I think I need to give up Hi-Fi

[Pete The Cat]

Although I have loss, I also have hyperacusis which has increased my sensitivity to ordinary noise levels, and street sirens or the announcements in Morisons really are upsetting, especially the screechy voices.

My inarticulate friends call me deaf, but I can hear the HD spinning on my Humax PVR from 12 ft, and they cant, so hearing is very personal and trained.

I am on Furosamide, and it is a pain in the pisser, but I'm reducing the dose.

I cannot see how hearing aids cannot interfere with Hi-Fi, yet another interface.

I have H too as a result of concert 10 years ago. For the first year and a half it was life-changing, as in I couldn't even listen to the news on TV. Stirring a mug with a teaspoon, the click of a lightswitch, childrens' voices...all like a needle being dabbed onto my eardrum and everything so scratchy that it was like a permanent hangover. One of the banes of my life was people closing drawers or putting keys down on tables.

As you probably know, with H the pain threshold in your ears has been reset much lower in order to protect them. A bit like if you have sunburn luke warm water is painful until you recover. It is nothing like being deaf.

Mine was partially/largely cured by a combination of Serc, a drug that increases blood flow to your ear, wearing white noise generators to reacclimatise my ears to sound, and, time (the great healer). Nowadays I don't notice it if I stay away from obviously noisy environments. I can't bear to be in a room with lots of raised voices, won't go to a cinema again and avoid wedding discos altogether. Like you, supermarket announcements are literally a pain. But I can listen to music on a decent warm hi-fi at reasonably high domestic volume and will happily accept that compared to where I was after it happened. I live with tinnitus too, it's a small problem compared with H.

H is a nasty thing but exposure to reasonable levels of sound is part of the cure, as in getting your ears adjusted again. The worst thing some folks do is wear earplugs and shun all sound, you've got to grit your teeth and let it heal. When you're in the worst of it and it's messing with your head that's a hard approach to accept, but you need to have faith.

Pete

[hifi_dave]

There are other Diuretics which haven't got the nasty side effects of the Frusemide. Can't remember what the Consultant put me on instead but it worked and I didn't notice anything untoward.

[Shovel_Knight]

I damaged my left ear in my previous job. I was required to write a certain application which was supposed to play some sounds and alter the channel balance depending on the input, but it didn't work initially. I thought the volume on my headset was turned down and turned it way up. Nothing changed. I started debugging the application and when I found and fixed the bug, it played full blast into my headset because I forgot to turn it down

I still hear up to 17 kHz with both ears (and can hear my wristwatch ticking from another room) but I now have constant ringing in my left ear and it's really annoying, in fact my wife tells me that I have become much more irritable since then

[Pigmy Pony]

I damaged my left ear in my previous job. I was required to write a certain application which was supposed to play some sounds and alter the channel balance depending on the input, but it didn't work initially. I thought the volume on my headset was turned down and turned it way up. Nothing changed. I started debugging the application and when I found and fixed the bug, it played full blast into my headset because I forgot to turn it down

I still hear up to 17 kHz with both ears (and can hear my wristwatch ticking from another room) but I now have constant ringing in my left ear and it's really annoying, in fact my wife tells me that I have become much more irritable since then

Mrs. P has found that I have become less irritable since going part-deaf in my left ear. But that's because I always sit to the right of her

[Barry]

I still hear up to 17 kHz with both ears (and can hear my wristwatch ticking from another room) but I now have constant ringing in my left ear and it's really annoying, in fact my wife tells me that I have become much more irritable since then

Your wristwatch must have a very loud tick if you can hear it from another room. I can only just hear my wristwatch (a Rolex) when pressed up against my ear; so when you wear your watch on your wrist, the ticking must be very distracting.

[Shovel_Knight]

Your wristwatch must have a very loud tick if you can hear it from another room. I can only just hear my wristwatch (a Rolex) when pressed up against my ear; so when you wear your watch on your wrist, the ticking must be very distracting.

It's a bit on the loud side, yes. But I usually don't hear (or, more likely, don't notice) it among the daily hubbub. However, I can hear it very well when I'm in bed and that's why I leave it on my desk in the home office.

[Pigmy Pony]

but I now have constant ringing in my left ear[/B] and it's really annoying, in fact my wife tells me that I have become much more irritable since then

Probably your next door neighbour's phone ringing. Or the pub at the end of the road calling 'time'. Well maybe not now

[walpurgis]

I dozed off after lunch earlier and woke up finding my tinnitus whistling away like mad. I expect it will fade and go overnight. It's the first time I've had it for weeks.

[Pigmy Pony]

I dozed off after lunch earlier and woke up finding my tinnitus whistling away like mad. I expect it will fade and go overnight. It's the first time I've had it for weeks.

Geoff, this is probably not related to any of this tinnitus, but I seem to remember you once mentioning how you found Amlodipine to be horrible stuff, and I never got round to asking you what the problem was.

[walpurgis]

Geoff, this is probably not related to any of this tinnitus, but I seem to remember you once mentioning how you found Amlodipine to be horrible stuff, and I never got round to asking you what the problem was.

Where do I start? Freezing cold extremities, disturbed sleep, inability to focus or concentrate on anything, disorientation and general weirdness. I felt as though I was being poisoned!