Picture this…I’m happily walking down the street one moment and in the next moment, I’m riding in an ambulance. Well, it didn’t really happen that quickly, but close.
On October 15th, 2013, I took a lovely drive on a beautiful fall day to see my good friend, who just happens to fit hearing aids. I was a little bit nervous, but mostly excited that I was finally going to be able to hear, get teased a little less by my kids, and have a snazzy new piece of technology behind my ear to show off. After all, I’ve been working for a hearing aid company for close to ten years, it’s about time I represent.
After she tested my hearing, and tested the hearing in my bone, which is apparently different than what your ear hears, she looked at me and said, “You have profound hearing loss in one ear. I want you to go to an ENT to see what’s causing it.”
“What do you mean ‘what’s causing it?’ I thought I just had hearing loss.”
She said, “There is a medical reason for your type of hearing loss, I want you to see a doctor to figure out what it is and then come back and we’ll get you set up with an aid.”
“You’re my good friend, can’t you please tell me what you think may be causing it?”
She said, “I really can’t. I’m not a doctor. It could be caused by several different things, possibly Ménière’s disease, or a tumor or any number of things. You need to see an ENT. Here, let’s get on Google and find one near you….”
Those words echoed in my head. Ménière’s disease. Tumor. See a doctor. In other words, something else is going on. You don’t have just plain-old, run-of-the-mill hearing loss.
We continued to chat and catch-up, we talked about kids, and work and life. She walked me to my car, we chatted a few more minutes in the beautiful sunshine, said our good-byes, I promised to keep her up-to-date on what I found out, we hugged and I was off.
Meanwhile, those words echoed in my head. Ménière’s disease. Tumor. See a doctor.
I called my husband on the way home, told him about the appointment, tried not to sound nervous, and reassured him that I would call around to find an ENT as soon as I got home.
Which I did. I called several. Many wanted me to see an Audiologist first and get my hearing re-tested. Most wanted to do their own test before they would see me again at another appointment to look at the cause. Ain’t nobody got time for dat. I finally made an appointment with one who could see me on the 29th. The 29th seemed so far away, two whole weeks, but ok, I’ll take it.
The next morning, I got up, showered, got the kids off to school and went to see my chiropractor. After my adjustment, I started to tell him a little bit about my appointment the day before. All of a sudden, his face changed. The normal, happy, laid-back (and might I mention good looking) guy was gone and there was a very concerned individual standing in front of me. Now he was asking me strange questions, you only have hearing loss in one ear? are you having any numbness in your face? And more questions that I couldn’t possibly hear because he was looking at me with so much concern, I got worried. And if you know me, I don’t get worried that easily. I would certainly not classify myself as a worry-wart.
I called my husband and told him about “the look” and that it worried me. I tried to sound calm, and reassure him and myself at the same time. I don’t know if it worked. I’m thinking now that it didn’t. He told me he thought I should go to the Emergency Room at the hospital where he works. I said, “No, this isn’t really an ’emergency’, I’m not bleeding or throwing up.” He said, “This qualifies as an emergency. You cannot wait until the 29th. You need to go now.”
I sighed and said, “you’re probably right. But I feel weird. I mean, honestly, I’m not sick.”
I called my sister-in-law who is a pharmacist and told her about “the look”. She said, “You need to go to the Emergency Room. And don’t leave until they give you a CT Scan. Something is going on, you cannot wait until the 29th.”
I emailed work and told them I’d be gone for the afternoon and off I went to the Emergency Room, hoping I’d get back in time to pick up my kids after school.
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