I planned to be a musician — then an ear syringing changed everything

The first sign that something was wrong came after a doctor syringed my ears in 2008 to wash out antibiotic drops that had left my world muffled. I felt relieved at the time and didn’t question a sudden static in my left ear until that night, when a whooshing noise and a puzzling crunch—the family grandfather clock chiming—made me realise my left ear was no longer hearing sounds as they really were.

A few days later I was referred to an ENT and endured an agonising six-week wait while studying at the Victorian College of the Arts. My saxophone, once a source of joy, became an unbearable cacophony as my left ear grew mostly deaf and my right ear overcompensated; plans to study saxophone in New York and make a life as a professional musician began to unravel and I cried in music venue bathrooms, unable to bear the sound.

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