I can hear clearly now the rain has gone

I went to get my ears syringed today, after getting fed up with a few months of being partly deaf because they were blocked. I haven't heard things so clearly for ages - tiny noises were audible in complete clarity because I wasn't used to filtering them out, and I nearly deafened myself again with the clatter when I closed the door after getting back. What would it be like if I'd always been deaf, I wonder? Would my brain have any clue how to deal with the stuff my ears were telling it?

Unfortunately the thing that they use to perform this wondrous operation feels and sounds rather like a dentist's drill, applied to a place that really wasn't designed to be drilled. So I now have a vicious headache and am going to collapse for as many hours as I can get away with.