Rather irritatingly, for the first time in my life I appear to have developed some form of tinnitus. It manifests as a low humming or droning noise. At first I though it was a vehicle outside on the street idling, or even a distant propeller driven plane, but it's not. It's a constant, low frequency hum, although it's not evident first thing in the morning after I've been lying down all night, but does come on with an hour or two of getting up.
I've only noticed it over the last three or four weeks, and I can't think of anything that might have triggered this. I haven't been to any noisy places or gigs and I rarely wear earphones to listen to music, and I wouldn't in any case have the volume lovely loud.
To be fair, my hearing has been getting worse for years. I'm certainly not deaf (although my family might disagree), but my hearing is definitely not as good as it could be. I last had it tested 4 or 5 years ago, and was told it was fine - but this was in a proper quiet room where you wear headphones and have to identify when you can hear certain frequencies - I managed them all. But that was a test scenario. My biggest issues come when I'm somewhere with other ambient, and especially low grades white noise going on around me - a pub for example, where I can find it really difficult to hear someone even if they're standing next to me.
There are of course a couple of other possibilities for this onset.
- I've had a rotten cold for a couple of weeks (although I think this started before the cold came on - and before you ask, it's not (or extremely unlikely to be) Covid. I've done several lateral flows and had a PCR test all of which have been negative. It could have bunged up my inner ear and be a contributing factor.
- It could be "The Hum". Apparently Bristol is a UK hotspot for The Hum, and we're not that far away as the crow flies. Before I got this, I'd have dismissed this as crackpot, but now......?
- A side effect of the Covid vaccine. The British Tinnitus Association indicate that although there have been some reports of tinnitus onset after a Covid vaccine, the numbers are such that such a side effect would be classed as "rare". Equally there have been some reports that existing tinnitus sufferers have said the condition has become worse following a vaccine. Of course that doesn't mean that the vaccine has caused this for me. I'm triple jabbed (all Pfizer) with my first shot in December 2020, my second in late January 2020 and last shot being in October last year, and this didn't materialise until just before Christmas at the earliest as far as I can recall. Not that the risk of tinnitus (or indeed any other side effect) would have stopped me getting the vaccine now or in the future. It's the correct and obvious thing to do to get us out of this horrible pandemic.
- Perhaps, and linked to the above point maybe it's because I'm now 5G receptive after having the vaccine? (That's a joke by the way).
Probably the sensible thing to do is to get my hearing tested again. Meanwhile for the moment it looks like I'm going to have to get used to this low frequency humming in my head.
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/people/simon_hiscocks/
Instagram: simon_hiscocks
No comments:
Post a Comment