After seeing the doctor last Friday and putting up the Christmas tree on Sunday, I was improved... I still couldn't hear for shit out of my right ear, but the left one was improved. Although sitting on the floor to put the tree together and/or sitting on Ma's slightly uncomfortable dining chairs was a mistake.
So Monday I arranged another doctor's appointment for the following morning since I still couldn't hear. Went back to see the slightly vague but lovely 106 year old doctor on Tuesday morning. He poked around my ears, then arranged for an appointment with the ENT (Ear Nose and Throat) specialist that afternoon at 4:15, gave me a referral letter and sent me on my way.
Tuesday afternoon I left work early, bussed it home (although I'm pretty damn sure it took me the same amount of time on the bus that it would have done if I'd walked home, okay probably not, but it certainly felt that way), then took the car to the appointment in Kent Town.
I should have realised that since he was an ENT, a large portion of his audience would be little kids... and for some reason I also didn't expect the waiting room to be quite so chocker-block with people at 4:15 in the afternoon. I also kind of thought he might be on time, but I realise that's really pushing the proverbial up hill. So between every single sound echoing around in my head, sitting (once again) in uncomfortable chairs and having to wait around for about 20 minutes (again, not really arguing, they got me in at the last minute, which I appreciated), I just wanted him to do his thing and then to, you know, be able to hear again.
Things don't often go according to plan.
He poked around, I told the SAME DAMN STORY I've told to every single person I've seen (and he had like two other versions of it from the ER doctor and my "regular" doctor already), then he got me up on the table and, essentially shoved a tiny vacuum cleaner in my ears. It was a somewhat weird experience, although it didn't hurt as much as the time the ER doctor Macguyvered one out of spare parts.
The news wasn't the worst possible news, but it also wasn't the best news. I have fluid behind my eardrums, which is why the ears feel blocked and I can't hear so good. Great, so we know the WHAT. Unfortunately there isn't a follow up from the what. He thinks that there were perforations in my eardrums, hence the original issue with the ears weeping, but they fixed themselves, but unfortunately when they did the fluid got trapped behind them. Now I need to keep taking the antibiotics my regular doctor gave me, and hope that my Eustachian tubes (which sounds like part of the London Underground to be perfectly honest) unblock and allow the fluid to drain out of the big holes in my head that are supposed to be full of air.
He "prescribed" some nasal sprays, I say prescribed, but they're over the counter medication, so it's not like it's especially hard hitting stuff.
And at the end of that, after essentially telling me that it should sort itself out within a "couple of months" (hopefully it sorts itself out by the end of the course of antibiotics, because otherwise I may lose my mind), he charged me $300 for the privilege. Insert reference to wounded bulls and the charging thereof.
Of course between the fact that he didn't actually "fix" me, and the fact that I was in a degree of pain from sitting, plus the fact that I turned all the way left when I should have turned not quite as left on the way home I ended up having to come back through the city. At 5:30... it's actually very fortunately that I didn't just start ploughing into pedestrians and other cars left right and centre. Because I wanted to. A lot.
But even though I was grumpy about the overall lack of action with my ears (which sounds wrong somehow), there has been overall improvement. I can hear a little more out of the right, and at least I have a reason and something to work towards (which is not going back to the next ENT appointment in February because I don't need to). And it's not painful any more, which is also a bonus. Somehow come Wednesday I also didn't feel so completely lacking in energy as I've done since this whole thing started.
Come today and I'm generally "better"... I'm sleep deprived, grumpy, my back hurts and my ears still aren't right... but relatively speaking, I'm better.
I wanted to sneak in and see one of my chiros on Wednesday, but I called up just that little bit too late (totally my own fault, but D'OH!), I did managed to snaffle an appointment on Thursday morning though. And it helped... a bit... for a while.
For some reason that I don't entirely understand I just crashed on Thursday night. Or tried to. I couldn't be bothered cooking, so went out to get takeaway and when I got back and had eaten I just crashed out on the bed. And probably would have fallen asleep there and then had the Trust Fund Babies (as we've taken to calling them during my frequent rantings about them at work), my backyard neighbours, not been standing around screaming at each other drunkenly. Add to that someone somewhere downwind of me has been playing music for the last three nights, but that has stopped around 10:30 or so each night, which is fine... except for tonight, where it just won't shut the fuck up and is seriously working my last remaining nerve. And the TFBs shut up around the same time yesterday... so I officially crawled into bed and gave up about then.
But then 2:22 this morning rolled around... and the TFB's came home from whatever drunken shenanigans they'd been indulging in all night and went back to screaming at each other in the backyard/their gigantic open plan kitchen/lounge/outdoor area. And every time I thought they'd settled down and wandered off, they'd start up again. I would have called the police earlier, and should have, but I wanted them to shut up on their own, plus I hadn't summoned up the energy to reach for the phone, dial and talk. But I did eventually.
By the time somebody came out and then they actually shut the hell up, it was somewhere close to 4am... so I would have to say that I dozed fitfully until my alarm went off an hour later, and then ignored the alarm until after 6am.
So it hasn't been the best of days... especially since either the lack of sleep or the abrupt awakening or just the way I was laying last night has tweaked my back in some new way.
I know some of this (the additional stupid band music coming up the hill from the cricket earlier in the evening, and music that stops at 10:30) is the price of living in North Adelaide. But the TFBs are just inconsiderate wankers. Their drunken yelling up to 10:30 I don’t like but can cope with... but this early AM bullshit isn't, as they say, cricket old chum.
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1 comment:
I hope your ears clear up soon, its simply horrid for ears to hurt, and not to be able to hear. Have you tried lying with an ear down on a heating pad? Some times the heat will help break things loose and drain.
Late doctors, grrrrrrr. Not a fan. There is no way they can see a patient within the 15 minutes they usually allot per patient.
Your neighbors sound like the ones we used to live next door too. I swore they were vampires, as only at night did we see them.
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