Stupid ears and sinuses!
A little backstory.
I've had sinus infections, bronchial infections for as long as I can remember. I always tell people that I don't get colds, I get infections.
Recently, with the kids back in school, my youngest got some 'crud' and she therefore passed it on to me.
Flash forward a week or so after getting it I'm walking out of the urgent care clinic with a script for antibiotics and instructions to do the albuterol inhaler, cough syrup and the whole sh'bang.
So that starts to get better but soon after the main sickness goes away I start having tinnitus in my left ear. And I'm dealing with post-nasal drip (read: 'ew'), pressue behind my eyes and frequent headaches.
All the while, I'm doing sessoins, doing auditions and the usual stuff in the day (like speaking with wife and kids).
As of today, I went to my family doctor and she said I have fluid in my eustachian tube in the ear. Some Claritin-D and Benadryl at night for a week or so and if no improvement, I'm gonna have to see an ENT.
So what does this have to do with voiceover?
It's a good reminder to take care of my tool. The ears are important to doing voicework. If I can't hear things (myself!) how am I going to effectively read copy?
If there's a constant ringing in my ear, can I effectively hear what I'm saying?
I know for a fact that there's voice actors LIVING with tinnitus and they're doing fine. It's not a career death sentence, and I don't want to sound overly dramatic here, but it does make you think about how you're taking care of yourself and taking all precautions in protecting your tool. Like washing hands, masking up when around sick people, etc.
Hopefully with the meds on board it'll go away but if not, I'll just have to live with it.
And as with anything you live with, you adjust, you move on, you grow.
In the meantime: Here's to modern medicine.