Thanks, everyone, for the wishes & concern!
Home as of Monday evening.
I have a sudden "failure" of nerve function to the right middle ear, possibly due to a viral inner ear infection. It wasn't painful like a typical ear ache. But Lawdy, it was awful. No pre-indictions. 5 AM everything normal. Woke up ~6:30 AM drenched in a cold sweat, extreme nausea. Thought it was food poisoning. Then noticed right ear was wrong/ringing and the room spinning when I tried to get up, knew it was something else. Solenoid -> Spin Trip Shaft -> 1140 RPM thirty seconds later -> Roll, Pitch, and Yaw. Next thought was a stroke. Crawled to phone, called 911. Right ear now completely dead. Had no idea of the time, thought maybe 10 AM. Tried calling RJ @ work, misdialed to another local business I call regularly (same digits, different order). Screw it, lay on floor, wait for EMS, hope they arrive soon. Had managed to unlock back door for them to get in, told dispatcher on phone. Of course, the Doofuses were knocking at the front. They came around back, I looked up, saw RJ looking in, wondered "Hmmmm, who called him???" (It was a few mins before 7 AM so he hadn't yet left for work.)
They hauled me to the ER, where I promptly vomited three times, missing the barf-bag each time. The ER girlie got a little miffed at having to do three consective clean-ups/gown changes. Sorry, sweetie, trying to aim but it just ain't working. (Really, the ER people were great.) They did a CAT scan, determined it was not a stroke. Muscle response was normal, no confusion on name, phone numbers, DoB, etc. Just extreme vertigo and dead ear. However, EKG showed a cardiac arrhythmia, which concerned the ER doctor more than the rest of the symptoms/conditions. Could be a reaction to the situation, or to the anti-nausea drug they tried administering.
My doctor has admission privileges at hospital in the next town, so there I went. They were short on beds so I was put in IC for the 1st day. Geeze, no rest in there for the weary. Too much noise & lights. And of course the poking & prodding every few hrs. Did best I could. Bad afternoon & night, for sure. Brief word of advice: I do not recommend under normal circumstances having a foley catheter installed while conscious.
Anyway, it's starting to settle down. MRI showed nothing of note. Still no hearing in right ear, and it may come back fully or to a lesser degree, or it may not. Have an audiologist appt tomorrow. On a Prednisone regimen, which may or may not help. Also back on BP med (Toporal/metoprolol) (which I had kinda quit taking couple months ago) and added Digitek. It's a matter of regaining balance/orientation. Longer I sit/stand/up-around, more the right ear goes to buzzing/ringing. Very irritating. Not much appetite. How much would YOU want to eat after being on a Tilt-a-Whirl for three days? But a couple incidents of humor ... like picking up phone to make a call and hearing nothing, wondering why is the damn phone dead?? Try phone in other room, same thing. Then I realize what I'm doing ...... :-D
Hugz to all!
We're all rooting for you!!
