aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Monday, February 27, 2006

Uh oh, the update

Well, I guess the bottom line is that if you ever wake up with sudden complete hearing loss, go to an ear, nose and throat specialist immediately.

I got to the doctor at about 11 a.m. today. Great doctor, I like him. That’s good because I gather I’ll be seeing a good bit of him over the next few days. He gave me great gobs of information; I could only absorb so much, but what I get is that there are only two possible causes of my hearing loss: a brain event or an infection of some sort.

We don’t think it a brain event (my term, I don’t recall what his terms were but what he said was that if it is the brain it could be one of many things so I’ve reduced all of it down to “brain event"). I’m not exhibiting other neurological symptoms; if I were I’d be in the hospital. As it is, I have an MRI at 4 to rule this option out.

The other option, the infection, also could be a number of things. Herpes was in there somewhere though he said not the kind of herpes we’re used to, maybe 7 or 8? He also said the word “stroke” though that might have been under the heading of brain event. The trick with the infection is to treat it aggressively and quickly because, and here’s the rub, the earlier and the more aggressive the more likely the possibility of recovering hearing.

I never heard the word “full” as in recover full hearing, but he seemed to indicate that there was a good shot at recovering my hearing. So I’m taking the meds but the problem is that the vertigo and dizziness is so severe that nausea is a problem - sorry if I’m being too graphic. Now I’ve got to take meds to help me keep the meds down.

Interestingly, the computer is my friend in this regard. By focusing on the screen, the doctor explained, I minimize the vertigo and dizziness. In fact, as I sit here typing I have virtually none. His office has wireless so I was blogging away (corrected my misspellings in the previous post) and emailing my friend in New York (who, in typical New York fashion, was saying, “get out of there and get to Emory in Atlanta!")

If the MRI turns out bad I’ll head to Atlanta. I wonder if they have wireless at Emory? Otherwise I’m staying here in the good hands of the good people who are taking good care of me. Remember, I believe that genius is evenly distributed, we just don’t know it yet.

UPDATE: The MRI’s all clear.