Two years ago, I experienced Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SSNHL), and am now almost completely deaf in one ear. This year, one of my colleagues had the same thing. Now I see there's a study out showing a strong correlation between COVID and SSNHL.
I guess that explains a lot. But, shit.
BTW If you find you suddenly lose hearing in one ear, get yourself to a specialist *immediately*. You have a 24-36 hour window to save your hearing before it becomes permanent.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(24)00338-9/fulltext
What’s it like to suddenly lose hearing in one ear, you ask? The other ear works fine, right?
First, it’s a hidden disability. Nobody notices, unless I tell them, which can feel awkward and embarrassing. Took me a long time to get over that.
With only one ear, I’ve lost all ability to detect where sound is coming from.
That means I can’t filter out background noise. I can have a perfectly normal conversation in a quiet environment. But if there’s background noise it gets hard rapidly. 1/n
So I won’t be able to hear you in busy restaurants, urban streets, anywhere with background music, crowds, parties, or anywhere where several people are talking at once.
Teaching is now really difficult. We’ve installed air purifiers in all our classrooms, but they make enough of a hum that I can’t hear the students very well. I like to use a lot of breakout discussion in my classes, but I can’t heard anything any of them are saying if I do that.
2/n
@steve I realize that you may have no control over what air purifiers are used, but in case it is useful to you in the future I wanted to point out that I've found these PC-fan-based HEPA air purifiers to be surprisingly quiet:
@MxVerda I have one of the "luggable" models. Since you're thinking of buying one, some thoughts for your consideration:
* It only runs at one speed, but that's an intentional choice to make it quiet enough at that speed that there should be no reason to turn it down.
* Some assembly required. It doesn't take any specialized skill, but it is a little fiddly. You can get it pre-assembled, but then the shipping is a lot more.
* Because it is a little DIY and air filters form the two largest sides, it's not as sturdy as many commercial units. But I found it sturdy enough with the addition of the mesh filter guards.
* Some models (like the luggables) are much easier to carry than most commercial air purifiers, so it's vastly superior if you sometimes need to take it somewhere.
* Many models are a bit expensive compared to popular commercial units. But I think you save significantly on the cost of replacing filters, since it just uses a standard size for home HVAC, so I'm guessing that makes up for the difference in up-front cost eventually.
@internic @steve
I have quite a few of these, in part precisely because they're quiet.