One morning a few years ago, I woke to find I had lost most of the hearing in my left ear. In place of my usual acoustic environment was a high electronic ringing—eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—as if a giant TV had been left on mute. Me being me, I assumed the issue would work itself out, but when it didn’t after a couple of weeks I turned to the professionals. Several thousand dollars, a couple of minor surgeries, and an MRI later, the professionals could only tell me that I didn’t have cancer...
