Ever since I started this website, I haven’t really had what we would call a “homepage”. Anyone visiting the root domain of “http://www.ianvisits.co.uk” got automatically redirected, originally to the blog, and now to the events listings page.

Frankly, that is a tiny bit messy, so I have created a basic homepage at last.

Not being the most imaginative sort, it is just a copy of the listings page, but limited to just today’s events – including the recurring events I normally hide – and my most recent blog postings.

I think it might make the site a bit easier to understand to new visitors, as it wasn’t really obvious that there are two core elements – the listings guide and the blog – to the website.

Hardly the most dramatic change, but in the interests of clarity, I felt I should explain that a change has indeed happened and that people who visit the “home page” are going to see something slightly different.

If you want to have a peek – go to www.ianvisits.co.uk

It’s been four years since I quite literally staggered out of Barts hospital on walking sticks, having spent a month there recovering  from an uncomfortably close dalliance with Death. Annoyingly I am still not absolutely back to where I was in terms of mental ability compared to before I was ill – but frankly that is something I will have to live with. I am probably average with the rest of the population though – so not too dire a result.

Any more damage, and I could have ended up enjoying reality TV shows – yikes!

Anyhow, today was one of my routine follow up visits back to the hospital to be quizzed on how I feel and have a few tests carried out to make sure my internal bits sync with how I think I feel on the outside. Normally a routine visit, albeit for an annoying tendency for my doctor to complain about how hard I work – which is annoying as I actually don’t work anything like as hard as I used to, and I miss the "good stress" of that lifestyle – not to mention, the wages!

Today was a bit different though – as he wants me to switch to a new type of medication and to be frank, I was a tad uncomfortable with the change – so I am going to try the new pills for a couple of weeks over xmas and see how I get on with them.

The main change is that I will switch from (does a count) four pills in the morning and three in the evening to just three per day, which most people really like. Personally, the pill regime is not even an issue as far as I am concerned so I have no real worries about the quantities of pills taken. Annoyingly though, they are best with food and that means I have to take them in the evening. As I like going out a lot more in the evening, I was really hoping to be able to pop the pills in the morning and have done with it.

Damn.

The other worry is that for about 40% of patients, the new pills can cause what looks like, but importantly isn’t – jaundice. I am very twitchy anything which affects my eyes, and while the effect is purely cosmetic I am a bit uncomfortable with the idea. The jaundice side effect wears off a few hours after I take the pill – so evenings are actually quite a good time to take them as it is less noticable. Take them in the morning and I could be sitting in Starbucks with bright yellow eyes.

Actually, if it scares the kids away, that could be quite fun

Anyhow, sitting in a coffee shop right now doing a bit of work before wandering over to Mansion House for their first ever tour for the general public this afternoon – which should be fun. Then back in coffee shops for a couple of hours until I wander over to the Post Office Archive for a lecture this evening on the mothballed Post Office Railway.

A rather busy day out of the flat which is a nice change, although it has started to rain – and I left my brolly at home. Opps.

Over the past year, I have been going through a painfully slow process of having tests and results to try and find out what is wrong with my hearing. I seem to suffer the inverse of “cocktail party syndrome” and when in a room with too much background noise – I effectively end up deaf.

The first series of tests and reports from doctors couldn’t find anything physically wrong, and the last doctor I saw agreed to refer me further after I pointed out that the graphs/MRI may say nothing is wrong but there most certainly is a problem.

In actual fact, it seems that I have excellent hearing in physical terms – but I just can’t hear people when there is too much background babble – it all merges into a white noise and I can’t isolate the person standing next to me from the background noise.

Anyhow, yesterday I went for the referral which is basically the final point to go – and at last – someone has identified a problem.

I’ve persisted in trying to get this resolved one way or the other as it is an incredible social handicap. I can’t hear people in even the most ordinary of pubs and trying to go to a music venue is frankly pointless. When standing in a group of friends, I often drift to the edge and just stand there bored silly waiting for a suitable excuse to go home. Indeed, I have been told off for doing that – even though it is frankly the only thing I can do in the circumstances.

It can be somewhat depressing at times, and as a single chap it would be nice to be able to approach people without the worry that I might spend the whole evening saying “pardon” to every other sentence!

Despite the tests showing very good hearing, I do have a slight drop off at the high frequencies, and although not that serious – it does explain the problem I have – which has been termed Auditory Processing Disorder (APD). Apparently this issue was first diagnosed about 40 years ago, and while no one is really sure what causes it, it is thought to affect up to 10% of the adult population and is not generally age related.

Also, alas – there is no cure.

There are treatments of sorts – but they are more based around learning to live with the issue than actually treated it in the usual means.

Many people with this issue report one side is worse than the other – and I do sit to the left of people where possible as my left side is worse (that showed up in the graphs), but it seems that I should try to face the person as I need more visual clues to help fill in the missing detail in the speech. I was once accused of lip-reading when people talk to me, and what was an unconscious act may have to become something I practice more proactively in future.

There are a few other ideas, but mainly – I just need to avoid noisy environments.

Alas, as most social environments tend to be quite noisy (even when the music is turned down), this will prove to be difficult.

So, at the end of the road as far as hearing tests are concerned, and while there is nothing that can be done medically to help – at least I know there is an identifiable problem and it is not just my imagination that all this is happening.

It is a relief to know I am not alone in this – even if there isn’t a huge amount that can be done about it.