|
DNUK
Hardware Review: Earpieces - The Hidden Danger!
By Ricky Simpson
www.door-network.com
Of the many dangers that door stewarding can
present, one doesn’t quite prepare himself/herself for a trip to
accident and emergency to remove part of an earpiece that is lodged
so far into your ear, the naked eye cannot see it, even with the aid
of a ninja like 8W torch!
The incident happened after I removed the portion of my acoustic
tube earpiece that inserts into your ear. Now, for comfort sake, I
had previously removed the “mushroom” - the rounded end, on the
earpiece, which can help make it more comfortable. I disagreed with
this claim, and hence it was cut off, as I felt like I had more
peripheral hearing with the ear with it gone. A risk of cutting this
part off is that it can easily be pushed too far into the ear canal.
This normally is detected by a strong pain in the inner ear,
followed by a feeling of stupidity when the user realises that it’s
been pushed in too far, followed by relief, when the user removes
it. But what happens when the pain is still there after it’s been
removed?
After multiple attempts from colleagues and bar staff to remove the
item, with their chosen weapons ranging from tweezers, to a full
size corkscrew, it was decided that I would have to go to A&E to get
it safely removed. By this point, it was sore to talk, breathe
through my nose and swallow. It’s not a pleasant pain… think about
when you push a cotton bud into your ear for a split second… sore
isn’t it? Think that pain, but constantly!
|
|
So this involved valuable minutes of my life
being seated in waiting rooms, receptions, and on hospital beds
feeling like a right tit. The highlight of the embarrassment was
when my doctor conversed with another on how to remove the item,
and the other doctor said “It’ll just be like when you removed
that pencil from the toddler’s ear two weeks ago!”
“Great”, I thought. I’m being compared to a
toddler who doesn’t know any better!
So, with my pride in tatters, I thanked the medical staff for a
relatively speedy resolution, and made my way home. My main
concern was that this didn’t happen again. I thought if it did,
and I had to go back to A&E, they’d give me a pair of oven
gloves to wear, to minimize self injury! I posted the story on
DNUK, to give the boys a laugh at my expense, not knowing that
something positive would come out of it!
Forum member “sidd” promptly sent me a new end for my earpiece,
that didn’t have any mushroom portion to it, but he still
guaranteed that it would sit in my ear nice and snug.
As you can see
from the picture at the start of this article, the adapter is
flesh coloured, adding to the covert nature of the earpiece.
There is no chance it can enter your ear, and it doesn’t cut out
all the hearing on that side. On the contrary, it doesn’t feel
like anything is in your ear at all! Most importantly, sound
quality is not impaired by this earpiece adapter. My radio was
still 100% clear and concise.
This is the ultimate in comfort, practicality and convenience.
And for only a £5 from
www.fdss.co.uk, DNUK’s only
official supplier, I’d recommend it to anyone with an acoustic
tube earpiece. It saves a very embarrassing trip to A&E!
By Ricky Simpson.
|
