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.