Hanging Tough

Say What?

I have now been suffering from disabling sciatica and nerve pain since January 2nd; it's presently requiring 10 mg of oxycodone just for me to be able to function/ignore the pain. But the most annoying thing? I had a drug reaction on January 12, and it caused sudden deafness in one ear.

The ENT dr can tell there is something behind the ear drum -- perhaps every blood vessel in the ear burst, or perhaps there is a growth. I am thankful I just had great imaging results, so we have ruled out tumors in the brain causing the hearing loss or cancer causing the sciatica, neuropathy, and numbness I'm experiencing from the pelvis down.

This week, I did an extensive hearing test. It took 45 minutes and was conducted by a computer! The first part, all I had to do was sit there with plugs vacuum-tight in both ears while the machine did things to measure air conduction and so forth.

The second part was the part we're all accustomed to doing: pressing the button at the sound of the pulsing tone. I did well on my normal ear; it took me a few seconds to realize I was "hearing" the tone in my problematic ear via the bones in my skull and the change in the tinnitus. So I think my ear is still structurally working and I am hopeful all will be fine in the long run.

The third part was speech recognition. I aced it with my normal ear; I flunked it with the problematic ear. : (
At this point, I am unable to use a telephone with that ear -- speech is not recognizable to my ear enough for me to even begin to GUESS what's being said. : (

So it has been a tough couple of months for me, but I am still hanging tough right back. Yesterday I went for the CT scan of the area. I will get the results of the hearing tests and the CT scan when I see the doctor again in 2 weeks. I think it's all just nuisance stuff, and I am really really looking forward to when it's over and done!