[Gwynn ap Nudd]

HiddenOne, on 20 November 2014 - 01:04 PM, said:

Gwynn ap Nudd, on 20 November 2014 - 01:40 AM, said:

Finally had my appointment with an ENT specialist. He confirmed that my hearing is, in his words "bad, this is really bad." Seems everyone I see about my hearing is floored that I can carry on any sort of conversation without hearing aids. He also confirmed that it is most likely genetic and that nothing can be done to reverse the loss. It will be progressive, but in which direction or how quickly it will continue to deteriorate he can't say (direction meaning whether my high frequency hearing just keeps getting worse or if I will start losing the low end as well - though the former is more likely). I have to get a CT scan scheduled now, as there is a small chance that could show an anomaly that is causing the loss.

Basic forecast is that in the near to mid-term, hearing aids will become useless for me as either the level high frequency sounds need to be amplified to will surpass the pain threshold or I will develop more dead zones where I wouldn't hear sounds at any volume. At that point I will need to consider cochlear implants in both ears. Whether that is in 1 year, 5 years or 10 years remains to be seen. For now, I will be taking hearing tests every 3 months or so to see if we can determine the rate and direction in which my hearing will continue to deteriorate.

I don't know if this will give you any comfort, buy my wife's cousin had been losing her hearing since childhood until it was gone as an adult. She got the implants and had a relatively easy adjustment period and after that, her life was greatly improved. I think the implants even have a way of connecting an audio player directly to listen to music, which I find fascinating. So good luck!

Actually, that is encouraging. Much of the literature around implants describes the adjustment as long and difficult. I think most new hearing aids nowadays are bluetooth equipped as well. Some are made specifically to be cell phone compatible, so phone calls or music from your phone can be sent directly to the hearing aids.

[Silencer]

Comparatively minor issue compared to most here: not enough time to play Far Cry 4! ;_;

[worry]

Since New Zealand is an honorary third world country, we won't count that as a first world problem.

[worry]

[amphibian]

I am 90 to 95% deaf in both ears - for at least since I was 1 year old. We don't know any earlier than that because I was born in Nepal, where at-birth hearing tests were still a long, long ways off even in Kathmandu. I do not have cochlear implants and I strongly doubt that I will ever get them.

Gwynn ap Nudd, on 21 November 2014 - 02:40 AM, said:

Actually, that is encouraging. Much of the literature around implants describes the adjustment as long and difficult. I think most new hearing aids nowadays are bluetooth equipped as well. Some are made specifically to be cell phone compatible, so phone calls or music from your phone can be sent directly to the hearing aids.

I'm using the bluetooth compatible hearing aids now - they work very, very well for hearing things being piped directly from computers/phones/through audio cables.

The adjustment period is often very difficult because they are done on children who are not cooperative (because they are children, not because of deaf culture reasons). Young kids don't take well to having to be ALWAYS ON with elements of physical conduct, attitude, observation and sensorial feedback required to deal with this stuff. Noticing fine details about stuff you are just learning about is hard. Noticing fine details of sound degradation while dealing with physical pain, frustration, having to protect your sensitive electronic equipment from the elements and other danger vectors and having to learn how to socially interact with normal people/other deaf people is EXTREMELY HARD. Adults and older kids handle that easier (although some people never adapt fully and always run into self-created problems or even self-sabotage).

I was a weirdo in that I took very well to the hearing aid adjustment process and stuck to my learned behaviors to an astoundingly high degree. There are many tips and things that deaf people do (stashing ways to keep dry around their usual environs), but the big one that many miss is that the people around the newly deaf person need to change too. They need to physically look at the person more, they need to be accepting of water-related freakouts/electronic-related freakouts, they need to be aware of sound limitations/noise/quietness more and to help the person how they want to be helped.

The Deaf Culture related things, I have opinions on, but I choose to mostly keep them to myself because I don't identify as a member of the Deaf Culture. I will say that they have serious and worthwhile claims about the spamming of cochlear implants on socioeconomically poor families and a few nutsos have managed to seize attention enough that the legit claims are going unnoticed.

[Gothos]

Work.
Also, some of the people at work.

This place is a complete nightmare whenever something out of the ordinary has to be done. It so happens that "out of the ordinary" seems to be the job description in truth.
The system is built in such a way where any variation or change past a certain point is...... well, extremely frustrating doesn't even begin to describe it.
The attitude of some people is also in the same frustration category. Most of them are perfectly workable under most condition and I never had beef with, but this one production manager is........... gods. The very heights of passive aggressive. Like that stereotypical "woman" that answers "you did wrong" "what's wrong?" "not telling you, fix it.". I'm going to murder someone if I stay here for much longer.

[RACHEL]

Briar King, you should take your cat to the vet to see if she is sick. If you already have you might want to look up Feliway. Feliway is a plug in diffuser that emits the feline facial pheromone. This calms them and give them the sense that their territory is already marked.

[Macros]

internet is fucking awful up here today, just bought the second and third low town novels, can't even get them downloaded

[Abyss]

Nicodimas, on 21 November 2014 - 01:45 AM, said:

Briar King, on 21 November 2014 - 01:11 AM, said:

I'm beyond fucking fed up and disgusted by my cat. So now her thing instead of at least pissing and shitting in front of litter box is to get up from the arm of my dads couch walk 2 feet to the middle of it and piss and shit...wtf!!! She has ruined the couch in just 4 days of doing this. We ve changed litter and done all the other guesses to no luck. She's a fat ass 14 yr old inside cat. She's either gonna be put outside or put down sadly cause she has been wreaking this house up for 8mths now and everyone is fed up with her. I just understand wtf her problem is!!!

I still think your cat could be sick. When animals act like above something is up.

RACHEL, on 21 November 2014 - 04:11 PM, said:

Briar King, you should take your cat to the vet to see if she is sick. If you already have you might want to look up Feliway. Feliway is a plug in diffuser that emits the feline facial pheromone. This calms them and give them the sense that their territory is already marked.

All the above esp a vet visit. There are really two most likely reasons for this kind of conduct... litterbox issues or illness.

I know some people have had success with Feliway for this where the problem was stressor from other animals. Btw, Walmart and a few other places sell similar products way less expensive. I do not, however, recommend rendering the solution down to a powder and then smoking it. Or trying to get your at to smoke it. That is a friend told me it's a bad idea...

Also consider how often you're cleaning the litter, whether something has changed in the vicinity. A simple fix is a few sets of litter boxes, with different kinds of litter, in a few different places and let the cat select what she prefers, then phase out the others.

Macros, on 21 November 2014 - 09:11 PM, said:

internet is fucking awful up here today, just bought the second and third low town novels, can't even get them downloaded

Have you been keeping up with the required animal sacrifice?

...if not, maybe speak with Briar King....

[Maark Abbott]

Cold has blossomed into a full blown migraine today. Ugh.

[Andorion]

Practically everyone I know is sick.

[melonhead]

two day hangover

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Ridiculous social politics amongst my other half's uni friends.

By way of explanation, there's a particular couple where the husband and my other half are really very close, and I get on with him pretty well. We both find his wife (also one of their university crowd) hard work to varying degrees. She's had various digs at me in the past about my health in the guise of "But I'm a straight talker", but becomes very upset and affronted if anyone does the same back. She made my life fairly miserable in the run up to their recent wedding and generally isn't someone you want around when you just want a nice uncomplicated evening.

We had a sort-of housewarming to celebrate my birthday this weekend (always with the intention of having a "proper" one later on, probably in the New Year) so it was mostly my old friends from home and our closest pals locally, because I only wanted something small.

I woke up this morning to a stroppy message from her demanding to know why they weren't invited (which I consider rude enough to begin with). When I explained we would be having a more formal housewarming in the future and we would let them know, and this had been for my birthday, small numbers etc, I got a response of "No, we won't need to be invited thank you."

You are 30, woman. Excuse my French, but bloody grow up.

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 24 November 2014 - 10:17 AM

[Tiste Simeon]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 24 November 2014 - 10:14 AM, said:

Ridiculous social politics amongst my other half's uni friends.

By way of explanation, there's a particular couple where the husband and my other half are really very close, and I get on with him pretty well. We both find his wife (also one of their university crowd) hard work to varying degrees. She's had various digs at me in the past about my health in the guise of "But I'm a straight talker", but becomes very upset and affronted if anyone does the same back. She made my life fairly miserable in the run up to their recent wedding and generally isn't someone you want around when you just want a nice uncomplicated evening.

Ugh, this is one of the most annoying things about the modern age/the internet. YouTube commenters and, well, most of Tumblr especially are on a rampage of hate but you say one thing back and it's all "but mah feels!"

I'm glad you're the grown up one and it sounds like your actual house warming party (will PM you my address to send the invite to ) will be better because she isn't there.

[worry]

Just invite the husband. Maybe they'll fight over it. Be optimistic!

[Tru]

worry, on 24 November 2014 - 08:24 PM, said:

Just invite the husband. Maybe they'll fight over it. Be optimistic!

lol.

There are two kinds of friends...Those who wear you out, and those who don't.

The one who wear me out are generally in two categories:
1. Drama magnets and/or drama creators. They thrive on this shit. and get worked up over everything.
2. Needy. The ones who get pissed because they were not communicated with for a time frame which they decide is too long. And in your example, the ones who feel left out. Again, tedious and slightly manipulative.
I like to hang out with the ones who don't wear me out, are laid back, are cool if they don't hear from you for a few days, weeks, even months, are chill about not being a part of your inner circle on occasions, and are generally drama free.

[Slow Ben]

Tru, on 24 November 2014 - 10:43 PM, said:

worry, on 24 November 2014 - 08:24 PM, said:

Just invite the husband. Maybe they'll fight over it. Be optimistic!

lol.

There are two kinds of friends...Those who wear you out, and those who don't.

The one who wear me out are generally in two categories:
1. Drama magnets and/or drama creators. They thrive on this shit. and get worked up over everything.
2. Needy. The ones who get pissed because they were not communicated with for a time frame which they decide is too long. And in your example, the ones who feel left out. Again, tedious and slightly manipulative.
I like to hang out with the ones who don't wear me out, are laid back, are cool if they don't hear from you for a few days, weeks, even months, are chill about not being a part of your inner circle on occasions, and are generally drama free.

I have a solution for those types of friends. I make them not my friends.

[amphibian]

It's not that easy, Slow Ben. Things get complicated when professional or familial obligations are part of one's life.

If you can control your social life to a degree that you can cut aggravating people out quickly and permanently, cool - but that's not a place most people are in. Sometimes we have to put up with the arrrrrggghhh for a bit.

[Tru]

I should clarify that "the ones who feel left out," should include the very important addendum: "and will tell you so with all antics and emotional reactions attached." I think we all feel left out from time to time, nothing wrong with that in and of itself. Didn't mean to come off as judgmental of normal human emotion.

[worry]

The world is rotten.