The Louder the Better or maybe not

I like my music loud. I like to play my guitar loud. Gotta feel the music, man!!!! Well for the last year or so, after practice my ears ring really loud for about 24 hours. As a matter of I have noticed that my ears ring just about all the time.

So I decided to go to the doctor (man she was hot, I hoped that she would give me a physical but she only looked in my ears), who confirmed that I have some hearing loss due to tinnitus. They asked me if my drummer is to the right of me when we play, which of course he is, because they noticed more hearing loss in the right ear than the left ear. I have been told that I should be wearing earplugs if I mow the lawn, run the snow blower etc. They also said it might not be a bad idea to wear earplugs when I use a hairdryer, although this won't be a long term issue, not because of my ears but because of my hair line. I give myself another 10 years.

Now, this is not all bad news, as it explains why I don't always hear the kids when they are talking to me. But more importantly I now have a built in excuse when I don't want to listen to Momma Musky. I see nothing but upside there.

They took a mold of my ear canal so that I can have some custom ear plugs made for playing with the band. They basically take a big syringe filled with some putty and blast that in your ear, and then you sit there for 10 minutes and let it set. I wish I could explain how it feels, very strange. When they took out the molds it felt like they were sucking my brains out.

I do know some sign language, I can flip somebody off several different ways so if the hearing completely goes, I can still get my point across when driving. So I have that going for me.