The ClarinetPages Forum

The ear is still blocked , tubes aren't clearing

As well as the myeloma I have a blocked ear. Totally deaf in my left ear;the Eustachian tubes are blocked. I've seen my GP and Doctor but nothing they give me works. I'm told I just have to keep massaging the area and use the menthal inhalers and gum
But then I read online that one way is to blow up balloons (you can actually buy such a device to blow for clearing of the pistachio tubes), and while I don't have any balloons I do have a clarinet. So I had a 10 minutes, I mean 30 minutes session of random tuneful blowing (I hope!) and when I came downstairs, now quite hot, I had to urgently blow my nose. So that seems to be working. I will keep up with that.
Fingers and earlobes crossed!

Unfortunately I have no such aids and any money I get now goes towards providing me with mobility aids. To play clarinet involves standing and I can only do that for a short while. Or sit on the edge of the bed which isn't ideal. I have a piano stool but our room is cluttered from making arrangements for me when I'm downstairs. I need to majorly downsize, getting rid of books, old cameras, guitars I don't/can't play and concentrate on my piano playing which I can manage for 30 minutes to an hour. It has really messed things up for me, and on top of that the meds I'm taking are making me manic, hyper, and deriving me of sleep. I simply have no time to do anything I want to so I'm not sure what to do with this old, beautiful clarinet!

Nice, that was damn cool!

Maybe if you show a photo of the connecting mechanism between the two body joints, that might give a clue?

Quote from: ghostler on July 23, 2026, 07:32:59 PM

Quote from: LarryS on July 15, 2026, 11:39:19 PMI'd left it alone for quite a while. When I got my diagnosis the bottom kinda fell out of my world and that was it, cancer, I'm out. The treatments were making me ill on top of a 2 week stay in hospital with chronic sickness and diarrhoea, took me ages to recover and then begin chemo. Itx only now I'm back on my feet and one of the meds they give me causes bad stomach ache and another gives me constipation and a lack of taste. So yea ita been fun!

Hi Larry, sorry to hear you are feeling a bit under the weather. Yeah, my wife had breast cancer about 20 years ago, she went through surgery, chemo, meds, the wnole 9 yards. Fortunately it has not returned since.



You wouldn't happen to be the same poster LaFlute on The Woodwind Forum?
chemo, meds, the wnole 9 yards. Fortunately it has not returned since.

And I know about meds ill affects, had back surgery 4 years ago. Found their theories on pain meds constipating me and stool softeners to overcome just didn't work. After a day home discontinued the hospital's pain meds, I was plugged solid. Then all those stool softeners inside me started to work immediately. Found although I was in pain, ibuprophen was sufficient to remove the edge. After a couple days didn't need them. If someone was wondering how I was doing, I'd lift my shirt back and show them the incision with 14 steel staples, quickly ending the "show and tell".

You wouldn't happen to be the same poster LaFlute on The Woodwind Forum?

Don't have a Pedler clarinet but have a 1940's G. Penzel (Mueller) Pacemaker intermediate that I bought not long ago for a song in good condition.

Yep that's me. I started playing again but the trouble is to be good on clarinet, or even capable, you have to practise daily or you lose your embouchure, it goes soft and you lose your tone, your playing becomes very wet and its just an endless battle. I'm unable to practise daily at the moment, some days I can barely move! So its put away again till god knows when, if at all, I'll play it again. I can still play piano, that is like riding a bike, I never forget, and can just jump straight back on to it, for about 30 minutes. Then my back starts to ache and I have to come back down

Quote from: ghostler on July 24, 2026, 11:03:07 AM

Quote from: LarryS on July 13, 2026, 03:38:35 PM

Quote from: lydian on July 13, 2026, 01:07:53 PMGlad to hear you're feeling well enough to play again. Reeds are only a click and a few more days away.

I wouldn't have believed it, but I honestly can't help but think the chemo is working.

Hang in there. When I herniated a disk in my back years ago, the orthopedic doc told me that healing takes time. Day to day one may not notice change. But if one looks back a month ago, two months ago and can say, today I feel better now than I did back then. Healing has taken place.

I've noticed there are good days, and there are bad days. Not long after the above mentioned day, there was a string of bad days.
Thankfully today was a good day and I got some piano playing in.

I detected a touch of superiority/snobbery from the sax bunch. I just got the feeling that I was not welcome there...

Cheers

 A 70s song by a group called Space, which was the first piece I learned to play on a bontempi reed organ when I was 11.

Here playing it on my Carry On EWI (electronic wind instrument ) using Flute voice


https://youtu.be/DZpUiUzptxU?is=SfE8HmklXEmfib3I

Say Windsong, would you happen to have or know someone who has a metal Pedler for sale? Not for me, someone elsewhere was asking about them and I know you deal with Pedlers.

I'd left it alone for quite a while. When I got my diagnosis the bottom kinda fell out of my world and that was it, cancer, I'm out. The treatments were making me ill on top of a 2 week stay in hospital with chronic sickness and diarrhoea, took me ages to recover and then begin chemo. Itx only now I'm back on my feet and one of the meds they give me causes bad stomach ache and another gives me constipation and a lack of taste. So yea ita been fun!

Here's me playing it. Noblet 2V mpc. Legere European cut 2.5

https://youtu.be/U8Spqk4POmM?is=O57u8FUURLX1qPkq

The F sounds now, but the E doesn't
Forget second octave. I was using the Noblet 2v mpc

Well I've had another look at the low key on the Pedler and its definitely that F pad that is not closing properly.
I've tried moving the screw on the touch piece, no effect. If I cover all the holes and blow I can hear a leak from that key only. But if I touch it with another finger it seals.
And I have reeds. They were in my tools box
https://youtube.com/shorts/tF_RQ1FL3Cs?is=jAjU_P-PcrAPWPCl