I finally had a hearing test yesterday. My right ear is quite well behaved. It seems to hear everything it should hear. Good right ear!
My left ear? Well, it’s no surprise that it’s not cooperating these days, so I wasn’t surprised by the hearing test. The test was really just the way to get me an appointment with an otologist. I will be returning a week from today to see the doctor, and find out if this problem is merely a “grin and bear it until it goes away” thing, or if there’s something to be done.
Meanwhile, I did, at the urging of the person testing my ears, get fitted for musician’s earplugs. They’ll arrive right after I’m finished with all my jobs, wouldn’t you know, but at least I’ll have them for next season. They aren’t cheap, but I need them — I should have purchased them years ago.
Last night I had an Symphony Silicon Valley rehearsal (with the Santa Clara Chorale at Mission Santa Clara. Big boomy places like that are the absolute worst thing for me right now, but I will deal. I play the first work on the program, and it’s probably all of twenty minutes, so I’m sure I’ll get through it just fine on Saturday. I’m involved only in the Beethoven Choral Fantasy** as the other piece on the program is Mozart’s Requiem. No oboes in that work … but I sure do love it, and I’d stay to listen if it weren’t for my ear.
**Many thanks to “Patti with an i” for catching my error … I had written Missa Solemnis. OldBoeBrain strikes again!
