Nearly 30 years ago, Lewis completely lost his hearing in his right ear. It “freaked” him out, but he eventually came to terms with it and adapted to relying solely on his right ear.
“And then seven years ago, my left ear failed right before a gig in New Orleans, and it was a horrible thing. I just went on a stage and I couldn’t hear anything,” Lewis recalled. “It was devastating.”
He was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease, a condition of the inner ear that causes severe vertigo and hearing loss.
For six months, Lewis tried anything he was told could improve his hearing. Renowned ENTs. Acupuncture. Chiropractic treatments. Low salt and organic diets. He exhausted all his options, and nothing cured his condition.
“I can’t identify pitch anymore. It’s very frustrating. Tonight, I’ll have a hard time recognizing the songs that are played. I will be able to, because I know the tempos, I know the beat, you know, but it’s (been) a tough pill to swallow.”
Now, when music is playing, Lewis only hears “noise distortion.”
Make all the American Psycho jokes you want, but the man was an amazing performer with a terrific voice, so this makes me really sad.
I lost hearing in one of my ears 2 years ago from an ear infection. First time I can remember ever getting an ear infection. I am so scared to lose my hearing in my other ear now…
To make you a little less scared, this was a very specific condition he was suffering from which apparently can’t be fixed with something like a cochlear implant or other surgery. Not all deafness is permanent now. It might be worth looking into what can be done with the ear that no longer hears. Technology on that front is advancing rapidly.
I was in line to get a cochlear implant, but after speaking with the surgeon we decided to not go forward with it at the moment. Ill definitely be keeping my eye on the tech in the coming years!
Definitely keep up with it. There are (or were a couple of years ago when I was reading about it) people who actually hack their own cochlear implants to improve the technology and then share what they’ve done with people who make the implants. I’ts pretty amazing.
One of my main concerns was that I would hear normal sound with my one good ear, but then have a robotic ish sound in my other ear. I thought that would maybe drive me crazy.
That’s how I already hear. The way I’ve described it is that what I hear from my left ear sounds like I’ve got a really low quality Bluetooth earpiece in, like when you’re trying to listen to music and use the microphone at the same time on Bluetooth headphones so the bitrate drops down to accommodate.
How did you lose your hearing? Was it an ear infection?
Zero idea. I posted above in the thread how it happened. It was abrupt and there was nothing in the way of a warning or a symptom I can point to that led up to the ordeal. I was simply just “fine” and then I wasn’t.
Oh wow! That’s scary!
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8486698/ Apparently it looks like it should actually be treatable with cochlear implant. But every person is different, might be lots of reasons I/we aren’t aware of he’s not a good candidate.