Thanks very much to everyone who replied to my post-it did make me feel a little better! To mahler123, I'm sorry to hear that you're having so many serious health conditions at 50. I'm 65, and have all the usual ailments, but didn't feel old until this hearing problem occurred. Have you tried NOOM or Weight Watchers for weight management? It's my impression that they are the most successful at helping people maintain a healthy weight (as opposed to intense dieting, which almost always results in gaining all the weight back over time).
Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Hearing Loss
FYI, I have had sleep apnea which I did not have treated for several years. I struggled with using the CPAP machine, and continue to do so. I'm not overweight, and walk and swim, and was in big time denial. Unfortunately, I recently developed unilateral high frequency hearing loss (everything from upper midrange on up), and tinnitus on that side. The loss is irreversible; I'm hoping the tinnitus will diminish. My guess is the repeated lack of oxygen damaged the hearing apparatus. Needless to say, it's upsetting, since my retirement plan (in 3-5 years) was to sit home and play guitar, buy a new turntable (maybe a Rega 6 or 8), speakers (maybe something like the Buchardts or update my Vandersteen 2s), integrated amp, transport and DAC; clean all the used lps I've bought in used record stores over the years (I live near Revilla Records and The Princeton Record Exchange in NJ); and listen to my collection of 5-6 thousand carefully curated CDs and LPs that I've aquired over a lifetime. (I kept all my original lps, plus many recent Blue Note, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, etc. reissues, and 40 years of collecting rock/jazz/americana/folk/blues/country/broadway/vocal/classical cds, including many early ones from Germany and many signed by the artist at small and medium sized concert venues). So, best to get proper treatment if you have this disorder!