Cycling and deafness

[TimeTraveller]

Not sure about paranoia ? got tinitus so silence is never silence

Tinnitus is a condition that's hard to understand until you experience it. Not for a day, or a week, but having a constant noise in your head that no one else can hear. Every waking moment.
Tinnitus teaches you a certain type of resilience (or it destroys you).

Yes that probably correct. I've had mine since childhood.. Yet still have times when Its very had to manage.. these days I use an MP3 player and for sleep, often have audiobooks running or ambient sounds to help mask it.. some days it can send you a bit nuts..

[[XAP]Bob]

Completely nuts, particularly when it's at a frequency that you simply can't hear - I have worse than 100dB loss above ~5.5kHz (a bit lower in one ear) yet that's where the most noticeable elements of my tinnitus are.

[TimeTraveller]

Tinitus is very subjective, I Have lived with it for a vey long time, and along with other sounds I hear internal (heart beat or better discription would be a caterpillar eating veg crunch sound) . As for not being in a persons hearing range tinitus has nothing to do with Audilble sound, as its all internal and as far as I am aware my audiologist has said they are still unawre of the actual reasons for it.

The only relief from it is for me playing audio as a mask. Sometimes its a stronger sound! than other times.

[[XAP]Bob]

Yep - one of the theories my audiologist has mentioned is that the brain is used to processing background noise across all frequencies, and the complete lack of noise that I now hear confuses it.

Whilst I can buy that for short duration tinnitus I suspect my brain would have recalibrated after three years.

[xerxes]

Haven't read all the other replies to this, so apologies if this repeats what anyone else has said.

I suffered with this last year and was unable to get an appointment for syringing (which, contrary to what some have said, is available on the NHS, at least in our area) due to the pandemic. Eardrops made no difference whatsoever. Finally got an appointment in January, and the difference was astounding - everything seemed far too loud for a couple of days until I got used to it. The nurse showed me what had been removed from my ears - each one had a 'plug' of wax about an inch long, so no wonder I was having problems.

For future maintenance they advised a couple of drops of olive oil every 2 or 3 days - no need to shell out for specialist eardrops. This is working so far.

[Mick F]

I know that the deaf and the hard of hearing cycle.

I'm suffering with completely blocked ears. Left one far worse then right. Taking drops for it, and if it doesn't clear in the next day or two, I'll be reporting sick to the nurse for a good syringe. Been like this on and off over the years, so it's nothing new to me.

Any road up, I don't fancy cycling like this. My "awareness" is completely shot, and it really is disconcerting.

Thread resurrection!

Ears blocked again.

Can't have an appointment at the health centre until next week as there's only one nurse qualified to do ears. It's driving me nuts. Right one completely blocked and the left one is not far off the same.

Tinnitus is very annoying.

[geocycle]

I know that the deaf and the hard of hearing cycle.

I'm suffering with completely blocked ears. Left one far worse then right. Taking drops for it, and if it doesn't clear in the next day or two, I'll be reporting sick to the nurse for a good syringe. Been like this on and off over the years, so it's nothing new to me.

Any road up, I don't fancy cycling like this. My "awareness" is completely shot, and it really is disconcerting.

Thread resurrection!

Ears blocked again.

Can't have an appointment at the health centre until next week as there's only one nurse qualified to do ears. It's driving me nuts. Right one completely blocked and the left one is not far off the same.

Tinnitus is very annoying.

If it is wax, our GP has stopped doing removal. They now direct you to.... Specsavers!

[Mick F]

Mrs Mick F wears hearing aids, and she went to a shop in Tavistock. The other option was Specsavers, but she refuses to darken their door as she has had a few upsets with her glasses. She now uses Vision Express.

The hearing place she went to is Alistair Kinsey. She says they were excellent.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.55041 ... 384!8i8192

I plan on going into Tavistock in the next day or two. Bank, shops etc.
I may pop into Kinsey's and see if they can sort me out.

[Psamathe]

I know that the deaf and the hard of hearing cycle.

I'm suffering with completely blocked ears. Left one far worse then right. Taking drops for it, and if it doesn't clear in the next day or two, I'll be reporting sick to the nurse for a good syringe. Been like this on and off over the years, so it's nothing new to me.

Any road up, I don't fancy cycling like this. My "awareness" is completely shot, and it really is disconcerting.

Thread resurrection!

Ears blocked again. :cry:

Can't have an appointment at the health centre until next week as there's only one nurse qualified to do ears. It's driving me nuts. Right one completely blocked and the left one is not far off the same.

Tinnitus is very annoying. :evil:

Don't have them use the micro-suction thing. I had that a couple of times with a specialist private and it was fine. But last ENT appointment and locum decided one ear needed micro-suction to remove wax and by next day felt like ear full of warm clay. 6 months later and ear still feels like it's full of warm clay. After it happened GP called me in same day, then again 3 hrs later, then emergency referral and ENT had a brief look and "can't see anything wrong" but ear still feels like somebody has punched me in the side of the head and it's full of the warm clay. At this point I expect it's for life (no change after 6 months). I wont be seeing that consultant again (even if he hasn't moved on).

Ian

[Chris Jeggo]

After having my ears syringed many times by nurses over the years I wondered whether I could do it myself, since it seems a pretty straightforward procedure. I found that I could, using warm water and a squeezy washing-up liquid bottle. The sensations are pretty much the same, and it clears the wax. I appreciate that the ear is a delicate organ and accordingly experimented with care. For decades now I have not needed to visit a nurse for syringing; I do it myself on first indications of wax build-up. I had my ears and hearing examined a few years ago for other reasons - nothing abnormal detected.

[Mike Sales]

After having my ears syringed many times by nurses over the years I wondered whether I could do it myself, since it seems a pretty straightforward procedure. I found that I could, using warm water and a squeezy washing-up liquid bottle. The sensations are pretty much the same, and it clears the wax. I appreciate that the ear is a delicate organ and accordingly experimented with care. For decades now I have not needed to visit a nurse for syringing; I do it myself on first indications of wax build-up. I had my ears and hearing examined a few years ago for other reasons - nothing abnormal detected.

Would you give us description of your method, please? I promise to be very careful.

[Chris Jeggo]

Further details of self-syringing:

My WUL bottle has its cap trimmed so that the nozzle stands 8mm clear of the rest of the cap. OD of exposed nozzle is 5 to 6mm. Bore is about 2.5mm at tip; a bore much less than this might give inadequate water flow. YBMV.
Fill wash basin with enough warm water (around body temperature to start with) to easily submerge bottle. Fill bottle completely. A nurse makes sure only water - not air - emerges from the syringe before starting. Interlock fingers and hold the bottle between palms roughly vertical over wash basin. Squeeze very gently to insure water is flowing. Tilt head and apply ear to nozzle. Squeeze gently at first and vary aim to get the jet right into where it's needed - by trial and error with sound being a good guide. Squeeze harder - trial and error again - quite hard, maybe - to get fast enough flow, and keep squeezing until the bottle is a lot thinner. Blobs of wax should have appeared in the wash basin. Repeat bottle filling and a long squeeze until no more wax comes. If you have old, hard wax you might need to increase the water temperature to remove these lumps. I think that covers everything. Any questions?

[Mike Sales]

Thanks. I will give it a go.
I have been holding my soaped ears beneath the shower head daily, but still the wax builds up.

[Mick F]

Thanks guys!

Fairy Liquid it is then .................. or the old bottle of course, filled with warm water.

[IanH]

You can also buy a ready-made kit from the usual on-line shopping sites. My wife and I had great fun!