And No,

And no, I don't actually, or even facetiously, blame Rick for my bout of tinnitus. Well, other than that it makes for a closing bit on that last post.

I had my first temporary tinnitus run when I was about 17, our school jazz band went to a Chick Corea concert in conjunction with our state competition. This was Corea's Elektric Band, with John Patitucci, Frank Gambale, Eric Marienthal, and Dave Weckl, and they were epically loud in the setting we took them in. I noticed the ringing after, but a couple days later it was gone. Even with me being in two different school bands and an outside gig band we didn't admit to because of high school competition rules ;)

My next go round came on when I'd had my run-in with bad grades and a worse relationship in college; as part of getting my life back together, I'd started playing again, working with a local college jazz band three nights a week, an occasional studio gig doing commercials, and going to and sitting in with all my friends in their gigs. It was a lot of fun, and honestly, I didn't even notice how I was damaging my ears again.

Not until I landed a research gig that I needed to graduate, once I'd gone back to school, i.e. the day gig, full time. One by one I had to let go of the music work I'd picked up. And what do you know, when it's quiet more often, you notice that the ringing has now become persistent.

Since then, what usually happens is that the tinnitus fades to a level I can pretty much ignore completely, in terms of volume. Until it flares up, usually due to something like a sinus infection.

Well, I had a sinus infection in late May, brought on by traveling between too many climate zones in a short time frame. No flareup of my ears, though.

Not until now, when I'm dealing with Covid and (thankfully) an otherwise good recovery. That really what did it. Rick's video just happened to coincide, entirely coincidentally, with the point when I noticed it creeping up again.

In the past, patience has usually brought it to a more tolerable level, whether that's my mind adjusting or a true fade I'm not completely able to say. But that's gonna take a while this time, I haven't had it this loud in years.

Such is life, I guess. Take care of yourselves and those around you, space cadets, in the little ways and the big ones.