A musician with Menieres, A joint Journal.

As a musician and singer for over 50 years playing bass in rock and blues bands as well as strumming an acoustic guitar to write songs and sometimes even going out and doing solo gigs it never occurred to me that I might go deaf. Over the years my hearing did deteriorate, but it didn’t stop me being able to function as a player and as a listener but that all changed as my Meniere’s progressed. I had had the odd bouts of vertigo over a few years, and I had also had days when my hearing wasn’t functioning as it should but I put it down to blocked Eustation tubes, like when you have a bad cold and things go a bit dull and fuzzy. I suppose looking back I can recognize that I have had this condition for perhaps 10 years. Up until a couple of years ago I was still doing gigs as a solo artist and although at times these were on bad hearing days I was still able to hold a tune and jam around with friends. My wife Jackie and I had bought a boat and were living the dream sailing in the C...

I should have started this blog a few years ago, because I have had this condition now, I believe for perhaps 10 years. But 10 years ago I had no idea what Meniere’s was, in fact I wasn’t even aware that it existed, let alone that I had it. I first discovered that perhaps It was Menieres’ by googling the symptoms I was suffering from about three years ago. I had been having bouts of vertigo and also a fluctuation in my hearing for quite some time but had never linked the two things together. Now almost three years after I stumbled across my possible affliction I am virtually deaf. The three years has seen a steady decline, and I should have been under the care of ENT specialists who may have been able to stall its progress but due to my circumstances I wasn’t able to do that. The reason being that my wife, Jackie and I had bought a liveaboard sailboat, in 2013, and were about to take off on a big adventure exploring the Caribbean islands, a dream we had conjured up back in the co...

This morning, like every morning I wake up to silence. We usually have a hug and then Jackie will make a “T” sign with her fingers and goes to put the kettle on. We sit in silence on our balcony drinking our first reviving cup of English breakfast tea and perhaps exchange a smile for the new day. Jackie no longer tries to make conversation or even a chance remark as it will be lost on me, and by the time I hook up my headphones and iphone the moment will have passed, so we sit contemplating, together, but apart. A few months ago the first thing I would do when we sat drinking our morning cup of tea would be to fire up the iphone, don my headphones and say “Buenos dios”. That would be the signal to Jackie to know I was able to hear her and we could chit chat, small talk to start of the day. As time has gone on my “hearing aid” has become less and less effective as my hearing diminishes and the distortion and tinnitus conspire to mask even the thin audio that my iphone pumps into m...