I think I have mentioned in the past that I would not wish this type of tinnitus on my worst enemy. Well, I’ve found something else I wouldn’t want to thrust upon anyone – the treatment for this type of tinnitus. Today I experienced trans-tymphanic steroidal injections. This procedure injects steroids directly into the middle ear, in an effort to more speedily get the medicine to the inner ear, where it should assist in clearing up the issue.

First, after rechecking that your hearing is, in fact, not there, they lay you on a table. Using what feels like a tiny blob of hot wax, but is in actuality a numbing agent, the eardrum is disconnected from reality. Don’t worry – you won’t notice. You would, however, notice the next part if the hot wax treatment was not used.

A needle, containing the steroid liquid, and approximately the same diameter as the New York Subway Tunnel System, is used to first poke a “valve” hole, then the injection site, in the eardrum. The steroids are injected slowly, allowing time for equalization of pressure. This also allow some of this material to invade your sinus cavity. Yummy. Swallowing constantly is the only defense. Lather, rinse, repeat on other side.

Instructed to lay quietly for twenty minutes, in order for the liquids to quit dribbling, and to prevent the patient from taking a header because vertigo does that to you, I came up with a couple of descriptions: waterboarding the inner ear, getting water IN your ears, things like that. The vertigo and dizziness wave a little bit, and slowly depart.

Still can’t hear anything. Results are usually between immediate and two weeks. These shots are usually down in sets of three. Set number two will be Friday afternoon, about 1600 hours, on the west side of town this time, and after I see the inner ear specialist to discuss surgical options if the medicinal option does not work.

If you are considering getting this procedure, or if this procedure is prescribed for you, have someone drive you. And allow for about two hours.

This has been a public service announcement. If you have feedback, responses, or just wanna share, then leave a comment here. Or text me. Don’t call, I can’t here your end of the conversation. Can’t really hear my end either, but I do have a chance of imagining what I would be sounding like!

Chat ya later…

Thanks for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, and Wear Red on Fridays!

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When it gets right down to it, I’m the one who thought he didn’t need hearing protection all the time. Just when it was going to be louder than normal, right? Certainly not while waiting my turn on the rifle or pistol range. Certainly not while walking through the shop – not if I wasn’t the one operating the tools, right?

When it gets right down to it, it’s my own fault that the tinnitus is SO FREAKIN’ LOUD that I can’t even get to sleep because of it …

Well, I get to serve as a bad example. I could tour factories and military posts and say “Boys and girls, use your hearing protection. If you don’t, you will grow up to be just like me. Deaf, tired, and grumpy because you look back and realize you could have avoided the same fate.”

grump, grump, grump …

Sunday morning, after the Praise and Worship portion of the service, I had a horrible experience. The tinnitus that had been plaguing my sleep and awake times flared up HARD. Now, instead of a gentle static in the background of everything, the static is full volume and I can’t hear anything over it. Or under it. Or through it.

TMBWitW arranged an appointment for me for tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon. How I made it through today’s work I don’t know.

As an explanation of what I hear, go put your headphones on – the ones connected to your FM receiver. Find a frequency between stations. Turn the volume up to eleven. Now try to think or sleep. Look at someone while they are talking to you. Can you read their lips? I sort of can – as long as they are facing me. I spent a lot of time not interacting with customers today. I also somehow managed to start the training for a new guy.

The thing I miss most of all is the sound of MEG’s voice. She is a quick little learner, though – her Mommy told her to make sure I could see her, then talk to me normally – and Daddy would try to read her lips. You could see that concept working through her mind, and her lips kinda moved a little as she held her fingers over them to feel what they were doing while she talked – then she very carefully got my attention, and said “Daddy, I love you.” I could read her lips – but I couldn’t hear her sweet voice.

Sure hope the Ear Nose Throat Doctor can help me work through this.

Chat ya later…

Thanks for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, and Wear Red on Fridays!

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The following words are keyed to attract the attention of the DHS and the NSA – including the new “Spy Center” in Bluffdale, UT: Terrorism Al Qaeda (all spellings) Terror Attack Iraq Afghanistan Iran Pakistan Agro Environmental terrorist Eco terrorism Conventional weapon Target Weapons grade Dirty bomb Enriched Nuclear Chemical weapon Biological weapon Ammonium nitrate Improvised explosive device IED (Improvised Explosive Device) Abu Sayyaf Hamas FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces Colombia) IRA (Irish Republican Army) ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna) Basque Separatists Hezbollah Tamil Tigers PLF (Palestine Liberation Front) PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) Car bomb Jihad Taliban Weapons cache Suicide bomber Suicide attack Suspicious substance AQAP (AL Qaeda Arabian Peninsula) AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) Yemen Pirates Extremism Somalia Nigeria Radicals Al-Shabaab Home grown Plot Nationalist Recruitment Fundamentalism Islamist Emergency Hurricane Tornado Twister Tsunami Earthquake Tremor Flood Storm Crest Temblor Extreme weather Forest fire Brush fire Ice Stranded/Stuck Help Hail Wildfire Tsunami Warning Center Magnitude Avalanche Typhoon Shelter-in-place Disaster Snow Blizzard Sleet Mud slide or Mudslide Erosion Power outage Brown out Warning Watch Lightening Aid Relief Closure Interstate Burst Emergency Broadcast System Cyber security Botnet DDOS (dedicated denial of service) Denial of service Malware Virus Trojan Keylogger Cyber Command 2600 Spammer Phishing Rootkit Phreaking Cain and abel Brute forcing Mysql injection Cyber attack Cyber terror Hacker China Conficker Worm Scammers Social media

Tinnitus is what I have. Not bad enough to get a surgery to correct it, but bad enough to hear it all. the. time.

This is on top of the slight hearing loss that makes it difficult – nay, impossible! – to hear more than one source of sound clearly at a time. So, if you are talking to me and telling me about the program you are watching, please pause or mute the program before talking, or it all comes at me like an audible bowl of oatmeal.

The tinnitus, though – it’s starting to get on my physical nerves. Imagine, if you will, the sound of the station between stations on the FM band. Not AM – that’s too harsh of a sound. That FM non-station sound is constant in your imagination, and it is unceasing. No matter what time of day or night, you can hear it. The volume level is about three on a scale of ten. Not overly loud, but constant.

I hear it when I wake up in the morning. I’ve been hearing it all night, unconsciously. When I fall asleep at night, I fall asleep hard because I am tired. When my body gets enough sleep to become aware, usually after a couple hours, then I can hear the tinnitus again. It won’t let me fall back asleep. I toss and turn then, for the rest of the night. I fall asleep from physical exhaustion again about an hour before my alarm goes off to start another day. I get out of bed, still tired, both physically and mentally. This cycle repeats every day.

(doing the same thing, over and over, expecting a different result …)

I yawn during the day. A lot. I cover it up mostly, so no one sees it at work. How would that look, the manager yawning all the time? Once in a while a yawn catches me off guard and I have to work hard to stifle it in front of the boss or worse, a customer.

Boss can see this post. She knows I have the hearing issues cropping up lately. Now, she knows how else it affects me.

I’m not saying this to elicit sympathy. I am saying this as a matter of explaining. Letting you know why I don’t respond immediately when you call my name. Filling all of you in on why I don’t always know everything that is said to me. Ask yourself: Did he acknowledge what I said? Was he looking at me when I said it? Was there another sound source when I was speaking to him?

If I smile and nod at you when/while you are talking to me, I can’t hear you and I am just trying to be polite.

Please don’t be offended when I ask you to repeat what you said. Again. And once more, to make sure I heard you correctly.

Chat ya later…

Thanks for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, and Wear Red on Fridays!

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