Ear drum not ruptured: tinnitus remains mystery
So, I haven't posted in a while. There are several things I could, in principle, post about now. But I'm distracted by my head-cold. So I'm only going to write about that.
Basically, I got some sort of head/sinus illness while in Florida for the weekend. I should have been able to see it coming from the fact that every fluid in the vicinity of the horribly dry, over-air conditioned hotel was $5/oz. (I exaggerate slightly) and the tap water smelled and tasted quite awful (I exaggerate not at all). Anyway, the cold peaked shortly before I was due to fly home, so I bought myself some orange juice and Tylenol with extra decongestant things (10oz. and 3 doses, respectively. Total: $11). The flight was going fine (I slept through almost all of it) until 20 minutes before landing. Apparently, the descent was perfectly timed with my Tylenol with extra decongestant things wearing off. It was accompanied by mild loss of hearing (sadly, not enough to block out the children in the next row) and acute ear pain that did not improve with any amount of chewing, swallowing, gently blowing my nose, contemplating my continued existence, etc.
Some time after landing my right ear went back to normal and my left ear stopped hurting so badly, but remained uncomfortably stuffy. And then today, I woke up feeling almost reasonable, but my left ear became worse again and I started noticing an irritating whooshing noise. I went to Health Services. I sat for an hour. I learned that my ear is not infected and that the ear drum is not ruptured, but that I should take decongestants to ensure that my ear can drain, thus allowing the pressure to equalize and my ear drum to continue to not rupture. Excellent. I'm that German tomorrow will be fun on Sudafed.
Basically, I got some sort of head/sinus illness while in Florida for the weekend. I should have been able to see it coming from the fact that every fluid in the vicinity of the horribly dry, over-air conditioned hotel was $5/oz. (I exaggerate slightly) and the tap water smelled and tasted quite awful (I exaggerate not at all). Anyway, the cold peaked shortly before I was due to fly home, so I bought myself some orange juice and Tylenol with extra decongestant things (10oz. and 3 doses, respectively. Total: $11). The flight was going fine (I slept through almost all of it) until 20 minutes before landing. Apparently, the descent was perfectly timed with my Tylenol with extra decongestant things wearing off. It was accompanied by mild loss of hearing (sadly, not enough to block out the children in the next row) and acute ear pain that did not improve with any amount of chewing, swallowing, gently blowing my nose, contemplating my continued existence, etc.
Some time after landing my right ear went back to normal and my left ear stopped hurting so badly, but remained uncomfortably stuffy. And then today, I woke up feeling almost reasonable, but my left ear became worse again and I started noticing an irritating whooshing noise. I went to Health Services. I sat for an hour. I learned that my ear is not infected and that the ear drum is not ruptured, but that I should take decongestants to ensure that my ear can drain, thus allowing the pressure to equalize and my ear drum to continue to not rupture. Excellent. I'm that German tomorrow will be fun on Sudafed.
posted by Christine at 8:53 PM
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