No that's not the title of a traditional Delta Blues song, but a fact.
When I got up this morning I was completely deaf in the left ear. Well actually there was a shrill tinitusish ringing in there, but a 100% lack of sound getting through.
Salem's usual demanding mewls for his breakfast were falling on deaf ears... or deaf ear at least. [img]http://i25.tinypic.com/29wvd5x.gif[/img]
Naturally I did what anyone in this situation would do - WILD PANIC - careering round the bedroom, trying to hit some feeling back into my ear with the palm of my hand and only succeeding in painfully stubbing my toe on the leg of the bed. So I was now going deaf and partially crippled. Convincing myself that I'd got a brain tumor which was probably going to make me blind at any minute too, I quickly made an appointment with the GP and walked down there (sideways, with my good ear facing forward) while I could still see.
"Ah yes we've had a few of these in this week" explained the doc "it's some weird strain of head-cold virus going around, you've probably noticed some other symptoms?". Admittedly I had been felling the stuffiness and blocked nose you normally get with a head cold and he said there was nothing to worry about, hearing should return slowly over the next 24 hours as the symptoms clear.
Going up in the lift at work I said to one guy - "I'm deaf in one year due to a head cold" to which he replied that he'd had the exact same thing a couple of days ago and he knew of two others who'd had it as well. Now, a few hours later I can hear a little but it sounds like I'm standing in front of a speaker with 'white noise' coming through it.
Amazing, and a little frightening at the time. Anyone else come across this?