The Room 101 thread - for things you hate or just having a bloody good moan

[eny]

This fucking shit-Edwin government going full-on loan-shark...

[Mantis]

Being deaf/NHS waiting lists/everything in general because it's making me super grouchy.

I lost all hearing in my right ear on Tuesday afternoon due to a treatment for a wax build up not working and the earliest my GP can see me to remove it is two weeks away and they haven't even confirmed an appointment date yet. Rang a private specialist practice to see if I could get it done sooner and still have to wait until next Wednesday until I can go in, plus it'll cost me £80.

3 days in, 5 to go and it's already driving me insane. The constant pressure on my right side is so discomforting and makes it hard to focus on anything and it's a nightmare trying to sleep. The deafness itself is horrible too, it's crazy how we take such basic functions for granted and how much out of balance you're thrown when half the functionality suddenly vanishes.

[Pew-Pew]

I've had that a couple of times due to wax build up. It's SO satisfying when they clear your ears out. You then feel like you have some sort of god-like hearing because your brain hasn't adjusted yet, so everything sounds very loud and it feels like you hear every little thing. The nurse that did it last time also laughed at how large the piece of wax was. Grim.

[Sly Boots]

[Mantis]

Grim.

I've had that a couple of times due to wax build up. It's SO satisfying when they clear your ears out. You then feel like you have some sort of god-like hearing because your brain hasn't adjusted yet, so everything sounds very loud and it feels like you hear every little thing. The nurse that did it last time also laughed at how large the piece of wax was. Grim.

Yeah I had it done once before when I was about 15 or something and it was such a relief. You leave the clinic and feel like Daredevil.

I had a similar experience a couple of years ago when I went for my first ever eye test and the clinician said I had a minor astigmatism that caused ever so slight, barely noticable, blurriness at distances greater than a few feet and that was why I got headaches so easily when concentrating on things when reading and such. When I first put the glasses on it was a complete revelation and I was like "Oh wow, so this is what true clear vision is! How did I go 30 years without clocking this!?"

[Wrathbone]

I can highly recommend one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/VITCOCO-Otosco ... s9dHJ1ZQ==

I went 80% deaf in one ear a few months ago due to a wax buildup that I’d stupidly attacked with a cotton bud and wedged against my eardrum. Felt like there was vacuum pressure and it was driving me crazy. An otoscope gives you a helpful/nightmarish camera view of your ear canal as you mine wax from the walls. As soon as I removed the offending wax against the eardrum my hearing was restored immediately. Obviously your problem might not be the same, but this could be worth a shot if the alternative is waiting two weeks. Also useful for ear cleaning in general, not to mention horrifying friends and relatives with recorded video highlights.

[Mantis]

Cheers but frankly I wouldn't trust myself with that thing. I'm pretty much in the same boat, I'd already lost half my hearing trying to soften the wax up and then went to scrape it out with a cotton bud and promptly pushed it right down my ear onto my eardrum and lost all my hearing. Aside from using the olive oil based spray which the specialist recommended I use for a week prior to my appointment I think I'm done putting things down my ears and will leave it to a professional.

My hope is that enough of it softens up and falls out over the next couple of days that I at least get a partial amount of hearing restored because it's pretty miserable only having one side functioning. Beyond that I'm just going to suck it up and pay the £80 for the private appointment, sod waiting 2 weeks on the useless NHS.

[Hatredsheart]

Being deaf/NHS waiting lists/everything in general because it's making me super grouchy.

I lost all hearing in my right ear on Tuesday afternoon due to a treatment for a wax build up not working and the earliest my GP can see me to remove it is two weeks away and they haven't even confirmed an appointment date yet. Rang a private specialist practice to see if I could get it done sooner and still have to wait until next Wednesday until I can go in, plus it'll cost me £80.

3 days in, 5 to go and it's already driving me insane. The constant pressure on my right side is so discomforting and makes it hard to focus on anything and it's a nightmare trying to sleep. The deafness itself is horrible too, it's crazy how we take such basic functions for granted and how much out of balance you're thrown when half the functionality suddenly vanishes.

I've got hearing loss, not volume more not being able to hear higher frequencies making it very difficult to distinguish similar sounding words from each other. Started just before Covid so luckily I got tested and fitted with a hearing aid.
Bloody thing is irritating to wear but at least I can hold a conversation without looking like I'm mentally challenged.

[Snowy]

That sounds shit, no pun intended.

I have tinnitus (way too much exposure to way too much music volume over the years) which is a fucker, but nothing in comparison.

[Hatredsheart]

That sounds shit, no pun intended.

I have tinnitus (way too much exposure to way too much music volume over the years) which is a fucker, but nothing in comparison.

In my case I don't think all those youthful trips to Monsters of Rock helped either (I too had tinnitus for 24hrs after an AC/DC finale letting off real cannons about 20ft from my face).
Still worth it

[Solitaire]

That sounds shit, no pun intended.

I have tinnitus (way too much exposure to way too much music volume over the years) which is a fucker, but nothing in comparison.

Between being in the Marines and being on stage a few hundred times with a couple different bands, my tinnitus is bad enough that I can't sleep without a fan or noise-making device.

Also, re: the ear wax removal. It was really interesting and rewarding, down on those two medical mission trips to the Solomon Islands, offering that as a service to the indigenous people there. Imagine that you're a subsistence fisherman, going along with your normal village life, slowly losing your hearing and not having any medical care whatsoever to help you (yeah, if you get an infection, whatever, you might just fall over dead, that's just how it is), but these doctors come along and dig out decades worth of wax, sand, dirt, etc from your ears and suddenly you can hear again, just like a youngster. We cleared dozens of ears a day, along with everything else, whatever we could. Some of these folk seriously had their entire ear canals blocked, all the way to the outer ear.

[Animalmother]

Fucking hell, I thought tinnitus was supposed to be pretty hard to live with and turns out every second bugger on here has it! Is it just something you can't exactly ignore but eventually deal with or is it always just there roaring in your ears?

Those questions seem a bit child like but I'm genuinely curious..

[Alan]

I really have no idea how in the hell I dont have it. So many gigs on both sides of the stage, so much overly loud headphone usage but somehow Ive dodged it.

[Snowy]

I really have no idea how in the hell I dont have it. So many gigs on both sides of the stage, so much overly loud headphone usage but somehow Ive dodged it.

Thank your lucky stars, buy yourself a decent set of musicians earplugs and use them religiously from here in mate.

AM, it is more noticeable the quieter your environment. Sometimes you forget about it, other times it is a constant distraction, but you do just live with it.

[ManBearSquid]

+1 for the tinnitus crew. I've had it for about 5 years now, you do get used to it but it's pretty intrusive in the beginning. I also find that I'm a bit more sensitive to certain pitches but most days I forget that I have it.

I absolutely wouldn't attend a gig without earplugs now, it's physically uncomfortable/painful; even if I'd just left them at home I'd no longer attend unless there was somewhere open that I could at least buy some disposable oned. I was slightly concerned when I went to an Imax to see Dune as I'd forgotten them, but the cinema has generally been fine without.

I used to always sleep with low volume ambient music or some fan, rain, or river sounds video. I've gradually weaned myself away from doing that now though.