Still sick a month later, so yay that.
My ears, which were shockingly, ever so dramatically, infected are no longer infected.
The man with the impressive diplomas on his wall said that mine
were the most putrid ears he's seen this season.
Again with the yay.
Though I cannot say I've always wanted to win that particular accolade,
it's nice to know I wasn't being a drama mama about my (oh woe is me) suffering
and am recognized as exceptional in at least one category.
After two rounds of nuclear strength antibiotics
and the accompanying violent regurgitory episodes,
I am free of my former raging inner-aural fermentation.
And one would think that would be the end of my month's long venture
into the land of icky-sickness.
One would be wrong.
It seems that there is a variant of Covid of which I hadn't heard - Omega.
Omega, I am told, has a distinct progression.
First the familiar symptoms: congestion, coughing, fevers, aches.
Been there. Done all those.
Accompanying these though and, I am told, particular to Omega
are the ear infections.
Then, when the other symptoms finally fade
and the infection of the two fleshy head-holes is conquered,
You ain't done.
The ears, the poor ears who cannot catch a break, are filled, nay overfilled, with fluid,
which does not go away.
Hence, a full month after this odyssey into infirmity began,
I have the same acuity of hearing as my 94-year-old hearing aid wearing father.
It is not as bad as it was at its worst, which was pretty dang deaf,
but I continue to perceive sound as though I am listening from the bottom of a deep pool,
with a constant one-note tonal tinnitus overdub.
Treatments were discussed and all, I was advised, were of the same effectiveness
as just letting things run their course.
The problem, it seems, is not in the ears themselves anymore,
it's in the persistent swelling of the tissues surrounding and closing off the eustachian tubes.
Piercing my eardrums, putting in "tubes", steroids,
and a number of other such things
would not actually hasten recovery.
So it was decided I shall simply wait until my ears drain on their own.
The logical question - How long?
Said smiling doc (as I heard him through an imaginary barrel of water),
"It's hard to tell. This is such a new phenomenon, the data isn't really collected yet,
but the general consensus is a few weeks,"
(well, I'm already past that)
"to three or four months."
Yay.
Loading comments...