A taxi driver once told me great story about an old man in his local bar. * pushes light gently to provide suitable on-boat ambiance *
'Gunner' McIntosh (or similar: this was Glasgow, Scotland) had been deaf since he operated a big anti-aircraft in the Second World War. He would sit in the corner of the bar and the regulars would have to shout at him to be understood.
According to the taxi driver, the night before giving me a lift, he had walked into his local bar and bellowed a greeting at the old man, as usual, and in response the old man had jumped out of his skin.
It transpired that earlier in the day, during a medical check-up, a doctor had discovered both his ears had been blocked by a massive build-up of earwax and behind that there was ancient cotton wool that had most-likely been placed there by a young Gunner McIntosh during the war.
Once removed, he said, he had the hearing of a healthy 21-year-old man.
I lost hearing in my left ear for the same reason. Ear kept blocking up more and more frequently until it stayed permanently shut. Tried the store peroxide kits, they didn't work at all for me. It's such an unnerving experience because you really fear it's something permanent.
Finally got it cleaned out by a doctor, and just wow. It really is as if you have bionic hearing. Everything sounded enhanced, and had a lot of extra treble. Very much like you've turned up the volume by 50% or so. Things like the garage door opening became too loud to bear, and I had to cover my ears for it.
For a few days, I had wondered if this was how we were supposed to hear, and that my hearing was just impaired for a long time. But it quickly fades back to what you're used to as your ear builds up a normal, healthy amount of wax again. Still, for those brief few days, it's quite the experience.
> But it quickly fades back to what you're used to as your ear builds up a normal, healthy amount of wax again.
No, it fades back because your brain re-adapts. It's somewhat similar to day/night vision, during blockage the ear/brain complex cranks up sensibility to try and hear things, once the ear's clean it dials back sensibility because there's no need for it.
There's no such thing as "heatlhy amount of wax" because it's not supposed to build up (let alone build up so much it block out the ear canal or presses against the eardrum, which is how it lowers hearing). Normally, earwax is secreted in the outer third of the ear and slowly travels outwards before flaking out.
(I say that being a frequent sufferer of accumulating and impacted earwax, earwax buildup is one of the banes of my existence)
Once my ear got clogged,as happened with the original poster. However, the auditory impairment was nowhere that much. It seems that, as long as there is a path to the outside, you can hear almost as well.
Once it happened, I now have to go to the doctor 2 - 4 times per year to get it cleaned. If I don't let it build up that much, then the cleaning is easy. And, as the doctor is a specialist, he will not use the syringe, unless as a last resort.
It always strikes me how often we hear that folks either won't go to the doctor to get something looked at, or they go to the doc and get the answer and then simply aren't compliant. If it's broken, fix it. I've never understood the logic behind avoiding the doc.
The best are people who lie to the doctor. Unless you're hoping to defraud someone (get meds, insurance, whatever) it's not only pointless, it's so counterproductive.
"I haven't pooped in a week." "Hmm, how many servings of roughage do you eat per day?" "All of them. I eat ten apples for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and I eat the solids left in the juicer after making my all-organic smoothies." "OK, I guess we'll have to do a DRE. Do you mind if my interns help?"
"How often do you floss." "Ten times a day." "That's curious, because your gums started bleeding like a Tarantino movie when my hygienist waved the box of floss in your general direction."
I learned the hard way when I faked appendicitis and ended up in surgery when I was 12. :-)
"How often do you floss." "Ten times a day." "That's curious, because your gums started bleeding like a Tarantino movie when my hygienist waved the box of floss in your general direction."
I always had the opposite as a child. They would commend me on how I must have done a decent job since the last checkup. Reality is I probably only brushed/flossed 3 or 4 times in that interval.
For me, it is hard to know when things are actually bad.
I would hear stories of folks that can't see anything, look up and can make it out alright. Finally get in for a vision test at 34 to find that glasses help out tremendously. Sure, I could read before, but now it is just easy.
So, it isn't that I would avoid the doctor. But for many things, if you don't go to a specialist, the answer to the question of "how are things" is usually "getting along, no major complaints."
It's hard to admit there's something wrong with oneself. Physical problems are easier than mental ones, but it's still not a pleasant admission. (Probably makes sense from an evolutionary perspective, where medical care wasn't available, and it was valuable to be able to affect being ok even when one wasn't)
"Avoiding" the doctor is one thing. Some people are even afraid of doing any sort of tests for fear they might discover something.
However, there is a different phenomenon. Sometimes, going to the doctor is not so straightforward. You have to go to a clinic, wait an unspecified amount of time to see the doctor. Once there, he'll prescribe several inconvenient things. And you know, we got stuff to do.
I went to a doctor a few months ago. I then had to do two tests, an abdominal ultrasound (which was fine, and I did), and several stool tests. These, I took my time. When I finally got around to doing them, I found out there is a time limit and the lab won't do them. I now have to go back to the doctor so that he can order them again. It's been months now.
I think this is a problem in places with free health care too (so money isn't even a reason for a lot of people). It doesn't cost a penny to see a doctor or get treatment here but I know plenty of people who avoid going to the doctor until a problem has gotten out of hand.
Procrastination plays a part too.
It's a big effort to,
1.Find a good doctor (not all of them are equal)
2.Call to make an appointment
3.Take time off work/classes
4.Get there and wait, wait, wait
Really, all this could be solved if more medical school were allowed to be opened and get rid of the arbitrary ceiling on the number of students med school are allowed to accept .
This is only the easy part. If you don't have insurance, it's a nightmare.
In the case of my father, he went to a general doctor. Got referred to another specialist. Who then referred him to another specialist. $600 later (a huge amount of money to most normal people) and no diagnosis, he decided to just "deal with it".
Good point but I have to say these reasons don't really apply to me.
1. We have a local doctors surgery which has offices for around 5 GP's and 2 nurses. You can request an appointment with a specific one but most people just take whoever is available soonest. Although I've come across a few bad doctors for the most part people seem to trust the system to weed them out.
2/3. For me this means calling a number and asking for the next available appointment. If work is a problem they have a few nights where they work late and you can request the next available appointment on a late night. No need to take time off unless it's imperative you get seen quickly.
4. This is true but I find with an appointment that hasn't been arranged last minute I get seen within 10 minutes of turning up.
NB: I'm in the UK so obviously there are differences to how the systems we're both describing work.
I am concerned that I am a hypochondriac, and I don't want to waste the (UK NHS) doctors valuable time. I usually end up waiting too long and going in with more serious symptoms than I if I had gone in earlier. Then again I often go in and get told to go away. What is it called when you worry that you are a hypochondriac?
As a kid I once lost a tooth and wanted to keep it, but since I had nowhere to put it at the moment, I shoved it into my ear. Then I forgot about it.
So of course a couple of weeks later I was at the doctor with a blocked ear. When it came out, he was rather surprised - said that he'd removed all kinds of things from kids' ears, but never before a tooth...
Glad it was just wax and that your hearing's ok. As somebody who is quite deaf I heartily recommend that people pay attention to their hearing. Get a test to establish a baseline and then check every 5-10 years if no problems or ringing, shorter otherwise. And if you find yourself losing soft consonant sounds, or piss off people with your tv volume, get it checked ASAP.
Hearing loss sucks as even with modern aids, hearing in crowds tends to be difficult at best. Oh, watch your meds for things that can cause sudden loss (aspirin?).
I'll admit that's its nice to feel music, though, rather than just hear it...
I have to get this operation done once every 2-5 months, and I've heard several times from nurses and doctors that it's their favorite operation, for exactly that reason :) As a common 'sufferer,' let me say I enjoy it, too.
I had it for a couple days, fun times having a cold while in an airplane, :p. Turning my head sideways and shaking fixed it.
As for the unease with noises, I guess it's understandable; one, the people that don't mind are probably used to it. Two, if you haven't been able to hear for a while, your hearing will get sharper and it'll have much more of an impact.
Three, I too get uneasy when having to listen to busy train stations and the like. I usually wear earbuds (with music) for that reason. And get stressed / uneasy whenever those don't work.
Awesome story! I always wonder how safe for your eardrums it is when they rapidly inject water into your ear like that. Also, if you have mild tinnitus from going to concerts and such, not having your ears blocked helps a ton with not hearing it.
Car horns are meant to be used in emergencies only, mostly to prevent accidents. Unfortunately in some countries like Israel (where I live) it has become more of a device for expressing anger or frustration.
It can be worst, in Egipt they use it for communication between drivers, things like: I'm passing you, don't go out that junktion, I'm going out the junktion better watchout...
All that is done via the horns, which means a constant concert around the city..
I was once in a car driving through the Rajasthan desert and, with not a soul seen in the last hour, the driver still habitually tapped his horn every couple of minutes.
In India it's somehow considered a safty measure to just honk all the time. You'd see big trucks with stickers "please honk" on their rear-bumper, sepposedly they won't know you're there otherwise.
"§5 StVO Überholen
(5) Außerhalb geschlossener Ortschaften darf das Überholen durch kurze Schall- oder Leuchtzeichen angekündigt werden. .."
"§5 Passing
(5) Outside of cities/villages it is allowed to notify of a planned passing by short sound or light indicators. " (Uff, legalese is hard to translate.)
Normally I'm happy to jump into a "bash US healthcare" conversation, but as someone who recently experienced exactly this issue off-insurance, I can tell you that office visit + procedure runs anywhere from $200-$400 out of pocket. Since it's a 5 minute in-office thing, most of that cost would be hidden behind a copay to those with decent insurance.
Nothing like 500Rs, to be sure. But not quite four figures yet.
wow, this happened to me too, the deafness came to me really quick, one ear and the other one. I was very nervous, I thought some thing serious was happening to my hearing. I had a doctor check out my ears, it turned out to be a small pea sized earwax in both of my ears...
'Gunner' McIntosh (or similar: this was Glasgow, Scotland) had been deaf since he operated a big anti-aircraft in the Second World War. He would sit in the corner of the bar and the regulars would have to shout at him to be understood.
According to the taxi driver, the night before giving me a lift, he had walked into his local bar and bellowed a greeting at the old man, as usual, and in response the old man had jumped out of his skin.
It transpired that earlier in the day, during a medical check-up, a doctor had discovered both his ears had been blocked by a massive build-up of earwax and behind that there was ancient cotton wool that had most-likely been placed there by a young Gunner McIntosh during the war.
Once removed, he said, he had the hearing of a healthy 21-year-old man.