Back in the tube.

My friends, those who have been around this blog for five years or more -- you with the patience of Job, the benevolence of St. Francis, and the breakfast of champions -- may recall that I suffered a moderate hearing loss in one ear in 2018. Many tests were taken, including shoving ol' Fred partly into the MRI tube, and some treatments were used, including an injection of corticosteroids in the eardrum, which is half as much fun as you'd think. 

Alas, no cause was found for my problem, and over the next five years -- while the world started to go to hell -- I seemed to get better. I barely noticed the problem, and it actually seemed to have improved. 

And then this summer it started to seem worse again. 

I was hoping it was a plain ol' wax blockage or a plain ol' ear infection. My annualish (because I don't get there every year) physical was coming up, so I figured I'd ask the doc to check. He thought he saw fluid but no infection, and recommended I try Flonase. Which didn't even help with the seasonal allergies, tell you the truth, let alone my hearing. 

So, back to the ENT, and then back to the tube. 

So what was the result? Beats me. I was given a CD of the images, and as much as I like to play doctor (I mean when I'm doing fact-checking work, Stiiv), I had no idea what I was seeing. 

Yeah, they took a scan of my head and found nothing, hyuk hyuk. By that I mean there was no big zombie-colored mass and an arrow saying TUMOR HERE. I'll have to wait for the radiologist's report, and will update you then. I don't see the ENT until the end of the month. 

The last time this happened I was annoyed that the doctor I went to at the time just gave up. What caused it? Don't know! Oh, well! We'd all prefer a Dr. House -- without the attitude -- who won't give up until the diagnosis is made. But that's not reality. Some things can't be diagnosed without expensive and/or invasive procedures, and if there's no life at stake, it's just not worth it. Sometimes -- and it's hard to accept this in the 21st century -- no diagnosis can be made. The human body is still weird and mysterious. My other ear was working all right. So, let's see what happens. 

Well, what happened was, five years and one pandemic and one "fortified" election and two-going-on-three impeachments and St. George Floyd and men playing women's sports and runaway inflation and a genuine threat of nuclear war later, here I am again, and I can only hope I'm doing better than every other dad blasted thing out there is. Will let you know.