September 2004
9/26/04
hearing and hurricane
9/15/04
9/13/04
Sunday, September 26, 2004
1:48:00 AM EDT
Feeling Hopeful
Hearing no music: MSNBC storm watch
Got more good news: the radiologist read my MRI and pronounced it negative for tumors. Dr. Moore
is still on vacation so he hasn't seen it yet; he won't be back till this Friday. Meanwhile. I got a second
cold, this time with sore throat and laryngitis; but when it came on Tues. night, my pitch hearing magically cleared
up for about a day, till I began to relapse cyclically. Seems to be best early-midafternoon and late evening, and worst rush hr-earliy evening and
again late night. I notice that hydration helps too. The cyclical nature of it leads me to believe it's conductive
(middle ear) rather than sensorineural.
In my frustration I kept trolling the Internet, and came across an audiologist who claims to work with musicians.
I wrote him; turns out that not only is he a top professor of audiology in New Orleans, he's also a working
jazz pianist. He speculates that I have not one patulous eustachian tubes but tubes or middle ears of different
resonating capacities, letting different frequencies through that clash with each other. He's having me listen
to the same jazz piano, guitar and bass tracks in different positions; he is also consulting with colleagues across
the country, since my problem is rare but not unique and more research definitely needs to be done.
Tomorrow, I will be attending a recording session for Musicians United for Peace. My voice is
still a bit iffy, but I will be playing dulcimer on a cover of "Give Peace a Chance" that will go out to
radio stations around the country. More details as they become available.
My mom finally came home to Delray from 3 weeks in VA, on the run from Hurricanes Frances,
Ivan, and Jeanne; she went home when Jeanne moved back out to sea. Well, surprise:
Jeanne did a 360 and headed right back to Florida. This time she refused to evacuate, since she
was tired of doing it again and correctly pointed out her house is on higher ground than the shelter.
She got extra oxygen delivered, bought a ton of batteries, filled the tub and stuffed the freezer
and hunkered down, inviting her younger neighbors over to ride out the storm. Well, so far
so good: landfall of the eye was Port St. Lucie, of the south eyewall W. Palm, and south PB
County seems to be keeping both its power and phone service. They're having heavy rains but
that seems to be it. Cable is out, but that's only because the cable co. and its dish is in W. Palm.
Fortunately, she has rabbit ears on another set (plus the battery-op. TV/radio). She hasn't even
had to disconnect the computer. I'm filling her in on what I'm seeing on MSNBC--the devastation
to the north (Vero, St. Lucie, Stuart) and the ho-hum from Deerfield on south. She'll be okay.
But if Hurricane Lisa starts looming, she's staying here with us till Nov.
The Mishawaka gig with Susan went well. The Beanery owner loved us and urged us to come back whenever we want.
Next morning we played the town farmer's market. The organizer, Bob Berryman, was gracious enough to not only
put us up for the evening but also ply us with marvelous homemade soup and Tullamore Dew.
Perfect driving weather, little traffic till we reached the Ryan. Had a nice dinner cruise on the
Spirit of Chicago, but we miscalculated and picked a table in the last section to be served; I had to gulp down my
coffee before we docked. Pen club meeting the next day was fun, as was the S.Side Song circle. I was able to hear my
new D-15 well enough to realize how awesome it really sounds. (As I said earlier, it's back to sounding a bit dissonant
again, but not as bad as originally or even as bad as my Gibson sounded in Indiana. To be fair, the Gibson
really WAS going out of tune--it wasn't just my weird hearing.
Written by sandina Blog about this entry
1:48:00 AM EDT
Feeling Hopeful
Hearing no music: MSNBC storm watch
hearing and hurricane
Got more good news: the radiologist read my MRI and pronounced it negative for tumors. Dr. Moore
is still on vacation so he hasn't seen it yet; he won't be back till this Friday. Meanwhile. I got a second
cold, this time with sore throat and laryngitis; but when it came on Tues. night, my pitch hearing magically cleared
up for about a day, till I began to relapse cyclically. Seems to be best early-midafternoon and late evening, and worst rush hr-earliy evening and
again late night. I notice that hydration helps too. The cyclical nature of it leads me to believe it's conductive
(middle ear) rather than sensorineural.
In my frustration I kept trolling the Internet, and came across an audiologist who claims to work with musicians.
I wrote him; turns out that not only is he a top professor of audiology in New Orleans, he's also a working
jazz pianist. He speculates that I have not one patulous eustachian tubes but tubes or middle ears of different
resonating capacities, letting different frequencies through that clash with each other. He's having me listen
to the same jazz piano, guitar and bass tracks in different positions; he is also consulting with colleagues across
the country, since my problem is rare but not unique and more research definitely needs to be done.
Tomorrow, I will be attending a recording session for Musicians United for Peace. My voice is
still a bit iffy, but I will be playing dulcimer on a cover of "Give Peace a Chance" that will go out to
radio stations around the country. More details as they become available.
My mom finally came home to Delray from 3 weeks in VA, on the run from Hurricanes Frances,
Ivan, and Jeanne; she went home when Jeanne moved back out to sea. Well, surprise:
Jeanne did a 360 and headed right back to Florida. This time she refused to evacuate, since she
was tired of doing it again and correctly pointed out her house is on higher ground than the shelter.
She got extra oxygen delivered, bought a ton of batteries, filled the tub and stuffed the freezer
and hunkered down, inviting her younger neighbors over to ride out the storm. Well, so far
so good: landfall of the eye was Port St. Lucie, of the south eyewall W. Palm, and south PB
County seems to be keeping both its power and phone service. They're having heavy rains but
that seems to be it. Cable is out, but that's only because the cable co. and its dish is in W. Palm.
Fortunately, she has rabbit ears on another set (plus the battery-op. TV/radio). She hasn't even
had to disconnect the computer. I'm filling her in on what I'm seeing on MSNBC--the devastation
to the north (Vero, St. Lucie, Stuart) and the ho-hum from Deerfield on south. She'll be okay.
But if Hurricane Lisa starts looming, she's staying here with us till Nov.
The Mishawaka gig with Susan went well. The Beanery owner loved us and urged us to come back whenever we want.
Next morning we played the town farmer's market. The organizer, Bob Berryman, was gracious enough to not only
put us up for the evening but also ply us with marvelous homemade soup and Tullamore Dew.
Perfect driving weather, little traffic till we reached the Ryan. Had a nice dinner cruise on the
Spirit of Chicago, but we miscalculated and picked a table in the last section to be served; I had to gulp down my
coffee before we docked. Pen club meeting the next day was fun, as was the S.Side Song circle. I was able to hear my
new D-15 well enough to realize how awesome it really sounds. (As I said earlier, it's back to sounding a bit dissonant
again, but not as bad as originally or even as bad as my Gibson sounded in Indiana. To be fair, the Gibson
really WAS going out of tune--it wasn't just my weird hearing.
Written by sandina Blog about this entry