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the positive side of having a deaf left ear

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Nick Bradbury created the application that has transformed my internet-use behaviour - FeedDemon (RSS / feed reader).

Nick has recently gone through some tough times and has shared his journey on his blog. I find his openess humbling. He's just had a brain tumour removed and is describing his recovery in detail. What I love is the support and good vibe he receives via the posts comments - his customers (and friends obviously) really care and show it.

It makes me wonder about how much of my personal life I share (or more to the point - don't share) on my blog. I've kept it as a general rule that this blog is about my web/tech thoughts (I do err from time to time - not wise), I don't think this will change. If I do err, I'll try to post elsewhere (er, should I have posted this post here I wonder...?).

Anyway, back to Nick. It turned out that the surgery, although meeting its objective of removing the tumour, had the downside of severing Nick's left hearing nerve making him permanently stone deaf in that ear. The balance nerve was also severed causing a short-term issue (around 2 days) that made the room spin constantly (you know the feeling - 1 Guinness too many and you lie in bed - room spins horridly and the bowl inevitably beckons).

He's very positive about it all and managing to retain his sense of humour - his recovery making progress. Enough so that I felt I could share with him (and you) the positive side of having a deaf left ear (which I also suffer):

"thanks for sharing with us Nick, great to hear the surgery went well.

I'm pretty much deaf in my left ear since my brother decided it would be a good idea to get a kitchen towel tube, put it against my ear and scream. I was 13.

Brendan makes a good point. Your brain will reconfigure to allow your other ear to compensate. You'll notice less the loss of hearing over time.

Here's the bright side of the bad ear:

- If you're a light sleeper (I am), going to sleep on your good hear (bad ear up) makes for a great natural and cheap noise-reduction system.

- You can ignore people on-deman and not offend them. Simply place your corresponding the index finger over the good ear's Tragus (see below). Useful for those mother-in-law moments.

- When things get too loud (such as an ambulance screaming and wailing as it passes) you only need to cover one ear, leaving you with a free hand to drink your Starbucks.

Anyway, have speedy recovery!

*References*

Comments

  • Anonymous
    September 19, 2005
    Loved your comment in my blog (and here). Funny thing is, I've already discovered some of the benefits of deafness that you mention - the ability to roll over and sleep on my good ear has been a great way to drown out noise.

    As far as how personal you should get here, that's a tricky question, and it's one I struggled with myself (my blog was originally strictly business). I'd say go for it, though, since my blog has become much more popular now that I'm posting personal items (which, ironically enough, probably translates into more business).

  • Anonymous
    September 19, 2005
    nice one Nick. One last thought on this. Youl find you'll start position yoursefl at social occasions to account for the bad ear. Example: If two of you are having dinner, and you're going to sit in two sdes of a table next to each other (as opposed to opposite), you'll find that you'll want your dinner partner to site to your right so they are talking into your good ear (otherwise you will find yourself turning clockwise because they are talking to your bad ear). Unless of course they are a bore, in which case keep them to your left ;-)

  • Anonymous
    September 20, 2005
    Insightful post, well thought out and good job putting a somewhat humorous spin on it. As an amateur musician, I don't know what I'd do if I lost any of my hearing...I've always said I'd rather go blind than deaf. It's great that you guys have managed to stay positive about it.

    As far as posting personal content on "tech" blogs, I went through a change myself (same as Nick mentioned) a while back and revamped all my post categories to include personal categories, though I still try to keep it about 75/25 tech/personal. Post categories are great for the syndication crowd b/c they can simply subscribe to the cats they want to read and tune the other noise out, and of course the great thing about the internet is if someone doesn't want to read something, they don't have to...just skip it and move on to the next post.

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    February 20, 2006
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    March 09, 2006
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    June 24, 2006
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    July 30, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    July 30, 2006
    Hey Julien,

    thanks for sharing your story!

    As you point out, there are some positives to all this...so cool to know that it hasn't negatively affected your musical ambitions.

  • Anonymous
    August 21, 2006
    Hi

    I am deaf in my left ear too. nderwent a lot of tests at the age of six (thats when we realised my problem). They couldnt point out to any particular reason.

    Anyway it has its good and bad sides. I loved the points!

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    August 26, 2006
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    September 05, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    September 05, 2006
    Arti and Fran - thanks for stopping by and sharing.

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