Went to eye doctor today. Got some bifocal contact lenses. Hoo Boy! Also got some new bifocals, the reading part 4.50 and 5.00. Up from 4.00 last glasses three years ago. No wonder I was getting headaches. Asked him about welding with them, and he said so long as I use proper shading, no problem. Said welders only had problems with flash burns. I'd guess they weren't using the right shading. Can't wait to get the glasses, and I got a free pair of the contacts to try out.
BTW, I had a hell of a time welding with my bifocals. I couldn't get the helmet down low enough to see out of the near vision lenses and the filter at the same time.
Then I noticed little detents behind the tension adjusters on my helmet. Loosened the screws, tilted the mask down and all is good.
I had to use contacts and cheater glasses, but it worked fine. I use an auto dark hood, so I don't have to nod and throw everything off if I am using bifocals. If I am going to do more than fifteen minutes of welding, I put on the double vision special. Have to put on cheaters whenever I wanted to see anything up close or read. Now, I can just wear plain safety glasses over these contacts. I wish I had known about these sooner. I would have gotten them.
If I had known hearing aids were so good, I'd have gotten some five years earlier, too.
When I was in the hospital, the fire alarm went off on a false alarm. It rang for about twenty minutes .............. BLEEP ................. BLEEP ........... BLEEP.
My right hearing aid would cancel out the sound, and I could listen to the TV. My left one didn't, and amplified the fire alarm. Just about used my Depends when it came on.
I'd love a tinnitus cure as well, but the destructive interference thing doesn't sound feasible. That technology works pretty well for loud ambient noise (like the noise cancelling earmuffs), but the problem with tinnitus is we hear those crickets in our head because we can't actually hear that frequency anymore. The tiny hairs in the cochlea that respond to those frequencies have been damaged or broken off. It happens to the high frequencies (smaller, more fragile hairs) first. Since the "noise" is phantom, there's nothing to cancel.
I'm not sure that one cannot at least in theory cancel a tinnitus tone (which I get from time to time), based on some scientific articles on how hearing works. There are reported cases where one can hear a tone coming from a sufferer's ear.
To make a long story short, the theory is that the ear achieves its sensitivity and sharp tuning in frequency by implementing the acoustic equivalent to a bank of superhet receivers.
Not that cancellation would be practical as a treatment.
On 10 Mar 2010 02:10:06 GMT, the infamous "RAM³" scrawled the following:
There is -nothing- on the market which works. Save your money.
My problem is that NSAIDs increase mine, so there's no chance of ever being free from the sound. Having been hammered six ways from Sunday in me yout, I always ache somewhere or another.
-- Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate. -- Chuang-tzu
I wonder where in my brain they would have to tap to find out the signal characteristics of my tinitus? Damn, googling shows that mapping the brain for how it processes sound is an active topic of research. Go Science!
After that either an ear piece or cochlear implant technology could provide the countering sound signal fed by some sort of DSP type device.
I'm reading tinnitus takes many forms. I hear a sine wave in my left ear, frequency seems constant, background noise masks it. Sometimes it goes away but that is because I'm paying attention to something else.
The wiki excerpt:
Tinnitus can be perceived in one or both ears or in the head. It is usually described as a ringing noise, but in some patients it takes the form of a high pitched whining, buzzing, hissing, screaming, humming, tinging or whistling sound, or as ticking, clicking, roaring, "crickets" or "tree frogs" or "locusts," tunes, songs, beeping, or even a pure steady tone like heard in a hearing test.[5] It has also been described as a "wooshing" sound, as of wind or waves.[6] Tinnitus can be intermittent or it can be continuous in which case it can be the cause of great distress. In some individuals, the intensity of tinnitus can be changed by shoulder, head, tongue, jaw, or eye movements.[7]
More like crickets. Doesn't bother me that much, although it's always there. I tend to ignore it if not reading one of these posts or actively thinking about it. Latest onset was through my stupidity, and I think I've got it for life this time. Field shot with .450 Marlin. I was with my cousin about 200 yards from his house, missed a pig that was farther than I thought. The folks back at the house asked "What was that awful explosion?" I won't be hunting without electronic earmuffs ever again.
Mostly a constant high-pitched whine here, sometimes with a louder clicking sound. No way to determine what triggers the clicks, though, they just happen sometimes. Definitely a dropout in sensitivity at higher frequencies from tests that I've had. Other frequencies are better than average. Did some gallery shooting in my younger days sans decent hearing protection, I'm sure that contributed along with running a computer alongside high-speed card punches, readers and line printers. Has become "louder" as I age, too.
I had one foam ear plug fall out unnoticed on a chilly evening when I was putting a few drain holes in a burn barrel with a little .380 pocket pistol. One noise pulse, likely magnified by the curvature and my position relative to the burn barrel, and I got that magic bb that wiped out a large portion of my hearing in one shot. It hurt enought that I dropped to my knees. I knew instantly that I'd just got dinged.
I had excellent hearing up to that point even though I worked on the flight line around F4 Phantoms and worked in industry and was an avid shooter.
As to the .450 Marlin, sorta wish I had one. I have the 1985 Marlin in .45/70, I dislike pushing a period cartridge when some unknowing heir might grab my ammo and maybe put it in say uncles trap door. My moderate loading might be a blue pill in his gun. Had the .450 come out a short time sooner, I'd have that instead of my .45/70
I got to get some electronic muffs for next hunting season. I really don't want to touch off a firearm in the field with out protection. I don't want the left ear to get worse and I don't want the other ear to start up with ringing.
Hey, that causes me to ask a question. For those with tinitus in both ears is the ringing in sync? It would be really annoying to have each ear slightly off of zero beat like two propellers on a twin that were not synced.
Wes
-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller
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