My crazy first week with a buzzing ear

A buzzing ear makes a surprise appearance

Looking back on the first week of realizing I had tinnitus almost brings a tear to my eye. Not to sound negative, but those that have or are currently experiencing unexplained buzzing ear sounds will know the frustrations and stupid thoughts that come with tinnitus.

This week I want to bring peace of mind to those who are currently suffering from a buzzing ear or two.

It’s okay to do stupid things when you first realize that tinnitus is something you may need to manage going forward. Speaking with many tinnitus sufferers, we all have the same story – first embarrassment then laughter.

Going through such a journey with tinnitus can be difficult but when you get to a point of not being worried or bothered by whistles or buzzing ear sounds, this brings fulfilment and control back into your life.

So what are some of the crazy things you’ve done in the first week of experiencing tinnitus?

The first week for me was extremely difficult and looking back at why I actually thought this would work makes me laugh.

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7 of my favourite deaf awareness initiatives for 2017

How Deaf Awareness Week is breaking down barriers

It is Deaf Awareness Week in the UK, May 15 to 21, and in the theme of celebrating collaborative work, I want to share with you some of my favourite 2017 awareness initiatives. There were many to choose from, but the ones mentioned below touched my heart.

The purpose of this week is to share knowledge around the fact that 1 in 6 people in the UK is deaf or hard of hearing. It’s important to know how you can communicate with us and include us in everyday life. This week is dedicated to highlighting how you can communicate with deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Spreading awareness aims to improve peoples’ understanding of deafness, hopefully leading to better support and accessibility.

Even though there is no ‘typical’ deaf or hard of hearing person, you should be aware of the possibility that a deaf person might join your seminar, workshop or eat lunch at your restaurant. Are you aware of our needs? Have you made it easy for us to communicate with you and join the conversation? If not, I hope this year’s awareness week inspires you to make changes.

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Deaf counselling can help you reach your full potential

Mental health issues can affect everyone. From relationship problems to work stress, we all have stress and anxiety to deal with. However, some of us need a bit more support navigating the complexities of living in a hearing world.

Unfortunately, deaf counselling is still very rare; there are very few deaf-aware and qualified counsellors available.

To answer our counselling questions we interviewed deaf counsellor, Adrian Francis, a specialist in person-centred counselling. Person-centred counselling functions from the belief that people have the natural tendency to develop towards their full potential.

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10 things I wish audiologists had taught me

Audiologists and hearing rehabilitation

Gianluca Trombetta: A new course to the rescue

When my audiologists finally convinced me to start wearing hearing aids at age 20, I expected to immediately have perfect hearing. But of course, that did not happen. And then I found myself with questions and in situations that I did not know how to handle.

What was I to do when my hearing aids did not work? How should I tell my work colleagues about my hearing loss? How do I properly enjoy my dinner out or a day at the beach? And what technology accessories are relevant for my needs?

I was disappointed and frustrated by what I felt was a lack of support from my audiologists. But I’ve learned that hearing aids are just the start of the hearing rehabilitation journey, the term I use to describe a comprehensive approach to improving your hearing.

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Self help for hard of hearing people – Emotional empowerment

How to use the internet for self help for hard of hearing people

Hard of hearing and deaf people have a higher prevalence rate of depression, possibly due to the difficulties we experience navigating in a hearing world. Difficulties communicating can lead to lowered self-esteem, emotional distress and a feeling of hopelessness.

In 2004, there were 5,863 deaths as a result of suicide in the UK, with evidence that depression may be more common in the deaf population.

However, the internet has demonstrated to be an effective and dependable tool for self help for hard of hearing people. This is likely due to the ease with which deaf individuals can connect with other hard-of-hearing people and the variety of websites available to helping us find health information and ways to improve communication.

In this article, I’d like to share some of my favourite websites and how to use them as a source of self-help.

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The best ear plugs and their surprising secrets

Choose the best ear plugs for your environment

Surrounded by noise we find ourselves in environments of excessive amounts of loud noise, commuting to work, festivals, concerts, the gym and loud workplaces.

With the wide range of different levels of noise it should be no surprise that one ear plug cannot fit all. In workplace environments with loud noise such as machinery, we should be using completely different types of ear plugs compared to if we were going out with friends to attend a concert. With the wide range of ear plugs on the market, how do you actually figure out which types of ear plugs should be used in which environment?

Some years ago, I became very frustrated trying different types of ear plugs at music concerts. It wasn’t until I started researching more about how to protect my ears in loud environments that I realised that I was using hearing protection for workers on building sites!

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The surprising truth about tinnitus success stories

Searching for tinnitus success stories

Tinnitus and success stories – would you put the two together?

Searching the internet, you will find many articles discussing the issues around tinnitus from minor or daily frustrations to more serious issues such as behaviour disorders like anxiety, depression, or insomnia.

With all this negative information it’s easy to understand why so many people find it difficult to manage if we find ourselves overwhelmed. When we first realise that we may be experiencing tinnitus we often go online to find more information about the condition, unfortunately when we do this we often get freaked out by the horrible stories that can be found online.

If you are someone that hasn’t experienced anxiety, depression, insomnia etc it can be a very difficult topic to start reading about and relating to your own life.

Tinnitus sufferers often say this is one of the worst things they could have done in the early stages of realising they have this condition as it had a negative impact on how they managed tinnitus.

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Deaf News – Living with hearing loss

Good morning! We have a sunny morning here in London UK and I hope you’re starting to see spring appear where you are. There’s nothing like a bit of warm sunshine to lift our spirits. It’s time to put your feet up for this week’s read with a cuppa.

I came across a couple of interesting articles this week which I thought I’d share; A quick-start guide to understanding my hearing loss and The dark-and-dirty secret of people with hearing loss.

Did you know you can contact the emergency services without actually speaking to them? You just dial a number. I had no idea this service existed, find out more here.

I have read about ‘cures for hearing loss’ for the last 30 years. Another one has popped up, regenerating hair cells in the inner ear. I won’t be holding my breath!

My favourite article of the week was a gift from Jon Morrow: 7 life lessons from a guy who can’t move anything but his face.

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100,000 hits!

Readers, thank you for visiting and contributing to this blog! We reached 100,000 hits today. In doing so, we are creating a community for others who are following us in their journey to managing a hearing loss.

Coming up, we have *drum roll* …. hearing aid clinic issues, bilateral cochlear implantation, cochlear implants for Ménière’s disease, the art of communication, lip reading.

Are there any issues you would like to see featured?

Can you hear this?

How good is your hearing? Tee hee. This one’s a damn sight more interesting than the RNID hearing test.

This link takes you to a simple hearing test. Can you hear this? I thought this is an interesting one to do with a new cochlear implant. The site has a list of tones that go from 8Hz to 22,000Hz. It’s usual for people over 25 to not be able to hear above 15kHz. What Hz can you hear up to, or can you hear all of them? I was able to hear all of them. Woo woo! I thought 19, 20 and 21 kHz sounded horrific – I could practically feel them. They all sounded similar after 8Khz as the implant is only capable of a maximum 9Khz stimulation, but I was certainly picking up the sampling.

It is known that listening to iPods at loud volumes for long periods of time can damage your hearing to a profound level and permanently. It’s nice that I don’t have to worry about that one anymore. As we age, we naturally lose our high frequency hearing gradually. This is why, sometimes, you walk in on your mother and she has the TV on full blast and asks you to speak up as she can’t hear you (or the TV). Then swears blind that she doesn’t have a hearing problem.

It can be difficult to differentiate between loudness levels with a cochlear implant. My perception of sounds are different as they are new and so seem much louder. Turning the pages of a book seems louder than a speaking voice.  A ticking clock seems as loud as chucking a book on a table. It’s hard work listening to all this over-stimulation! This test has a series of sine waves – can you hear which is louder? I was very happy to be able to get Q1 and Q3 correct.

Here’s a harder test. Can you tell the difference between two MP3 sound clips, one recorded at 320kbps and the other at 128kbps in this MP3 sound quality test? Nope, I couldn’t tell the difference either!

On the subject of music, there is a new site for research into cochlear implants and music appreciation – swing right on over to Hearing Organised Sound.

And finally, here’s something for you hearies (and interested deafies). I discovered a hearing loss simulation for a cochlear implant and a hearing aid. A bit of environmental sound, a bit of speech, a bit of music. To me, a new kid on the cochlear implant block, and very used to using hearing aids, they sound like pretty accurate simulations. What do you think?

Time to get back to the headphones and rock on!