Monday, June 12, 2017

Tinnitus & Tattoos


There’s been a constant ringing in my ears since I can remember. It’s a high-pitch, and is seems to pulse in range with each beat of my heart. It isn’t like a bell, which is what I thought of when I saw the word ringing; it’s more like a constant, high-pitched hum. As I frequently do, I referred to the internet for advice and decided that I have a traumatic brain injury, too much earwax, arthritis, and varicose veins. These are all probably due to the fact that I am a pilot, a rock musician, or a logger, and it is likely a condition called Tinnitus, which is quite common.

What I was happy to read is that it is unlikely due to high blood pressure or prolonged exposure to toxic chemicals or excessive alcohol consumption. I’ve been pretty lucky to not have any long-term physical effects of my research on substance abuse, and I take pretty good care of myself these days just in case.

I read on and discovered that depending on the cause of the ringing, most likely it is treatable, but not curable. One of the treatments—and I like this because it says it is doctor recommended—is that I should get a white-noise machine to drown out the ringing, but that I shouldn’t turn the volume up too high, or I risk causing further damage. There are also medications that can temporarily reduce the hum which include Alprazolam (Xanax), and Tricyclic antidepressants which include both notriptyline and amitriptyline, but Xanax is highly addictive, and I’m not depressed. It should be noted that some side effects of these medications include blurred vision, dry mouth, constipation, and heart disease!

There are a million more causes and solutions on the Clear Ear Blog which includes a number of pictures of old people looking confused and advertisements for various ear cleaning devices and services. That’s all on that.

 

In other news, I have recently made a serious commitment at Beloved Studios with the owner Brandon Heffron to do some new tattoo work. Luckily for me, I have appointments starting in March with the owner himself, and I will be having work done over some existing ink that was laid down roughly 13 years ago. Before new work can be applied, however, I have to have the old stuff toned down a bit, and the only way to do that is with a cheese grater. No. I actually started the laser removal process about a week ago, and I can tell you if you’re interested, that lasers hurt like a motherfucker. This is a year-long project, and it will be really expensive—somewhere in the neighborhood of $4,000. It’s what I want, and I’ve been excited to do something new for many years, and I finally have the means to do what I want to do, so I’m going to do it. I will keep you posted, but it will be a while until I can show you any progress, but when I do it will be exciting (for me) to show off my transformation. This whole process will be documented on video and camera, and I can’t wait to compile some if it and show it off.

 

That’s all for now, I’m going to get out into the sun and see what the day brings. I think maybe a Twins game tonight, who knows. And here's a picture of the moon:
 
 

And Counting

I remember vividly waking up at 5:19am, one minute precisely before the lights would come on; the indication that it was time to stand a...