Cycling and deafness

[Jdsk]

"Syringing" and "irrigation" are both commonly used. But I see that the NICE guidance says "using an electronic irrigator" and also mentions "microsuction".

Jonathan

[merseymouth]

Hi all, I don't often have blocked ears, to the contrary one may look through from one side to the other , eardrums like lace doyleys!
Three ops but still a draught through.
So when I do suffer congested ear wax I can't use that softening fluid, I get referred to the hospital for the vacuum cleaner service. (non Dyson)
My cycling tip for the "Hearing Impaired" is simple, ride a tricycle! . IGICB MM

[IanH]

I'm always cautious about relying upon my hearing for a safe ride. The maxim "Look, signal, manoeuvre" holds good, especially in the future with the growth of silent electric cars. On a long downhill stretch near me, I'm often overtaken by cars making little or no noise as they are basically "coasting" and there's a lot of wind noise affecting my hearing. On these occasions, I wish they would first sound a warning (blow their horn!) - I won't take it as a term of abuse....

[slowster]

I think that with a shower the water often does not enter the ear in sufficient quantity and/or stay there for long enough to water down and loosen the wax, which enables it to exit the ear naturally and unnoticed. Having a bath and submerging the ears for a good few minutes or more is probably much more efffective. Regular swimming is, I think, even more effective.

[merseymouth]

Oh No! Regular swimming is what did for my hearing over 63 years ago. Bugs in the water buggered up my ear drums .
Self treatment must be approached with caution.
One of the safest ways of softening hard wax is to apply warm, extra virgin olive oil using a dropper. Not to use chemical off the shelf mixture.
So persist in getting service from ones own GP. MM

[Mick F]

........I'll be seeing the quack at 11am this morning.
Back later with an update.

Saw the doc and he saw my lug holes.

Sat in the waiting room earlier and he came out and asked for me. Funny, but I heard my name, but didn't know the direction of the speaker!

Went in to see him, and chatted about the issue. Took my temp and BP (both fine) and then used his telescope thingy to look into my lugs. Absolutely caked with wax, though softening due to the drops.

Asked lots of questions and had a good feel of my head and jaw and stuff, and suggested that I probably didn't have any internal infections. Good news.

Said to keep on with the drops and to make an appointment with the nurse towards the end of next week for the both of the lugs to be sucked/blown/washed out. Chatted to the receptionist - difficult because I couldn't hear very well - and the only "double appointment" was for the week after next, so settled on a single on on Wednesday next week, and another single on Friday next week. I reckon if the nurse sorts the worst one out first and it's quick, he/she can sort out the other quickly too during the same appointment.

Still feeling crap, and ringing in my ears too. Just taken doggie round the woodlands and it was rather strange calling to him and he reacting, but my words seemed quiet and distant and only in my head.

[mumbojumbo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5-WsJ6 ... hannel=BBC

Here you see a solution used in Yorkshire-assumingbyiu cannot face eating more fish

[Mick F]

Still not cycling.

It's bad enough walking the dog.
Went along the lanes earlier, and I couldn't tell which direction the cars were coming from. Doggie hears, and lies down as he doesn't like traffic. It was me wot couldn't hear!

Also, down along the riverbank footpaths, there was a chap strimming the weeds and grass and I could hear it clearly, but could I work out where he was?
Could I heck!
He was way over on my left ..............when I was looking forwards, backwards, and right for him.

No further away than 20ft, but I was completely confused to where he was .............. until I actually saw him and even then the strimmer was sounding in the wrong direction.

Monocular ears?

[[XAP]Bob]

Even in strong wind, I can hear. I have excellent hearing (normally). I can't even here the keyboard whilst typing now. Everything feels like I'm surrounded in soundproof rubber.

Hearing and sight is what makes people aware of their surroundings. Miss out one of them, and disorientation arrises and that's what I am at the moment - disorientated.

The human brain can cope with all sorts of things, and if my deafness was permanent, I would cope (even at my age) eventually.

Deaf (as opposed to deaf) people tend to have much better peripheral vision than their hearing alter egos.

I had excellent hearing until my illness three and half years ago, and now have relatively little (my wife was complaining that the washing machine beeped even when it hadn't registered a button press, and I didn't know it beeped - can't hear it *at all*.

I have a pair of excellent hearing aids, but I turn the microphone down when I ride - wind noise is basically all they pick up. I also put music through them - because it masks the remainder of the wind noise, and my tinnitus, and gives me something to ride to.
I can still hear the vehicles I need to - anything with a siren is still clearly audible (though I have no directionality to my hearing*, so I have to scan for them visually). I can also hear people who put baked bean cans on their exhaust, or have an inability to control their right foot.

Then again my vision is also compromised, I have no gaze stabilisation so the world moves around me every time my head moves - if I'm talking then the person I am talking to is bouncing, because my jaw moves my head slightly.



* I was at a building site last week and trying to find the radio to turn it off - was <five feet away and couldn't find it until someone pointed it out to me.

[Jdsk]

Deaf (as opposed to deaf) people tend to have much better peripheral vision than their hearing alter egos.

I suggest caution with that statistic.

Of course it varies with the cause of deafness, but if you take the whole population of people with hearing impairment they're much more likely to have other neurological deficits, including visual.

But i would be interested if there's any evidence that in the absence of other deficit peripheral vision actually improves, as opposed to the individual relying on it more.

Jonathan

[thirdcrank]

But i would be interested if there's any evidence that in the absence of other deficit peripheral vision actually improves, as opposed to the individual relying on it more.

Some years ago, I ended up helping a profoundly deaf nursing student with the production of her written work. (It dates the story that typewritten submission was the norm and she had difficulty dealing with the ends of lines because she couldn't hear the bell. I used my Amstrad 8256.) When we were working, we sat side-by-side at a desk both looking forwards: she at her handwritten notes, me at my keyboard. The ease with which she understood my speech led me to assume she had at least some hearing but she did not. Her lip-reading was so highly-developed that she could read my lips in profile out of the corner of her eye. The person in question was a mature student - late 40s - with considerable experience of teaching communication skills to deaf people.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,

Had a shower, and put the shower head whilst adjusted and focused into my left ear. Nice warm water.

Not made a ha'porth of difference.

Warmish
(hot really but don't tell Jonathan )

[Mick F]

My ears are terrible. Right one is just about useable, and the left is completely deaf.
Feeling awful. Disorientated, confused, depressed.
This has been going on now for nearly a fortnight. It really is getting me down.
Drops going in twice a day.

Seeing the nurse early this afternoon. Hopefully I'll be able to hear afterwards.
Fingers crossed.

[thirdcrank]

Good luck with the old Prugnats

http://www.classicrendezvous.com/France ... t_lugs.htm

or perhaps yours are Nervex

https://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/c ... onal-lugs/

Joking aside, I can appreciate this must be tormenting you, so best wishes for getting it sorted out.

[Mick F]

Thanks TC.

This has been dragging on due to Covid perhaps.
It was really difficult to get an appointment, and I've had to book two. One for each ear!
Next appointment is on Friday. That will be a full two weeks.

I'm hoping that the nurse will sort out the bad left one, and if it clears out quickly - it should do due to the drops I've been putting in there so it's all nice and soft - they could do the right one as well, and I'll cancel the Friday appointment.