Health Update (Patreon)

Hi everyone, I’m so sorry it took me so long to finish and post that last VR clip. Hopefully this post will help explain why. 

As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been having a bit of a hearing issue/discomfort with one of my ears lately, in a way that was making it fairly difficult to function, not to mention doing any sort of sound editing. I’ve had this issue come up in the past, but usually it would only last for a day and then it would go away. It was also pretty rare. I'd say at most it would only occur every 3-6 months, tops. The way this typically happened is that I’d wake up with my ear feeling full/clogged, with frequencies sounding a little bit messed up (think like when someone is talking to you through a fan). However, this summer it started to happen more and more frequently, and instead of going away after a day, it would last for 3-4 days at a time.

At first I thought there might be something wrong with my sinuses, since I have a deviated septum and tend to be a pretty stuffy person (it also seemed to go away when I would take decongestants). However, upon finally getting the issue checked out, I’ve found that it is actually permanent hearing loss, and I’d just begun adapting to all of the symptoms. That is, until they became overwhelming. It turns out I’ve lost all of the lower/bassy frequencies in my left ear, while my right ear remains relatively okay. Right now, the next step is to get an MRI to make sure that it’s not something internal, as sometimes hearing loss can be due to tumors or other autoimmune issues. 

As you may have guessed, beyond the discomfort of balance issues, music and an appreciation of sounds have been integral parts of my life, so I’ve been doing my best to come to terms with this new unfortunate reality. I am not sure exactly what this means for how sound will be effected in my content, because I don't know how this issue will morph over time (at the moment, the issue sort of “flares up” with some days being absolutely miserable, while others are a little more normal, just slightly muffled). Obviously, I know this will effect how sound functions within my content, and I am hoping to find a way to do my best with what I’ve still got left. However, there will be some days where I might want to edit, but legitimately cannot, like the end of last month where my hearing was too distorted for me to finish.

I’m not quite sure how to end this, but I always want to be as transparent as possible with everyone here, as you all have been so generous and kind towards this project, some from the very beginning. <3

Nothing but love, 

gq