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What? I’m sorry I can’t hear you

Two days after my 39th birthday I’m woken by Kendra. She is checking to see if I can hear my alarm. I was sleeping on my left side and my answer was a big fat NO. I got up and realized my right ear was working at about 15% and part of my face was numb. That day’s work was a video shoot in Laredo, Texas. Driving down to the shoot didn’t help my hearing. Dizzy and dazed I did the shoot. I had my bicycle with me so I managed to break into a closed city park and have aa bicycle ride  Things were going great until I had a flat.

Laredo Mountain Bike Trail Obstical

That day I learned the importance of riding a bike with a pump, or how bad it is to not have one. So 4 miles of riding and a half mile hike and I was back to my truck. That evening I arrived in Corpus Christi with a deaf right ear. I would go to sleep knowing tomorrow would be big.

I awake with little to no hearing. Not enough to matter. My ear is not the important thing today, it’s the tumor in my foot. Kendra and I are off to MD Anderson for a CT-Scan and an appointment with the brain/spine surgeon. The Dr. eases our worries and says it doesn’t look like cancer. This is a relief but doesn’t explain my sudden hearing loss. He scopes my ear with the ear thingie and says it’s crooked but looks clean. We make it back to Corpus Christi and I go to sleep with a dead ear.

Two days pass and nothing is changing. I freak out a bit and make an appointment with my ear, nose, & throat (ENT) doctor. After a few days wait I get in and get tested. I have 100% hearing loss. After a triple threat of nasty pharmaceuticals for 6 days, I finally get some resonant frequencies back. It’s just enough to really annoy the piss out of you. My 7 day ENT follow-up yielded a hearing test of 65%. At my two week follow-up, my ear would be functioning at 90%. Incredible! One Dr. said I should go buy campaign while the other wanted to take me to the dog track. I’m guessing I’m lucky to have any hearing back.

Two months have passed since my sudden loss of hearing. I’m not 100% but I’m very functional. The body does a great job of compensating for the loss. Being deaf for a few days was harder than I would think. I’m so thankful I’m back to almost normal. I really don’t think I will get all of my hearing back. Dr seems to think I had a virus that shut it down. I know, not my typical funny post. I just wanted to get the story down in my medical notes so I don’t forget. For now, I’m off the meds and back on my bike training was suspended for a while due to meds making me feel funny.
-Derrick

I'm Derrick Perrin and I support this message! Thanks for reading and comment or post if you have time.