A New Development....

Things had been going rather smoothly until the last weekend in January. One morning I woke up and felt like my left ear was blocked. I didn't notice how it was going to affect me until my daughter called and I put my phone to my left ear as I always do. I couldn't hear anything but a sqawking, like in that Charlie Brown holiday movie. I even told her, "Something is wrong with the connection! You sound terrible and really far away." Then just for the heck of it, I switched ears and I could hear her normally. But my voice sounded so strange to myself, very muffled and there were odd reverberations like my voice was being distorted. I was so disoriented by this, I thought I'd better go to the urgent care center, so I did. I didn't have any infection, there was just a small bit of fluid in my ear. The nurse practitioner diagnosed it as Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss,  or SSHL. The NP said to try and get into an ear, nose and throat doctor soon, but didn't prescribe anything and didn't seem too concerned. I was very concerned. I could not hear Eldy at all if I plugged my good ear. I called the ENT doctor and got an appointment for Monday. In the meantime, I went down the Google rabbit hole for that diagnosis. Here's what I found:

Not the most encouraging news as far as percentages but somewhat hopeful. I started a steroid regimen for 10 days...and returned to the ENT for a second hearing test one week later. There had been some improvement. I'm to continue to finish out the steroid, he will do another hearing test in another week. At that point I may have a CT scan to make sure there is nothing interfering with the auditory nerve, or some hidden little tumor acting up in there. It is good that I got in so quickly, as you can see by the stats above, that time is of the essence when this occurs. 

I asked lots of questions--Is this chemo related? He said no, it would have happened during or right after chemo ended. Is it my meds? No, as far as whe he sees that I am taking, it is not likely due to meds even though there is a 1% chance or less of my particular medications causing this type of hearing loss. He thinks it would be bilateral damage if that were the case. Did I take too much of any kind of supplement such as vitamins or dietary supplements (Ex. hair and nails Weem)? No, again, anything and everything I am taking to keep my health going is well within limits. I don't take aspirin or high Tylenol or Aleve doses either, which can sometimes aggravate hearing loss. 

We keep watching and monitoring my hearing. Ear injections directly into the nerve area are possibilities as a next step. I ended up from going to severe hearing loss to mild and we stopped doing anything further. 

Six weeks later, the left ear went deaf AGAIN, suddenly. Back to the ENT doctor....severe hearing loss again. This time she recommended steroid shots directly into the auditory nerve. I had a shot two weeks in a row, and there was a slight positive change. She said the preferred results would have shown more of a positive change for the good. As the hearing loss remains on the border of mild to moderate, and there wasn't much improvement, we decided no further shots. She said sometimes the hearing continues to improve but we shall see.....If it happens a third time, I will need to get a specialized brain MRI that focuses on the ear canal and inner ear. Then, the next step after that is a hearing aid...

In the meantime...waiting for my next PET scan which has been pushed to 4 months, instead of three because of the last two PET scans showed no further development and things were stable.  That's good! I have an echocardiogram every three months and the latest one showed effusion (fluid) around the heart and severe coronary arteriosclerosis in one artery so a visit to the cardiologist was recommended. He recommended a statin, even though my latest cholesterol reading was under 200. I said no, as the side effects would just compound my current muscle and joint pain, and I would continue to work on diet and exercise. He was ok with that after chastizing me by saying if my cholesterol was good over time, I wouldn't have arteriosclerosis! Good point. He also was conservative in his approach to "fixing" things and treatment, as I am not a patient with a long expectancy life span. As if I needed reminding....sigh....

While I was there, he teased me about my step-in Sketchers shoes. "I see you were too tired to tie your shoes this morning," he says...."Heck, I just forgot to change out my house shoes for outdoor ones," I retorted with a laugh. I didn't want him to think I was being lazy!

After all, I still work out at the Y with the treadmill and rowing machine, trying to keep up my bone density, and walking at our local county park. The most I can do is about 2-2.5 miles, as hip, joint and feet pain make it difficult to do any more than that. Here are a couple of spring photos from the park to liven up this blog a little! I love Oxbow County Park in Goshen. There is always something beautiful to see....

The photo below is a plant called toadshade....

One of my favorite spring plants at the park, Dutchman's breeches...They are popping up all over the park. They are little, close to the ground plants. They look more like little butterflies to me than a Dutchman's pants!

This week I saw a big beautiful Tom turkey with a flock of hens in the brush!

Nature really helps me deal with everything that is going on...The cycles of the seasons and the flowers and plants that I look forward to seeing and photographing help me change my focus from my health to the outdoors, a wonderful place to be when the weather is beautiful here in northwest Indiana.....Thanks for following along with me on my journey.....

                                        Jeannie, a.ka. "Sparky"