# Hearing Loss



## Bgriffin856

Found a very informative article on hearing loss

http://www.farmanddairy.com/news/winning-farmers-hearing-loss-battle/225352.html


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## ARD Farm

What???? 

I have a hearing test every DOT physical and so far I pass. My wife says "You have selective hearing".... after 30 years, I can't argue with that.

I wear muffs quite a bit. I hav a couple pair one with an am/fm radio and another pair with sound attenuating circuitry I wear when I shoot and a plain, no frills pair.

Good article btw.


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## Gearclash

I keep foam earplugs in a pocket always. Might be without my cell phone but not without hearing protection. I have one ear that does not work (100% loss--no one knows exactly why) so I have no desire to allow any damage to the other ear at all. Foam plugs work as good as muffs, and can be carried on your person everywhere.


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## IHCman

I'm 34 and have hearing loss and tinnitus (ringing of the ears). Most of it was brought on by shooting without hearing protection. I hunted with a wild bunch when I was younger and can't count the number of times someone touched off a shotgun a little to close. Also blew up a 12 guage when I was 18, shortened up the barrel and shot a box and half of 3 inch magnums at rats without hearing protection, that was dumb I didn't hear right for a week. I was 19 or 20 when I was told by an audiologist that my left ear was a candidate for a hearing aid and I've wore hearing protection ever since while shooting or working around loud machinery or tools. I've gotten lots of shit for wearing ear plugs while hunting but I don't care your hearing is too important and once you lose it, its gone forever. I wish I'd have learned that lesson sooner and wore hearing protection sooner. I've got all sorts of ear plugs and ear muffs now. My favorite plug is the E.A.R corded push in plugs, no rolling required with dirty greasy fingers and the cord keeps em from getting lost. I'm also working on getting a pair of custom fitted electronic plugs for hunting.


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## Vol

I feel your pain.....literally....and hear the crickets.

Regards, Mike


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## Grateful11

I have Meniere's Disease, excess pressure in the inner ear, with it comes 365/24/7 ringing now in both ears and off and on vertigo. I've lost over 50% of the hearing in my right ear and about 25% in my left. Also I have what they call drop attacks with the Meniere's where it knocks you on your ass for a while. It runs in my family. Had an Endolymphatic Shunt put in my right ear in '95, helped with the vertigo but did nothing for the ringing, 4.5 hours of surgery and then I couldn't wake up. Found out during that surgery I have an enzyme level that's really low and my body can't burn off certain anesthesia. Finally woke up about 10 hours after the surgery on a ventilator and a tube shoved up my pecker in the ICU. Scared the you know what out of everyone, including the hospital people. That also runs in my family. It's called Pseudocholinesterase deficiency, it's so rare they don't even test for it before putting you to sleep. You won't die unless they don't put you on a ventilator, eventually you will wake up.

When I had my back surgery in '09 they assured me they used something that would I wake right up from when it was over. Right 5 hours of surgery and once again I couldn't wake up. Spent 5 days in the hospital partly because of that.

I'd give up one of my nuts for a month of silence.

Meniere's

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/menieres-disease/basics/definition/con-20028251


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## Teslan

Grateful11 said:


> I have Meniere's Disease, excess pressure in the inner ear, with it comes 365/24/7 ringing now in both ears and off and on vertigo. I've lost over 50% of the hearing in my right ear and about 25% in my left. Also I have what they call drop attacks with the Meniere's where it knocks you on your ass for a while. It runs in my family. Had an Endolymphatic Shunt put in my right ear in '95, helped with the vertigo but did nothing for the ringing, 4.5 hours of surgery and then I couldn't wake up. Found out during that surgery I have an enzyme level that's really low and my body can't burn off certain anesthesia. Finally woke up about 10 hours after the surgery on a ventilator and a tube shoved up my pecker in the ICU. Scared the you know what out of everyone, including the hospital people. That also runs in my family. It's called Pseudocholinesterase deficiency, it's so rare they don't even test for it before putting you to sleep. You won't die unless they don't put you on a ventilator, eventually you will wake up.
> 
> When I had my back surgery in '09 they assured me they used something that would I wake right up from when it was over. Right 5 hours of surgery and once again I couldn't wake up. Spent 5 days in the hospital partly because of that.
> 
> I'd give up one of my nuts for a month of silence.
> 
> Meniere's
> 
> http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/menieres-disease/basics/definition/con-20028251


Careful what you wish for. I gave up one of my nuts and had chemotherapy to kill the cancer and it gave me ringing in the ears and some sort of loss of hearing. The type of which if there are a lot of people in a room talking I can't here someone next to me talking.


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## RockmartGA

IHCman said:


> I'm 34 and have hearing loss and tinnitus (ringing of the ears). Most of it was brought on by shooting without hearing protection.


Same here. Also worked a number of years in a textile mill and a power plant in the days before hearing protection was required.

I don't do ANYTHING loud without hearing protection anymore. Driving a tractor, lawnmower, running a chainsaw, weedeater, leaf blower - you name it.

Of course, there are some benefits - the ringing in my ears drowns out the voices in my head....


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## Grateful11

Teslan said:


> Careful what you wish for. I gave up one of my nuts and had chemotherapy to kill the cancer and it gave me ringing in the ears and some sort of loss of hearing. The type of which if there are a lot of people in a room talking I can't here someone next to me talking.


Wow that really sucks. I hope you're cancer free now.

Cancer sucks all the way around. I watched Pancreatic cancer take my Father from being one of the strongest, hardest working people of 83 years of age to basically nothing in a matter of months. The man could honest to God out work men half his age. He was an avid deer hunter and his cancer Dr. put his porta-cath in his left shoulder so he could get one more deer season in, he killed 3 that season and he was gone 3 months later.

I was just being sarcastic about the nut thing but I would love to have a day of silence. It's so bad I've asked my ENT if deafening that ear would stop the ringing and he said in almost ever known case of surgical deafening the ringing persisted.


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## Bgriffin856

Only time the ringing in my ears bother me is when its completly quite. Like when im hunting or trying to sleep. Keep mufflers on on all tractors and I don't shoot much so it isn't as bad as some. But long durations take their toll

It'll be interesting to see what gets me first skin cancer or hearing loss.


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## Bgriffin856

Wow thats a heck of ordeal Grateful. Do you get used to it any?


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## Teslan

Grateful11 said:


> Wow that really sucks. I hope you're cancer free now.
> 
> Cancer sucks all the way around. I watched Pancreatic cancer take my Father from being one of the strongest, hardest working people of 83 years of age to basically nothing in a matter of months. The man could honest to God out work men half his age. He was an avid deer hunter and his cancer Dr. put his porta-cath in his left shoulder so he could get one more deer season in, he killed 3 that season and he was gone 3 months later.
> 
> I was just being sarcastic about the nut thing but I would love to have a day of silence. It's so bad I've asked my ENT if deafening that ear would stop the ringing and he said in almost ever known case of surgical deafening the ringing persisted.


Yes I am fine now. I think the ringing I hear is not my actual ears,but how my brain is now processing sound. Because I remember the actual day the ringing started while I was doing the Chemo. I wasn't doing anything with loud sounds. It had gotten better over the last 4 years, but still is there. I think many times the ringing people hear isn't the ears, but the brain.


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## Bgriffin856

Teslan said:


> Yes I am fine now. I think the ringing I hear is not my actual ears,but how my brain is now processing sound. Because I remember the actual day the ringing started while I was doing the Chemo. I wasn't doing anything with loud sounds. It had gotten better over the last 4 years, but still is there. I think many times the ringing people hear isn't the ears, but the brain.


You might be right. Some days are worse than others


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## Grateful11

Bgriffin856 said:


> Wow thats a heck of ordeal Grateful. Do you get used to it any?


I've gotten used to it over the years but like right now the TV is going and it's at a fairly normal volume and I can still hear the ringing over the TV as plain as day.


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## Vol

Ditto.

Regards, Mike


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## stack em up

I have 80% hearing loss in my left ear, I hear great out of my right ear. Ear guy attributes it to always looking back over my right shoulder to watch the implement. Most of our tractors have straightpipes...

I've also worked in an ag shop for 14 years, that hasn't helped much, although' electric impacts are not near as noisy as pneumatic.


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## haybaler101

Started driving our 1066 when I was 8 years old. It had a 4" straight pipe and also had the rpm's turned up about 200 extra to pull a 2 row silage chopper. By the time I was 16, the ringing never stopped, so dad put a muffler back on it but the damage was done. I have to admit that 400 series IH diesel with a straight pipe under a full load does sound pretty awesome though. But now, my only noise concern is having the radio too loud in the cab. I do not ever want to go back to an open station corn heavy loads.


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## FarmerCline

After reading this I think I'm going to have to get a set of ear plugs to wear when on my open station tractors. The noise doesn't really bother me now unless I'm running the tractor all day long and then it gets kind of old but I can see where down the road it will have consequences. All my tractors have mufflers and I never have understood why have a straight pipe on a working tractor that you spend long hours on.....for a show tractor or something you use infrequently it would be kind of cool but no thanks on a everyday tractor.


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## urednecku

Had ringing for a while now. Not sure why, but I do wear some kinda plugs anytime I'm doing something very noisy, like cutting hay, wood, weedeating, etc. I wear them lots more now than I did 5 years ago.


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## Bgriffin856

haybaler101 said:


> Started driving our 1066 when I was 8 years old. It had a 4" straight pipe and also had the rpm's turned up about 200 extra to pull a 2 row silage chopper. By the time I was 16, the ringing never stopped, so dad put a muffler back on it but the damage was done. I have to admit that 400 series IH diesel with a straight pipe under a full load does sound pretty awesome though. But now, my only noise concern is having the radio too loud in the cab. I do not ever want to go back to an open station corn heavy loads.


Yep they sure have a nice sound to them. If we have to use the 856 on the manure spreader we have to remove the muffler to fit it in the spreader shed, so its coming straight off the manifold. Amazing how much a muffler does. Definitely wouldnt want to do much without one


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## Bgriffin856

Actually from what some have claimed those older cabs were louder than an open station


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## Teslan

Bgriffin856 said:


> Actually from what some have claimed those older cabs were louder than an open station


We had an old 1066 IH with a Year Round Cab (Cousin still has it). My dad and uncle bought it the year before the quiet cabs came out. It was loud thing. My ears would be ringing when I got done using it. I think you could be right about it being louder then without the cab.


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## mlappin

No ringing in the ears or hearing loss yet on my part.

Dad has ringing in the ears, then last winter he had the battery charger on his expeditor truck, battery are in a big aluminum box under the condo, anyways had the door partially shut to keep the snow out. Didn't turn the battery charger off first and disconnected a lead and made enough spark to cause an explosion. No battery acid got on exposed skin but it did ruin the coat and gloves he had on. Battery casing ended up about twenty feet into the yard.

Not sure what it's called that he ended up getting from it, but you have to speak up all the time, but even unexpected soft noises are exaggerated to a great extent. If it's quite in the shop with no radio on and you drop a wrench he about jumps out of his skin. Has tried several noise canceling hearing aides and none of those has helped yet. If he's out in the wind he has to have ear plugs.

Lessons learned:

1: Don't leave a battery charger in an enclosed space with the batteries.

2: Always turn it off before unhooking the battery leads.

3: Make the dipsh*t driver that left the power switch on to the condo and ran the batteries down come out and mess with a dead truck.


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## hog987

Teslan said:


> We had an old 1066 IH with a Year Round Cab (Cousin still has it). My dad and uncle bought it the year before the quiet cabs came out. It was loud thing. My ears would be ringing when I got done using it. I think you could be right about it being louder then without the cab.


I made the point to dad a few years ago. All the tractors from the 1960's for sale around here have those old cabs and have under 5000 hours. Most of the tractors from the same time with out cabs are worn out in junk piles with at the very least still running with 7000 hours. The worn out tractors have who knows how many hours. Point being those old cab were horriable to work in. Loud. Just a big echo box. Also hot. Summer days were like sitting in a greenhouse. So if a guy had two tractors one with a cab and one with out. Unless it was raining or snowing he used the one with out.


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## barnrope

Year Around, Hiniker, and those kind of cabs have caused a lot of hearing damage over the years. About the loudest I have been in was an early 4020 diesel with a little Lundeen cab while doing field work. It was just an obnoxious echoing rattle trap. It was warm and kept most of the wind and rain out however.


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## Bgriffin856

Somedays I wish I had one of them cabs. Like when your spreading manure in the rain and snow. But i guess being out there on an open station makes one look tough...or dumb lol


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## mlappin

Dad had an 1855 with an aftermarket cab, better than sitting in the rain or out in the wind during the winter, barely.

Second best thing we done was while it still ran was take the doors and windows off and used it more like a canopy, best thing we done was quit fixing it when a wrist pin bushing went out and just used it for parts.


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## somedevildawg

Bgriffin856 said:


> Somedays I wish I had one of them cabs. Like when your spreading manure in the rain and snow. But i guess being out there on an open station makes one look tough...or dumb lol


Both lol


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## haybaler101

I had to haul manure every day the ground was froze and some days when it wasn't when we had our dairy. Open station 1066 with a wind breaker and windshields. Pulled a 3000 gal slurry tank so if we covered radiator about 90% it would at least blow enough heat to keep you from freezing to death, at least your front side. Spoiled now though, was turbo tilling corn stalks last week, 15 degrees with 20 mph wind and I was very comfy with just a t shirt on.


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## Teslan

hog987 said:


> I made the point to dad a few years ago. All the tractors from the 1960's for sale around here have those old cabs and have under 5000 hours. Most of the tractors from the same time with out cabs are worn out in junk piles with at the very least still running with 7000 hours. The worn out tractors have who knows how many hours. Point being those old cab were horriable to work in. Loud. Just a big echo box. Also hot. Summer days were like sitting in a greenhouse. So if a guy had two tractors one with a cab and one with out. Unless it was raining or snowing he used the one with out.


The cab on the old IH has an air conditioner. I was told by my dad when it was new it really was good and cold and would cool the cab down great. However I NEVER remember it blowing anything, but warm air from the time I started riding in it at 5-6 years old. The heater worked good though we rarely used that tractor in the winter. In the summer it was mostly hot and you could crank open every single window. But by then why have a cab except you are sitting in the shade.


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## IH 1586

In the late 80's thru the 90's growing up. Nobody in the family wore ear plugs. Just jump on the tractor run it wide open all day long. I remember running the 4040 and my ears would ring for about an hour after I was done. I can't run anything without earplugs now.


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## Bgriffin856

Grinding ear corn with a hammer mill will make ones ears ring


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