Somewhat Silent

channeling Linda Richman*

16 Responses to “channeling Linda Richman*”

1. Natalya (User Verified) :
   January 28th, 2006 at 8:10 pm

   It’s been a fair while since I drank much alcohol, these days I’m virtually tee-total so I can’t say anything about inebriation. I don’t think my hearing goes buzzy, but my balance certainly deteriorated, which is to be expected.

   I do find when I am tired that my hearing gets pretty poor, annoyingly I don’t notice until I’m getting cranky cos I can’t understand what is going on. I have this irritating ability to be able to push myself to the point of collapse (and actually collapse if not careful) without really noticing. I’ve had to become a lot better at picking up the early warnings of being overtired/exhausted. Lipreading and parsing speech is extremely tiring especially at the moment because I am unwell.

   I started learning BSL a few years ago to suppliment speech as a communication mode. That combined with typing a lot even to my partner when at home means hearing going odd isn’t a problem at home. My girlfriend probably has cognitive auditory processing issues so she prefers text to speech anyway.

2. hohprof (User Verified) :
   January 28th, 2006 at 8:34 pm

   Ummmm…I don’t know who Linda Richman is either

   From a quick google it looks as if she is some kind of TV talk-show host?

3. hohprof (User Verified) :
   January 28th, 2006 at 8:36 pm

   Ooops. *He* is some kind of talk-show host…allegedly.

4. katie (User Verified) :
   January 28th, 2006 at 8:46 pm

   Hahahaha. Sorry, Nigel- I’ll fix the link too.

   Linda Richman is a character from the tv show, “Saturday Night Live.” The character is played by Mike Myers (he’s better known as “Austin Powers”). Myers based the character on his mother-in-law from Queens, New York.

   In the sketch, Linda has her own low-budget show called “Cawfee Tawk.” (The Queens accent could probably be equate the UK’s cockney accent). She loves Babs (Barbara Streistand) and ends every other thing she says with “discuss.”

5. katie (User Verified) :
   January 28th, 2006 at 8:49 pm

   Natalya, you’ve probably already written about this, but are your balance problems related to your hearing loss?

6. hohprof (User Verified) :
   January 28th, 2006 at 8:50 pm

   Hehe. I was always someone who fell for April Fools’ stunts

   I used to know SNL a long time ago - in fact my one and only appearance on TV was in about 1980 when I was interviewed in New York on the street one day and saw myself on SNL (for about 15 seconds) that week

   Tina Fey is the name I think of now (I think she’s very funny)…hey, I must see if I can keep up a bit more.

7. Sara :
   January 28th, 2006 at 9:35 pm

   When I’m inebriated, my lipreading actually gets a little bit better. I’m usually hyper-distracted by a million things, so the tunnel vision works in my favor. Also, the altered brain state of being drunk or under the influence of drugs seems to “lower” my audiogram so that I hear less background noise, and more speech-noise.

   I’m weird, though.

8. hohprof (User Verified) :
   January 28th, 2006 at 9:42 pm

   Hehehe. Must remember to pour some wine down you next time we meet up

9. katie (User Verified) :
   January 28th, 2006 at 9:44 pm

   I can’t seem to stop posting on this site tonight.

   Sara, that’s interesting, ’cause when I’m drunk, I’m somehow still able haphazardly follow what people are saying to me- tunnel-hearing? (or maybe I’m just more aggressive about getting people to speak louder… or they’re already talking louder ’cause they’re drunk too!).

   Tomorrow I’m going wine-tasting. I shall try to observe whether I experience the tunnel-hearing effect.

10. Natalya (User Verified) :
    January 28th, 2006 at 9:48 pm

    Katie, Yes, No and we’re not entirely sure is the short answer. ]

    My hearing loss is due to malformation of my ears as a larger part of the syndrome/association that I was diagnosed as having in 1980 - there is now disagreement amongst my pet doctors as to whether I do have what I have or not…

    My inner ear on the left side is described by medics as immature, meaning that the structures are present, but not as complex or completely formed as they should be. The cochlea is more of a blob than a nice little snail shell like thing. I don’t know what is inside my right ear because i was never told. My ENT said that the scans he got done of me in 1995 were the most detailed that he had ever seen of an inner ear!

    I’ve had various bouts of bad balance problems since I was 15 when I was knocked over twice in a short period of time in a Fire-drill queue by some very BIG lads behind me. I was sent home feeling queasy, dizzy and disoriented. My balance started to deteriorate and I ended up spending several weeks off school.

    I recently saw an audiological physician, Dr T who believes my symptoms are primarily secondary effects of poor balance. Dr T reckons I recovered from the initial balance problems by compensating for poor vestibular balance by using my vision. Unfortunately this also means that I am also suppressing my musculoskeletal balance systems and have become overreliant upon my vision. I am awaiting rehab treatment to retrain me how to use my musculoskeletal balance and maybe my vestibular balance.

    What happens currently and probably has been the case since 1995 or so is that I use my eyes to maintain my balance which the eyes are not designed to do on their own. It takes the brain about 1s or so to process visual data for balance as opposed to 100ms for it to process musculoskeletal/vestibular balance data. My brain overloads on the visual stuff (possibly exaerbated by focussing on lipreading or listening) and my nervus system starts to play silly buggers to stop my brain overheating.

    The central nervous system contains the autonomic nervous system which is subdivided into sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems - these control things like heartrate, blood pressure, metabolic process rates and thermoregulation. The parasympathetic nervous system does the reverse of the sympathetic nervous system. What I experience when I start to get dizzy are symptoms like dizziness, decreased heartrate, low blood pressure and nausea.

    I didn’t realise until recently that I never really stopped getting most of these symptoms and that this would explain why I blacked out during my A-levels and came close several times during my first year at university getting myself told to get out the lab by the tutor - safety risk! I overcame it by eating chocolate in my pre-lab lecture (strictly forbidden) but didn’t know why I got like that. I assumed it was low blood sugar combined with genetic low blood pressure. I can walk at 80/50 and scare medics!

    This latest recurrence of problems is probably a result of an ear infection causing problems and the medication I was given for noticable vertigo caused problems with my compensation mechanism.

    As frustrating being ill for 7 months has been, it has bought some benefits namely that I know what is actually wrong rather than having vague ideas around anaemia, low blood sugar and low blood pressure. I know what the cause is, and why the symptoms occur. I used to get accused of being anorexic, diabetic, anaemic and generically ‘fainty female’ by many people. I’ve been called lazy and wimpy for not being able to keep up with other people. Now I know why and can scare people with lots of neurobiology.

    Scared yet?

11. Sara (User Verified) :
    January 28th, 2006 at 9:49 pm

    hehe I’ll be curious to know if alcohol effects you like that too, Katie. (tunnel hearing)

    Hm. I also wonder if it’s actually not that *I* am inebriated, but that *others* are inebriated and thus become more animated and louder? And I just think it’s because I’m intoxicated, when it’s actually THEM that have changed. Hrm.

12. Natalya (User Verified) :
    January 28th, 2006 at 9:53 pm

    *giggles at inebriate stories*

    I think I remember a sort of out of bodyness when drunk that sometimes made hearing easier to do. I don’t usually have too much problem focussing on one person if they are speaking, I’m horribly good at unitasking on speech, in fact I wish I could turn it off sometimes. I only get to turn off when I unplug my hearing aid.

13. lette :
    January 29th, 2006 at 11:41 am

    funny thing im Irish and I dont drink!! :p though I did my fair share when younger and in secandary school, I dont drink now, because I drive and really just dont miss it, but when I did, yeah my balance was screwed and lipreading was non existant! but truthfully I dont really know my full effects when drunk with regards to my deafness as my deafness has really only rared its head over the past few years and I havnt been drunk in that space of time.
    When Im tired, and I always am exausted because I am quiet anemic, but I find my well ajusted speach faulters bigtime, and my hearing loss is definatly more noticible and lipreading goes out the window!!
    Ill see how the new aids help!!

14. katie (User Verified) :
    January 29th, 2006 at 6:35 pm

    Results of empirical study: yes, definitely, the phenomenon known as “tunnel” hearing does exist.

15. barakta (User Verified) :
    January 29th, 2006 at 7:06 pm

    empirical study

    Care to cite that? :p

    *Goes to play with google*

16. "Coffee Talk" :
    April 28th, 2006 at 7:18 am

    Don’t talk to me, I’m having a bad hair day…
    Please! Do not get me started…
    Now I’m getting emotional,I’m a little verklempt!
    Let me give you a topic:
    The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy nor an empire nor roman…
    Discuss…

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