Who has damaged their ears?

[Slowpoke Slim]

Huh?

Yup, after 8 years active duty Air Force, I lost over 70% of my hearing in both ears. For me it was power generators, big turbo diesel jobs, the turbo intake was as big around as your head, and located RIGHT NEXT to the access hatch. I worked on em for over 2 years before anyone said anything about earmuffs... go figure...

When I had my exit physical, the little girl giving the hearing test kept coming in and fiddling with the headphones, and going back out, I just sat there "waiting". She had told me to push the button when I heard the tones...she finally held the headphones in front of me and asked, all exacerbated, "CAN'T YOU HEAR THAT?!" I replied, "What, you mean it's ON?"

If I'm in the woods, I can hear OK, over the ringing. But if there's background noise or crowd noise, you can forget it, I'm deaf as a post. I HATE loud restaurants or bars, you can forget about having a conversation. I, too sleep with a fan next to my bed, it helps dampen out the ringing so I can sleep. I get so mad at my family for "mumbling" all the time... and the TV is either too low, or too loud, it's never right. I think the main reason I like the DVR box (like a TIVO), is so I can back up the show and play it again to hear what was said! If I had a dollar for every time I had to ask for something to be repeated...

I don't let either of my kids near shooting or loud noises without hearing protection.

[dave375hh]

Well I'll be darned, I thought they were ringing the bells just for me! LOL! Mine started to go in the dumper when I worked in a grinding booth at GM. The piped in air hissed all day long. We also used to use cigarette filters for ear plugs.........DUHHHH! The wife thinks her name is HUH? (don't tell her).

[rigger1]

"What?" seems to be my favorite word now.

Started shooting regularly in the '60s, mostly .45s and .22s, so loss progressed slowly.

The kicker was when I helped move an oxygen manufacturing tower out of National Cylinder Gas, south of Chicago.  The job took 6 months and about 1/2 of that was spent inside the manufacturing building.  Inside the building they had a row of 5000 horsepower compressors (used for oxygen, nitrogen, etc.).  It was so loud that, in order to speak to someone (and I kid you not), you had to put your mouth within a foot of the person's ear and shout as loud as you could (and visa-versa for people talking to you).

Now I use plugs (custom but not too expensive) and muffs on top.  I'm down to about 50% in my right ear and 70% on the left plus constant ringing.  But I can still hear most lower frequency sounds well enough to get by.

[tutti confuso]

gee-wizzzzzzzz i thought i was alone,.  i grew up in my grams house.. she wore a hearing aid an everyone spoke very loud.. i always thinking that was normal .. till people would ask what i was yelling about when i spoke ?... then i  had to explain i'm not ...lol's

as i got older it was turn up the music.. played with fire crackers.. like cherry bombs.. an soon after guns..didn't know a bout ear muffs who cared  we put cig filters or empty shells in ours ears.. came home with ringing that  lasted three days then went on the weekend to do it all over again..

 then i found i need money so i worked in gas stations.. which lead to racing.. oh my mom didn't like that so my dad get me into offset printing running multi color presses.. 41 yrs of that, an all of the other stuff you fellas talked about.. like chain saws etc etc...

tims post cauhgt my eye... some years back living in a high ranch type house,  my comes to the stairs to tell my alarm is ringing.. now i'm in the basement part on the other side of the house.. hard to believe it was on my wrist.. wow we live in NC now.. an i sware she can here mice farting in africa

go get your hearing checked is all i get when i say WHAT !?... great i'll spend a bunch off money at the doc to find i'm partially deaf 
one thing good about not hearing is i can sleep rite on threw a war or two...

'( The wife can hear my watch alarm sounding off from the other room, I can't hear it on my own wrist!!

Tim

[woodchukhntr]

Mine started when I fired about 3 cylinder-fulls of .357 when I was 19 or 20.  Has gotten worse since.  Loud sounds are like an icepick piercing my eardrum,  hurts!  I have to wear one foam hearing protector in my left ear when hunting.

[kennisondan]

my hearing loss goes from moderate in the highest ranges to profound thru the voice ranges... I got hearing aids the other day in order to be able to continue to work in court and in order to protect my ears even when I am shooting while hunting... there is a compression mode that cuts the noise down when it gets loud...so it never gets damaging, and I can hear things I have not heard in fifteen years or so... at least .. probably twenty five years.. birds, leaves, twigs snapping, water tinkling, amazing how noisy the world really is...
I wish I had done it sooner... worth every penny... went squirrel hunting and it was a different experience to hear the rustle in the tree leaves and then see them when I tuned in to the sound... wow..
I lost mine same as everyone else... gun reports, a little bit of concert music, work environment noises.... then people asking if I was going to answer the phone, turn off my alarms, etc.
then I had to guess what the witnesses said in court, and when I started guessing wrong cause I had so little clue of the entire conversation, I made the move.
get yourself some hearing aids... now I am turning the tv down and trying not to ask what , and huh ? by reflex..
dk

[cap187]

What??? 

Rode locomotives for a lot of years... blow that horn 4 times for every road crossing in 150 miles at over 105 db's almost everyday plus the constant roar of 20,000 HP of diesels....  Even when I was sleeping in the dorm, someone would park an idling loco under my window...

Might be why I like my ROCK LOUD!!!!!

[mitchell]

yup army almost kicked me out for it not to long ago, i blame shooting too much but IED haven't helped any

[Land_Owner]

mitchell...thank you, for all that you and your fellow soldiers do...and tell my Ben, in southern Iraq, to call his Dad.

[kfarm]

Farming with old John Deeres and shootin it up in the Army didn't help either.  Lost 60% in left ear and 75% right, yep that makes me a lefty.  Won't run a tractor with out plugs now.  Hate the ringing, can't here a cell phone ring but most of all don't hear my wife.  Well I don't hear her most of the time the rest is pretending not to hear her.
Stay warm and safe Carroll

[oldandslow]

That made me remember how loud those old poppin' johnnies were. I use that same trick with my wife. I just tried some new (to me) ear plugs. Peltors I believe and they are comfortable and I can hardly hear my 45 auto, just a little pop.

[rex6666]

I have the ringing, sometimes worse than others.
I have some kinda tone loss, don't hear the tone that most women and kids speak in (you talk about
arguments, why can't you hear me but you can hear some man talking about a gun) I wear hearing aids but doesn't stop the ringing. The dr. has computer set them to hear the tones i miss, i don't even have to set the volume. I still have the problem of watching a movie or tv and they stary playing back ground music, i can not hear the person talking. I didn't realize how bad my hearing was until
i got the hearing aids, oh excuse me they are hearing devises

[charles p]

Must have damaged my ears in my teens.  I remember going for an armed forces physical at age 20 and failing the hearing exam.  Later the same day a doctor asked me if I could hear him OK and I said yes.  I was immediately approved for the draft.

My ears ring constantly.  Could be from shotgun shells or firecrackers but it happened in my youth.  Had my hearing checked frequently in my 20's through 40's and it didn't worsen.  Now in my 60's I think it is worse.  I don't even notice the ringing, but its there.

I have a 27 year military retirement from the CG Reserve.  I left as a LCDR.  Glad that doctor approved me back in 1966.  I thank him every month when my check arrives.