The last two days have been a real challenge and a scare. I have been very lightheaded and dizzy. Went to the doctor. Official diagnosis is Vertigo. Wow, where does that come from?
Doctor does not believe it is from my ears so more testing next week. Bummer.

But this does bring up another topic -hearing aides. I do know I have one ear with some loss of hearing and sometimes it feels like there is water in that ear. I intend to see a ENT next week to check that out too -maybe that is the cause.

And that brings up another topic - if hearing aides are needed what types do you use as a gigging musician? I have heard there are types that can be fine tuned but don't really know what that means. Anyone here have personal experience? Also what are the really great ones and the ones to stay away from?

Deane

May u recover completely from this

If its really vertigo comming from your inner ear, then there is a big chnace it will disapear by itselves, the brain will adapt to the changes in your inner ear.. if its not comming from your inner eat, it might be more serious.. so make sure to have a good specialist look at it..

We have some experience with Vertigo in our family, my daughter was once diagnosed vertigo.. your doctor is right doing more research.

Deane, there are numerous causes of vertigo, most of which originate either in the inner ear or sinus cavities. More often then not, it is caused by a mild infection and usually goes away on its own, or treatment with antibiotics. However, there can be more serious causes and you should be thoroughly checked out by a doctor to rule them out.

As for hearing aids, Eddie Shoemaker is the only person I know that is more deaf then myself. Eddie wears two, very expensive hearing aids and cannot work without them. In my case, I had one, but when performing it resulted in me not hearing the low frequency sounds very well and enhanced the high frequency sounds way too much. Therefore, I stopped wearing it and everything worked out just fine for me. Keep in mind that even the new digital hearing aids are primarily designed for human voice sounds - not music, therefore they tend to concentrate on the frequency of the sounds you can no longer hear, which in males, it is usually the higher frequencies. These sounds are digitized, filtered, and amplified, then converted back to analog sounds so you can hear them. The human ear cannot hear digital sound at all.

You should probably email or PM Eddie to find out what his experiences have been before jumping in and spending 8 to 10 grand on a pair of hearing aids that may actually hinder your performances.

All the best,

Gary

Deane, I go through bouts with vertigo. A couple of times some years ago I went to the ER because it was so bad. They never found a reason for it, but ruled out all the bad stuff they could. They gave me a prescription for some pills that seemed to work. It doesn't bother me much any more, but I still get a little dizzy sometimes.
I do feel it is related to ears though.
I hope you get it straightened out because it is a scary feeling, as you know!

Almost forgot, Deane. Try taking an antihistamine tablet, any ordinary, over the counter allergy medicine usually works just fine in eliminating most vertigo problems. Take it just before bed time.

Hope this helps,

Gary

Deane, sorry you're having trouble man. This is a longshot (and quite expensive for what it is.) Also kind of ingenious...

https://www.amazon.com/DizzyFix-Treatmen...ywords=dizzyfix

I have single-sided hearing loss caused by radiotherapy I received about 10 years ago when I developed salivary gland cancer. The hearing loss (accompanied by constant hissy tinnitus) is the 'afters', if you like.

I do wear a high-end hearing aid (it cost around 1000UKP) – this has a 'music' program which ditches all the compression usually used by the normal speech programs – and it enables me to hear fairly normally when performing in 'acoustic' or low-voume gigs. For band situations, where there are drums and electric guitars, my aid comes out and I use custom in-ear monitors to control my exposure to high volumes.

I also tend to discard the hearing aid if I'm in a noisy room with many people speaking simultaneously – it tends to amplify EVERYTHING and it's just a noise.

All of this isn't easy but it is possible to arrive at solutions which suit YOU – no one case is identical, unfortunately. But your first, and main, priority, must be to decide how you will protect what is left of your hearing. Don't delay – the other stuff can wait a little.

Deane,
I wear hearing aids as I have had hearing loss caused from Meneres disease. Dizzy spells so bad that when laying down
the bed seems to be on a turntable spinning at a fast speed.
This continued on for a couple of months and thank the good
Lord, it slowly disappeared.

Now I noticed for the first time in my life, a hearing loss
in my left ear. I put up with it until it started to effect
my playing keyboard. Sometimes I hear as I play what seems
to be a key change. This happens when I play a octave up
from playing a octave down. Really a pain you know where.

Very discouraging but I put up with it. Have bought different
speakers in hopes it might change what I hear and it has helped
a bit. I have hearing aids (second pr.) and they help me a lot
in most all situations. Although they are excellent aids, they
do not completely bring back your original perfect hearing,that's
gone forever. Hope your doing better but won't hurt to check out
hearing aids. I use Audibel and have great confidence in the
help they give you. Best to you, Lloyd
PS: Hope the Genos can make me distinguish sounds more clearly.

Hi Deane:

Vertigo is an awful experience. I suffer from it from time to time... caused by a bicycle inner-tube exploding near my left ear. At times, I would become so dizzy that (as someone on this thread previously said) I would lay down and the bed would spin uncontrollably nearly causing me to throw up.

Eventually, with medication and treatment it lessened to the point I could get back to writing and recording songs.

Another guy named Mike Caro, a drummer who often posted at Just Plain Folks (a song-writer's site) had vertigo so bad, he could not function. He had years of treatments, operations, suffered a divorce and finally found a correct diagnosis. Water in the ear-drum.

Best of luck in getting this cured. ----Dave Rice

Thanks to everyone for the input. I should find out more in a week or two after the tests are done.

Deane