The Sound of (Almost) Silence.

It's very noisy in my head. Almost like an airport, a train station or a an accident and emergency ward (yep, let's be topical!). 

Planes or trains or unwell people are like thoughts that fly through my head.  Actually forget the first two metaphors, because the station and the airports (usually and hopefully) know exactly when said train or said plane is going to arrive.  There are sophisticated procedures for helping them arrive and letting them go.

The A and E department, however is, yep, more like the thoughts in my head.

Unexpected.

But recently, the thoughts in my head are taking up more of my head space.  And the reason for this is that I have slowly having a build up of ear wax.  And by Friday morning, the final jigsaw piece was put into place.

It had to be Friday 13th.  And I'm not superstitious.

And I was really struggling to hear. But before I go on, let me make one thing clear:

I am not.  Deaf.

Being Deaf implies the complete absence of sound.  I can hear – just very faintly.  It's as if the hearing switch in my head has been turned to 1.5 (if 5 was normal and 10 was deafening).  I can just about hear you.  If you were talking to me.  If you were facing me.  If you are in the same room as me.  Or on my mobile phone - I have to have my volume turned up, but yep, I can hear you.  (Then it doesn't matter which way you are facing.).

Now, in some respects this alters my perceptions, because it has guided me to pay more attention to people's body language – so I've noticed more than I would if I could hear normally.  So I've been more aware of that 90% of communication that we do.  All of the non-verbal stuff.  

And to be fair, I've noticed things about people, that I don't think that I would've picked up on before.  For instance, when watching a conversation between two people, I've observed how the second person wasn't listening to what the first person was saying.  They just wanted to get their point across.

But it also makes me aware of how much we rely on our senses, and how much we - or at least I – have taken them for granted.

I used to work with a group of visually impaired people to look at the technological aids that are available to help them have a better quality of life.  And the group went well.  Mostly.  (That would be another story).

But as somebody who makes a career out of knowing about equipment to help people have a better quality of life, I also know that there are hearing aids and neck loop systems, etc, for people who have hearing loss (I've been told that that is term that is used now).

But this for me, is (hopefully) a temporary issue, one that hope the ear drops prescribed by my GP will help.  If they don't then I'll have to go down the syringing route.  Which (not being ironic) sounds scary.
 
It seems that every day brings me a fresh challenge.  This is just another one of those.

Maybe its a Friday the 13th kind of thing.

And I'm still not superstitious.

Take care

Joe