I have good news!!!

This is a follow-up about the sudden hearing loss I experienced about three weeks ago. If you’re not sure what I mean by that, you might like to check out my blog and video from earlier this week.

First off, I want to thank all of you from the BOTTOM of my HEART who have shown me support in your comments, emails, messages, phone calls…so many of you have been checking in on me, and it has meant SO MUCH to me to experience your outpouring of love. Thank you thank you thank you thank you I love you all!

So, on to the update. I had my appointments yesterday morning with the audiologist for a follow-up hearing study and then with an ear-nose-throat specialist, and it’s looking really good. My hearing loss has FULLY recovered!! I danced and skipped and cried and leapt into David’s arms and felt SO much relief when we learned this! I do still have ringing (tinnitus) and sensitivity to sound, but that seems to be getting better and better. The doctors are cautiously optimistic that I could see those things also heal over the next two weeks or so, especially if I am really cautious and gentle with my ears, avoiding loud or sustained sound. Thank goodness this nasty prednisone was worth it! Today I got to start stepping the dosage on that down, and my prednisone-induced misery has already started to fade today, so another happy dance for that!

A lot of you have been asking if the doctors know what caused this, and the answer is unfortunately very foggy. Because it’s damage to the inner ear, it’s really nearly impossible to pin down exactly what factors caused this to happen. It could even have just been a virus that caused very targeted damage to a tiny area of the cochlea. The most important thing is that it is HEALING!

And I have to say, it’s been quite a wake-up call for me to experience how important my ears are to me and to realize how delicate and ephemeral their health is. In fact, many of my musician friends and colleagues have reached out to me to share similar stories of ear-related trauma. I have been truly shocked to realize how common these sorts of events and injuries are! I’d never really considered that I play a concert-sized grand piano – designed for a large performance space – for several hours a day in my living room. And then I listen to music quite loudly on studio headphones for many hours a week as well. I think there’s probably more of a conversation to be had there, around the risk of hearing-related trauma for musicians and specifically for pianists. But in the meantime, I’ve learned a lot and intend to learn a lot more about caring for my ears so they remain healthy and dynamic and strong for as long as possible. I’m looking into getting some custom-made musician’s earplugs (I’ve got some off-the-shelf ones in my hands already) and plan to do a lot of my studio/headphones work at lower volume and with more frequent breaks in the future.

Fortunately, I have the next few releases for The 52 recorded, so I think I’ll be able to stay on track even with a further two-week-break from composing new music. I have some really beautiful solo piano music coming your way, and I can’t WAIT to share the sounds and the art with you as this project continues to develop and drive my life this year.

Once more with feeling: thank you so much for reaching out and showing me so much love in response to my post earlier this week. It’s been a really challenging couple of weeks, and it has been incredibly, mind-blowingly powerful to not feel alone in this. Thank you for being on this journey with me. I love you.