Because of the surgery, my dad was always very cautious of the volume of anything we listened to. When I got my first Walkman one Christmas, my dad wouldn't let me touch it until he gave me a rather tedious lecture about making sure that I wasn't listening to music too loud. I promised that I wouldn't. That's promise I have kept.
The real problem is that it seemed for quite a while to be a defect. I never wanted people to know about the surgery. It reminded me that I should be deaf in my right ear. A thought that frightened me. A thought that I didn't want to consider.
Because I knew that without the surgery, I wouldn't be able to hear out of my right ear. This made my hearing incredibly precious to me. This is, in turn, made me very aware of how dependent we are on our senses. So, each flicker of light, each texture, each faint hum of an appliance, each morsil with vibrant flavor, each scent became something all the more enjoyable.
I have always held my hearing very dear. Naturally, music and sound have become something that I will never take for granted.
Luke and I operate the sound system for Campus Crusade for Christ on Thursday nights. I have been at that post over two years now. I have been paid many compliments for my ability to balance a sound system (although I have a bit of trouble with Equilizers). Everytime someone lets me know that they think I'm doing a good job behind that soundboard, I am reminded of this scar.
Without that surgery, I know that I wouldn't be half the soundman I am now.
Thanks Dad, for being so very concerned about my hearing.
Thanks Luke, for being such a bada** behind that board.
That's scar #2. I have many more to share if you guys want to see them...
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Daily Ditty:
Vast - Don't Take Your Love Away
7 comments:
Yes, please. All of them. Stories and pictures, please.
Thanks for telling your story!
I'm with Anne, more please.
The reason for the surgery was to remove a wild growth of epitheleal tissue in the ear canal and inner ear, which is a known but relatively uncommon medical condition which, if the growth had not been removed, would eventually have clogged up the entire ear canal and wrapped itself around the ear drum and the bones on the inner side of the ear drum (the stirrup, the anvil, and the whatever)that transfer the vibration of the ear drum to the otic nerve, rendering you deaf in that ear but no dumber or smarter than before. The tissue had already penetrated your ear drum and was busy wrapping up the little tiny sound bones. So the doctor had to remove your ear drum, extract the tissue, and make a new ear drum for you. Remarkable really.
In case you are wondering: I do not know if the tissue would have eventually penetrated the brain and strangled your brain stem or not.
And so the truth comes out! That's a much more complex explanation than mom had always told me. Thanks for the info.
In the mix theatre yesterday we all tested the edge of our hearing. I guessed mine fell off at about 15KHz. I was pretty close - 14.7KHz. Our mixer Robert had about 16.9 but then he is nearly ten years younger than me...
We are also experimenting with 20Hz tones in this film I'm doing... eerie and odd.
I was born deaf in my right ear. For years I had so many problems hearing and everything.They said nothing could ever be done, as it was nerve damage.
Then, last year, I got my kinesiologist to look at it. He said that what was coming up was that muscles in that ear was frozen and he would try to get 'em working.
Three days later that ear was hearing. :) It was such a miracle, and hearing everything so much more fully was so beautiful, I was constantly marvelling. What's more, I could triangulate (work out what direction a sound is coming from) for the first time. My hearing still isn't perfect - that ear has heaps of difficulty with conversational range - but all the bitterness and difficulty I had is gone. Sometimes I just sit there listening, and marvelling, and being so grateful. :)
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