This Bud's for you.
Apr. 18th, 2012 01:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogWhen I said, earlier, that I already had my next entry "in my head," I wasn't kidding.
Let me tell you about myhoinia trip to the ear nose and throat place earlier.
I told some of you about this, I know, but here was Teh Stupid that got me there: Sunday before last, after decades of danger, I finally managed to pop an eardrum on account of using a goddam Qtip against its explicit instructions. I felt what seemed like a water drop or air bubble hit way inside, and next I knew, OW. But the hearing in that ear seemed okay, which is key, because that ear, the left one, has been my only fully functioning one for over 40 years. I ruptured the eardrum in the right one a few months before turning 10, it healed but the hearing never fully came back, and between avoidance and indifference I managed to not ever try anything meaningful to enhance it or repair it.
When the condition didn't clear after a few days- pain was still occasionally there, plus more than usual ringing- I got an ENT referral, and today was the day. They were going to start with the audiologist checking the hearing, but when she looked at the left one with a basic-level scope, it looked, and this is a quote, "weird." I was sent to a PA with stronger microscopic equipment, and she confirmed the weirdness. Something was in there, and it wasn't a Qtip, base or cotton. Had I ever had tubes put in? Not from that end, I replied; I briefly wondered if some part had migrated from one of my many root canals up that way, but after a few painful pokes, she got it out.
And what was "it," you may ask?
I hold (or rather held) in my hand the source of my trouble:
That's an earbud, ifn you couldn't tell. The part on the top is what generates the tunes; the part on the bottom is what surrounds it and cushions the ear from its sharpy edginess. But there's a third piece to the assembly: a small plastic sheath that acts as a washer of sorts between the two. From time to time, I'd pull the bud out of that ear and would find the bottom part still stuck inside, and I'd gently pull it out. Apparently, though? One time, Gods know when (I haven't used that particular pair in months that I can remember), I brilliantly pulled out the cap but managed to leave the sheath in. Where it remained, causing no notice or trouble, until that nasty Qtip pushed it back into the drum on Easter Sunday.
He is risen, indeed.
So that cleared up the problem as such. There's still some ringing, but there was a fair piece of yanking plus, you know, it was IN THERE for all that time so I'm expecting a bit of that. There's no hole in the drum and the hearing in that ear (once I was passed back to the audiologist) tested out as perfectly okay for one mine age.
But then a funny thing happened. Just for shits and giggles, they checked the hearing in the right ear. Dead ear. Deaf ear. And yaknow? There IS some. It's below normal on the charts, but especially when they bypassed the ear canal and connected the testing device to the bone in the back? I could hear words, even with the left ear white-noised out.
This opens up a long-overdue lifetime of possibilities. Hearing aids or even a surgical fix. We still have the wherewithal.
The best part, of course, was that in order to do the testing, they had to put fairly invasive noise-canceling headphones into both ears. I asked them to check and be sure that they hadn't left any parts behind;)
Let me tell you about my
I told some of you about this, I know, but here was Teh Stupid that got me there: Sunday before last, after decades of danger, I finally managed to pop an eardrum on account of using a goddam Qtip against its explicit instructions. I felt what seemed like a water drop or air bubble hit way inside, and next I knew, OW. But the hearing in that ear seemed okay, which is key, because that ear, the left one, has been my only fully functioning one for over 40 years. I ruptured the eardrum in the right one a few months before turning 10, it healed but the hearing never fully came back, and between avoidance and indifference I managed to not ever try anything meaningful to enhance it or repair it.
When the condition didn't clear after a few days- pain was still occasionally there, plus more than usual ringing- I got an ENT referral, and today was the day. They were going to start with the audiologist checking the hearing, but when she looked at the left one with a basic-level scope, it looked, and this is a quote, "weird." I was sent to a PA with stronger microscopic equipment, and she confirmed the weirdness. Something was in there, and it wasn't a Qtip, base or cotton. Had I ever had tubes put in? Not from that end, I replied; I briefly wondered if some part had migrated from one of my many root canals up that way, but after a few painful pokes, she got it out.
And what was "it," you may ask?
I hold (or rather held) in my hand the source of my trouble:
That's an earbud, ifn you couldn't tell. The part on the top is what generates the tunes; the part on the bottom is what surrounds it and cushions the ear from its sharpy edginess. But there's a third piece to the assembly: a small plastic sheath that acts as a washer of sorts between the two. From time to time, I'd pull the bud out of that ear and would find the bottom part still stuck inside, and I'd gently pull it out. Apparently, though? One time, Gods know when (I haven't used that particular pair in months that I can remember), I brilliantly pulled out the cap but managed to leave the sheath in. Where it remained, causing no notice or trouble, until that nasty Qtip pushed it back into the drum on Easter Sunday.
He is risen, indeed.
So that cleared up the problem as such. There's still some ringing, but there was a fair piece of yanking plus, you know, it was IN THERE for all that time so I'm expecting a bit of that. There's no hole in the drum and the hearing in that ear (once I was passed back to the audiologist) tested out as perfectly okay for one mine age.
But then a funny thing happened. Just for shits and giggles, they checked the hearing in the right ear. Dead ear. Deaf ear. And yaknow? There IS some. It's below normal on the charts, but especially when they bypassed the ear canal and connected the testing device to the bone in the back? I could hear words, even with the left ear white-noised out.
This opens up a long-overdue lifetime of possibilities. Hearing aids or even a surgical fix. We still have the wherewithal.
The best part, of course, was that in order to do the testing, they had to put fairly invasive noise-canceling headphones into both ears. I asked them to check and be sure that they hadn't left any parts behind;)
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-23 02:30 pm (UTC)Yet one more reason for me to always insist on using over-the-ear phones! AUGH!
I hope there's a good option for you to augment the hearing in your not-so-hot ear, now that you know it's not fully deaf!
no subject
Date: 2012-04-18 05:54 pm (UTC)But I am glad they fixed you up, and that there may be help for your other ear!
no subject
Date: 2012-04-18 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-18 06:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-18 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-18 06:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-18 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-18 07:28 pm (UTC)Glad to hear you might be able to get the right ear sorted as well!
no subject
Date: 2012-04-18 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-18 08:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 02:24 am (UTC)That makes me feel better as I still clean my ears every morning with a Q-tip and would go nuts if I couldn't. As I really need my ears and I my hearing I am excessively careful about it, so I am choosing to take this cautionary tale as one about wearing quality sound accessories.
Also? I'm glad they can do something about your previously dead ear.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 10:48 am (UTC)(Least this one wasn't green, although I occasionally borrow Eleanor's, which is.)
no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 11:21 pm (UTC)Good luck with your not really dead ear! (or is it a zombie ear now?)
no subject
Date: 2012-04-21 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-20 08:36 pm (UTC)Hearing aids have become remarkable these days.