Tinnitus my friend

Some years ago while sitting at a computer and industriously working, at the Fish Factory.  I heard this high pitch sound.  It was like one of the computers on the factory floor wasn't quite working properly.  Most people had left by this time of the evening so there was just myself there.  I then got bugged by this noise, it was annoying.  so I got up out of my seat and tried to find which computer had not been turned off correctly.  There were some monitors still running so I switched them off, and there was the odd computer as well, but before I switched the computers off I stuck my head next to them to try and detect whether it was the same high pitched noise.  Nope.  I was walking some way from my own workstation and then thought whichever device it was must now be switched off, although I wasn't quite sure.  The head test had proved to be negative each time.  I sat down and began work again.  After a few minutes I realised the sound was still there.  I turned my head to the left and to the right.  I couldn't tell where it was coming from.  At which point I wondered whether it was me, my hearing?

It took some time to realise it because I was most part in denial about the whole high pitched buzzing noise.  If I concentrated by listening to other stuff it would kind of go away.  Yet it always returned.  Sometimes it was there sometimes it was not.  Kind of intermittent.  I'd heard of tinnitus before because of documentaries on TV or health items.  It then dawned on me I had tinnitus.  I haven't been to see my GP and have considered my own self diagnosis as accurate.  I know what high blood pressure sounds like and it's not the same.  Tinnitus comes even when I'm completely relaxed.  It's like my head is going to explode at some time.  I'll tell you when it happens.  It has been a nuisance and irritated me, but I am lucky enough to be able to distract myself from it.  It was when I began to see it as a friend, to accept it was there it became easier to deal with.  I'd purposefully try and tune into it.  The noise is constant, the same very high pitched screech, something akin to what a dog whistle would sound like if the human ear was able to detect it.  Other times it sounds like rain in the distance or an old TV not quite tuned in.  I can focus on it and accept it.  It can even help me sleep.  I know this is an odd thing to say but it's true.  It has and is on occasions a useful ally to have in the hum drum of vicarious noises.

I do have problems concentrating at times.  I like quiet environments when I'm doing something complex and can't understand how some people can concentrate while all around them are making a lot of noise.  I know it is a matter of attitude.  If the environment is noisy it doesn't help getting uptight about it.  I just wonder off and make a cup of tea, or decide to do something else which doesn't require me to spend as much brain power on it.  I'm not sure if this is because of the tinnitus or not, I just know I can achieve more when relaxed and undisturbed.  Hence also how it can help me sleep.

I think it could be a function of old age, but on my days off work, just after lunch I can sit in a comfy chair, put my head back and fall to sleep.  This can be anything from ten minutes to an hour.  The TV can be on and it will not matter.  It's as though my body is feeling so tired it just has to take a nap.  It really is a shame there are not special seats set aside where this can be done in workplaces.  For after my nap I then am fully awake and alert.  Though today I could easily have slept for a couple of hours.  It may be related to not getting a full night's sleep in the first place.  Sometimes less than six hours.  It all depends on a lot of factors.  Right now I can hear the distant fall or rain in my left ear, it's not raining of course.  In my right ear there is a high pitch whistle.  The computer is also standing on my right side so it is likely to be a complimentary tinnitus effect.

My friend tinnitus, my friend.  You are with me and you are not going away.  Well not for the moment.  Sometimes he does which is nice for the time, then he returns again.  I greet him and listen to what he has to say.  Now if only I can learn his language.

Block out chatter - be an astronaut

Today my Amazon order arrived.  I had a feeling it would and had taken the day off so I could receive it.  The postman appreciated it because it was a small box taken out of his bag then and made it a little easier to carry.  It is a pair of ear muffs.  I said I'd get them, and I have.  They snugly fit over my ears and pin my ears against my head, but my expectations of what they do are probably a little high.  I can still hear stuff with them on.  What they do achieve is a reduction in the level of external noises but I can still hear the keys depress on the keyboard as I type.  However, I can barely hear the TV on downstairs.  They are better than nothing.  The idea is to help concentration a bit more.  What I would really like is a set of ear muffs which give nearly full sound dampening.  The sort which would equate to being profoundly deaf.  But I don't think they exist.  I am now wearing two sets of ear dampening items.  Some soft inner ear foam plugs and these larger ear muffs.  This gives a double auditory shield.  Maybe I am hyper sensitive to sound, maybe there is a name for it as well?  I'm special.  Yep, I can hear Sparkling now calling me a Spesh, as Rock Chick already has.  It's odd how people are judged.  Mind we all do it. 

In a quest to try and find out about dampening materials and sound I did a little search on the Internet, to understand the phenomenon a little more.  If I can understand something then I can understand the ways to deal with it. 

Firstly the human ear is very sensitive to sound, sound travels through the ear canal, then hits the outer ear and then is converted by the inner ear into electrical signals the brain can interpret.  By plugging a piece of foam inside the canal  this it will automatically interrupt the path sound has to take.  But because the ear is a delicate thing you have to be pretty careful what you stuff down it.  This goes without saying.  Not just physical objects but also from sounds made outside.  Ears apparently wear out over time, like shoe leather, even though most shoes nowadays have rubber soles.  Essentially your greatest ability to hear is as a child and not so good the older you get, depending on noise exposure over a lifetime.  Not just booms and bangs, even music will do it, loud music for instance.  Every time I have been to a concert I've walked out with my ears ringing.  The audience seem to take this as a natural event.  But it isn't natural to have two days of ringing ears after a gig.  Your ears have been damaged, as small hair like follicles in your inner ear have died.  You might as well sit down and pay someone to explode fireworks next to your head.  Hoping they don't ignite your and the furniture in the process.  It makes me wonder how all those concert organisers have not been taken to court for the hearing damage they have inflicted on millions of people over time.  Because you pay for a ticket it shouldn't mean you also sign up for auditory torture.  Well, I certainly haven't been to many concerts in my life which is an advantage.  Except for the occasional tinnitus which I can't explain at all.  So the ear is sensitive and is one of our five senses, once lost it's gone forever, bloody daunting when you think about it.  In my work environment the most annoying sound  is of other people around me when they are talking and I need to concentrate.  If they talked in a language I could not understand it may not be so bad.  I'll have to try that, concentrating while Swedish is being spoken all around me.  All I need is a dozen Swedes and I'm not talking about the vegetable. 

Going on.  Sound is measured in two ways noise and frequency (variety).  Loudness is measured in decibels (dB).  A whisper is 15 dB whilst the sound of a voice is 60 dB, and a rock concert in the region of 120 plus dB.  The frequencies of sound or the different varieties of sound are measured in hertz (Hz).  Simply sound is the air vibrating and the frequency of these vibrations is measured by Hz.  The human voice has a range between 60 and 7000 Hz or 7 kHz whilst the human ear is able to detect the range of about 10 Hz to 20 kHz.  This is pretty incredible.  The sensitivity to sound is three times greater than which the vocal range can create it.  Ear muffs are designed to reduce these levels.  But as I said there is no 100 percent way to stop all sound.  There are two ways to reduce sound.  One is to dampen it the other is to reduce it at source.  Dampening involves the use of materials which absorb sound and do not allow it to reflect.  To reduce noise levels you have to turn the radio or TV down, to dampen you put as many layers as materials between the ear and the outside world.  Or live in a vacuum.  Which would be OK if  an astronaut, but not so good at sea level.   I certainly wouldn't be too happy being 100 miles up in the air, I mean vacuum, it's too far down. I'd get dizzy.

There is probably a third way, which is not so much mentioned.  This is by psychologically changing your perception of sound.  Which we all do, just go to sleep.  I've done it in front of the TV and barely heard what was happening.  However, in a workplace, snoring might be frowned upon.

Too much gassing? Wear ear muffs then

Today at the Fish Factory I needed peace and quiet to concentrate, could I get it? No chance.  It's like working in market place.  With fish mongers gassing left right and centre, but one particular monger who had a particularly loud voice.  So out came the ear plugs from my glasses case.  I don't use them often, they are just needed every once in a while.  These still didn't do the job, I then sat there and stuck my fingers in my ears while looking at a monitor and trying to work out the difference between one fish and another.  I must of looked a right sight.  However, it's hard operating machinery when you have fingers stuck in your ears, you have to take them out of your ears to do the operating bit.  Then came to mind the man who sits on the other side of the factory floor.  He had his own ear defenders or muffs, OK he may look odd wearing them but I wondered whether they did the job.  So I went over and asked to borrow his.  Walked over to my workstation and sat down again, putting them on.  They clamped on my head like mini limpets over each ear.  He warned me they could get uncomfortable and hot with prolonged use.  There was then an even more noticeable reduction in noise, or rather extraneous chatter.  They worked.  I could see a couple of people looked in my direction, puzzled at what I had on my head.  However, I took no notice and really couldn't care what people thought.  This could be an aspect of getting older.  Why care about the opinion of others, when what matters is I am satisfied myself.

Therefore, being impressed by these ear muffs I've gone and ordered a pair for myself.  OK I may only be one of two people on a floor where 300 people do test out their fishing, OK as well I might look like a cyberman from Doctor Who as well, but if they give me a level of quietness then I'll be happy.  In a busy noisy world a little bit of tranquillity now and again can go a long way.