Termyn8or
Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
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I really don't think I need the hearing test. Before I continue I want say I regret anyone losing their hearing. I've had a couple of ear infections and even temporarily losing the hearing in one ear drove me nuts. Ear infections were the only exception I make, yes I did go to a doctor, but that was at least 15 years ago.
Actually I could test my own hearing, I have the equipment. Actually maybe not, I have headphones but I don't think their frequency response is flat enough. I have the generator though.
I think different people are built differently. There are people who work with a jackhammer all day and some experience a profound hearing loss yet it seems not to affect others. And that's a way worse sound than almost any music. Rat-at-at, not quite as loud as a machine gun. Then what of soldiers on the battlefield ?
I've never run a jackhammer but was around quite a few gunshots, both indoors and out, and let me tellya, indoors a gun is LOUD. So after the headphones that did 136dB, which replaced the ones I blew that were even louder, sitting in band practices with sound reinforcement equipment that is literally melting glass, for some reason I can still hear.
I can still hear the crackle of the high voltage when you turn on a TV set. I am 47 and I can still hear a pin drop. Until we put in the second ceiling downstairs I could hear the induction motor on my furnace, which is in the attic, from downstairs. Up until maybe ten years ago I could hear the HV transformer in a TV, which runs at 15,734 Hz, and they are designed to minimize the sound. I had one TV I could hear running from a couple of rooms away, had to get rid of it. I no longer hear that high, but pretty close.
In the old days I had the golden ears almost. I could tell if something was a radio, cassette or CD. I had a $150 cartridge in my turntable and would not buy a cassette deck that didn't have Dolby HX. All for the sound. I abandoned the vinyl because of all the problems, but I would have to say I still prefer it to CDs.
Now things are different. I don't even have CDs anymore, it's all on the harddrive. On certain songs I can tell the difference if they were ripped with a 160 or 128 bitrate, and 96 sounds terrible to me. I won't even download anything ripped at 96.
I think my high frequency hearing is pretty good for my age. Then there's the rest of it. There are very few cars that I can't hear pull up in front, and that is through closed, double pane windows.
Now if I could only see.
But I do understand, somewhat, the plight of the deaf. A late good friend of mine had deaf Parents. His Father got it from heredity, and his Mother went deaf because of sulfa drugs used to treat menengitis. This was one guy who could really say that when he cried in the night noone came. In fact he was born with a congenital defect in one ear. Apparently he had a cochlea, but a highly renowned ENT had to build him an eardrum, hammer and stirrup, something like that. Talk about building a ship in a bottle.
I knew him before he moved out on his own, I got along well with his Parents, there was quite a bit of difficulty in comminicating with them. They liked me for the usual reasons, they had a very strong work ethic, so there were two things they liked about me, I had a job and I never moved in with them.
So I do know what a pain it is being deaf. When one is totally deaf their speech will start to degrade, many of them have to go to speech therapy from time to time. They get so hard to understand and have to say everything three times. Even when they can read lips, communication is different. Even when a hearing person uses a word they are not familiar with how does one explain ? To a hearing person you just say "It means ______", but you can't do that. Needless to say they always had plenty of pens and paper in the house.
So they could not hear us cranking the tunes, or what we were talking about. But they could communicate without us hearing either. When talking to each other they would not use their voice. They read each others' lips.
They both had jobs. He made dentures and she taught sign language. They had money, and I do not know why the doctors could not cure their hearing. I think what it is that once the cochlea is damaged it is all over. The little bones and eardrum can apparently be rebuilt. From what I understand there are little hairlike members inside that actually pick up the sound.
Hmmm, something occurred to me. Hair loss and hearing loss seem to occur in the same people. One source attributes both to a deficiency of the trace mineral tin. I wonder if that holds water.
I don't want to get on a soapbox about minerals right now, but I'd like to point out one thing. Mineral deficiencies are not always caused by a lack in the diet, sometimes the body simply does not absorb them properly. That could be hereditary. If so it would explain a few things.
The disease is not always caused immediately. In the natal stage, your body basically ripped off your Mother's body for every mineral it needs to develop. That is why gestational diabetes occurs. You can thank her later. But the way of life is the fetus comes first.
Then once the umbilical cord is cut eventually it all goes downhill. In what specific way varies from person to person. I can't see, you can't hear, the guy next door who is my age has no hair. A friend of mine lost his teeth in his twenties. My Mother's ex Husband had gray hair since his twenties.
I have studied this for many years, but information that pertains to what I want is very scarce. I want to know what makes the difference.
Would I trade good hearing for good eyesight ? Or more strength and endurance ? I can't answer that right now.
There's one good thing about how I am now. At least I am used to it.
This is long enough, I'll be baaack.
T
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