Weird Ears: I’m Going Under The Knife

I’ve always had shitty ears. I’m about 80% deaf in my right ear and have been for as long as I can remember. My left one hears much better (although only by comparison). I had tubes multiple times as a kid. I could never get my ears wet/go swimming. I had major surgery on my right ear in high school. The list goes on.

Now I have a cholesteatoma (aka “a destructive and expanding growth”) formed in my right ear. It’s sitting right between the top of my ear canal and the base of my skull, although it’s probably hidden elsewhere as well. So a surgeon’s cutting open my ear to get rid of that shit and to improve my currently fucked up mastoid cavity, as well as potentially restore my hearing (although that last bit is pretty unlikely). This is pretty similar to the surgery I had back in 2000 (cholesteatoma removal, hearing restoration, tympanoplasty, etc), it was a huge pain in the ass and I had no noticeable hearing improvement afterward.

But what all this means for you, dear AGB reader, is that I’ll be out of commission for a while. I’m out of work for at least a week in which I’ll just be a lump on the couch (and maybe, if I’m at all capable, cataloging my records, fingers crossed). The main impediment to me getting right back on the reviewing horse, though, is that I’ll temporarily be unable to wear headphones. If you read the interview I did with Foxy Digitalis, then you know I do all of my writing on the train into work. And without headphones, that’s impossible.

So unless I figure out some other way of making time to review records, this place will just be gathering dust. For how long? Tough to say. I’m hoping it’ll only be a few weeks.

I’m also unsure of how easily I’ll be able to listen to music in general, like, on my stereo, so it might take me a bit to get back up to speed after having cotton stuffed in my ears for weeks on end.

Rest assured I’ll be back as soon as I’m able. And while the site will be silent, motherfucking ear surgery can’t keep me from my Twitter. If you’re interested, that’s where I’ll be for the next few weeks. Otherwise, wish me luck and hope that I return with normal human stereo functionality.