Half-way through my eighth day of symptomatic break-through COVID I’m beginning to wonder when, if ever, I’ll be back to where I was before this insidious virus penetrated my mask and my triple vaccination.
In a previous diary I noted how this past Thursday night I had been up all night with an excruciating ear ache that radiated down into my jaw and up into my temple. Those symptoms passed within 12 hours, but I was left with perhaps a one-third loss of hearing in that ear, the left, which I didn’t have to spare as I am already seriously hearing impaired and wear hearing aids.
Last night it was time for the right ear to catch up. The same symptoms, the same sleepless night (making a make-shift heating pad out of a nuked, wet kitchen towel in a zipper lock bag helped a little.) And this morning I find myself in the isolated world of the near deaf. I can hardly hear my phone, be it an alert sound, a music file, or a call.
I of course did what any hypochondriac who can’t sleep does: I did a web search. And sure enough, hearing loss is an uncommon, but nonetheless recognized complication of COVID. Multiple sites described it as a medical emergency and said to seek treatment immediately, the proper treatment being steroids.
But it always bugs the crap out of me when I read something like that, because they make it sound so simple when in reality it is anything but. ER doctors (the most incompetent doctors in the profession) aren’t going to address that. They’re just going to say “Make an appointment to see an otolaryngologist.”
In addition to that development I now find myself extremely winded after walking only a few feet. And yet my oxygenation level…according to the consumer level oximeter I had delivered to me...is registering 98%, which is very good, even for a non-infected individual.
I am certainly grateful for that, but it further complicates any visit to the ER. I’d have to sit in the waiting room for hours and hours waiting to be seen, all the duration of which my nose would continue to flow into my mask. If I were to remove my masks to blow my nose….well everyone sitting within 10 feet of me is would immediately bolt up and try to find other seats, and I don’t blame them one bit. I would do the same in their situation.
And that would all be to finally see an ER doc who would say “Well, your oxygen level is great. Go home, drink plenty of fluids, and take Tylenol.” All of which I am already doing, and have been doing, for eight freaking days now (the use of Tylenol being limited by the blood thinner I am on.) I am grateful for that blood thinner though, as apparently one of the ways in which COVID damages organs is through small blood clots. I’m hoping that the Xarelto is limiting that.
My sister remains free of COVID, apparently, at this time. Unfortunately she is melting down emotionally. She has, in her old age and infirmity, become disturbingly dependent upon me, and going over a week without seeing me is causing its damage. And here I sit feeling utterly impotent to help her.
Tuesday, Jan 4, 2022 · 10:27:07 PM +00:00 · jazzmaniac
I’ve just returned from my otolaryngologist’s office and the news is encouraging. I have fluid and blood in both ears, most likely caused by ruptured ear drums. That may sound alarming but it is really really good news because there’s a good chance the hearing loss will resolve, albeit probably over many weeks. A hearing test was performed which confirmed that yeah...I’ve got very little hearing left. I was asked if I’d had a hearing test prior to COVID, preferably within the past year and I said that yes, I was fitted for my current hearing aids this past Summer and a hearing profile was performed as part of that process.
I was asked to have those results faxed to my ENT doctor’s office so a comparison can be made. This will better allow them to decide whether I need to return for steroid injections and orals. I was told that I have a much larger window to receive those treatments than I had been led to believe. In the meantime I am to use Flonase once a day.
I noticed that going to the doctor’s office did not seem to bring on the breathlessness I noticed previously. Of course most of what I did was sit in my car and drive, but there was some walking involved.
I want to share that the N95 masks I received from Amazon are impressive. They are large, and fit quite securely around the perimeter. It takes some doing, but I can adjust them to where my glasses do not fog. They are “comfortable,” that being a very relative term, of course, and I find that breathing through them takes some effort, but not too much.
smile.amazon.com/…
I’m also quite pleased with the oximeter I purchased from them, although, of course, I have not been able to measure its accuracy against a medical grade model.
smile.amazon.com/…
To all of you who are going through a COVID infection, or have loved ones who are, hang in there. Occasionally there’s some good news.