pair I couldn’t wait to get a new set.
I have it too. Since seeing the Icicle Works on their ‘Blind’ tour, which should have been called ‘Deaf’.
About 20 years ago I had a growth around the bones in my ear canal (cholosteatoma??) which was successfully removed but slightly dislodged the bones. It did lead to a slight loss in hearing in my left ear – only in certain mid range frequencies though (according to the tests done afterwards).
It’s not really noticeable day to day, but I can sometimes notice when listening on headphones. I guess the brain does a great job of “rebalancing”
Not significant enough to do anything about it and I still complain that the TV is on too loud – with the rest of the family apparently having perfect hearing.
I’m waiting for Roon Ready hearing aids to be available.
I am often accused of not hearing, but tests have always been OK, remarkably so, given years of decibel abuse, tempered now by tending more towards folk and acoustic. It seems I process sound slowly, and am impatient about it. So, when spoken to, and asked a question, I will often say pardon and then answer the question ahead it’s repeat, it having taken longer to interpret the signal than my ears believe. All part of my dyspraxia, I’m told, which was just called clumsy until I was in my late 50’s…….. I need sounds to be loud, tastes to be powerful and images to be obvious or to move. Hey ho, all my normal.
The next step on my rebuild after my hip and my left eye is to see my GP about booking me in with an NHS audiologist. My hearing is definitely compromised, I don’t need a test to tell me that. I can and do listen to music via speakers or through headphones and I can hear it fine but I struggle with hearing people when they speak especially in crowded environments. It’s irritating at the moment rather than urgent but a stitch in time and all that.
@pencilsqueezer
Struggling to hear people in a crowded environment (eg a pub) seems to be a common affliction amongst my social circle. I normally just nod and smile.
I’m rarely in crowded environments nowadays which makes it all the more noticeable on those rare occasions when I am. I’m more direct than you Freddy, I point out that I’m old and slowly disintegrating and could they please repeat whatever it is they have said only louder and more slowly. Either that or I just ignore everyone around me and listen to the voices in my head.
I have been wearing hearing aids for a couple of decades. “Classic industrial deafness” the audiologist called it. Well bloody hell it’s not as if I’ve been playing in heavy metal bands, it’s been mostly reasonable volume pop/rock/jazz groups. Anyway, while my hearing aids help in social situations when there are a bunch of people around a table talking, the big problem for me is that when I play the piano the instrument is horribly distorted and I have to turn the hearing aids off. Which is OK, until I can’t hear the bandleader calling the name of the next tune…
From my (Google) research this seems to be a known issue amongst musicians, and there seems to be no solution yet from the hearing aid manufacturers
@mousey have you tried Airpods Pro 3? They now function as hearing aids, and they may take a middle path between deafness and distortion.
I noticed some very mild tinnitus some years back (faint whooshing sound only discernable if I was in a really quiet place).
I don’t notice it any more, but I’m almost certainly subject to some age-related hearing loss. I have trouble separating speech when a few people are talking at once.
I haven’t done the above hearing test yet, as I can’t remember where I put away my good earphones.
I enjoy a faint buzzing / whooshing sound in my ears when it’s very quiet. I had a hearing test a few years ago and was told that my hearing was very good for a man of my age (damn that qualifier). The RNID test upthread shows I have no hearing loss, which is very reassuring.
“Your result suggests you do not have hearing loss”, which is nice.
Although I like to ‘feel’ music (I have a SPL meter and routinely hit peaks close to 120dB) I don’t like it distorted, and that’s where I suspect eardrums really suffer (and tweeters burn out). It’s always the gigs where the PA is being over-driven (hello, The Portland Arms) where my ears ring the next day.
Plus I work in a quiet office environment most of the day, which helps recover from noisy gigs.
I was wary to take the test, but I surprisingly got the same result