Jack makes it on time again with his guest blog –

Back in 1979 my old band ‘Heritage’ embarked on its first foreign tour – to Brittany in France. The last few days we were based in Quimper (Kemper) and being fed our meals in a local restaurant. We had arrived in a coach and were due to travel back the same way.

On the way home I began to feel dizzy and a bit nauseous and thought it might be down to the food we’d been eating. But then I noticed the hearing in my right ear was coming and going and over subsequent months whenever I flew anywhere it would improve but then deteriorate again.

I wondered if the loud sound of the pipe band that had been on the same tour might have been the reason, but still didn’t connect it to the dizzy nausea.

Some years later I began to suffer from nasal polyps and it was affecting my singing voice so my doctor sent me to the ENT expert at the local hospital. He was clearly bored with my polyps, but as I was leaving he asked if there was anything else. I mentioned the hearing issue and he immediately brightened up.

There then ensued a series of tests – starting with outer ear, then inner ear and finally an MRI. The good news was they confirmed I had a brain, but the bad news was that back in Brittany I had an inner ear infection that was untreated. So the damage to my right ear is permanent – no high frequencies, just low!

Moving on a few more years and Wendy and I were booked to play at a weekend Celtic festival in Abingdon VA. Friday evening was fine but when I woke on Saturday I was completely deaf and we were due to sing at 2pm.

Off we went to the local ER and had to first, of course, give my insurance details – “I’m Scottish and we have the NHS” I said. Then to a side room and a doctor arrived, had a look and went off. She came back a few minutes later with a big syringe and a basin of warm water. After a couple of plunges of the syringe I could hear again. It was impacted wax in my good left ear!

We returned home to Scotland and a few months later I received a bill for $600. The whole hospital visit lasted about thirty minutes, of which fifteen were at the reception desk. If I’d asked for a detailed bill I expect there would have been a charge for use of the syringe and the water, not to mention the chair –

To be continued – –