Let me see..is this a sad color? Kind of.
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This morning Justin and I had to waken very early, especially since I had to drive wwaayy over to his side of town. He had an appointment with the audiologist and ear people, the experts, and underwent some in-house tests.
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I should have sensed something was up when the first technician went into the office with another lady who seemed to be a boss, and shut the door. She then came back, directing us to yet another room for more tests. This particular machine was quite sensitive to sound, so we had be as quiet as could be, with even the sound of the machine operating picked up on the program. I was afraid my telephone would go off and ruin the whole thing, but fortunately it was quiet.
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Following that test we were ushered into another waiting area until the next person, a registered nurse, came for us. We went into an exam room where she asked a million questions about the onset of this malady, even asked if there was any diabetes on either side of the family. She didn't say why this was important but it must help them to sort out cause/effect or something. She typed the whole works into her computer and then left. It wasn't long until another lady came in, a Physician's Assistant (PA), Judy, whose been doing this for 25 years already. She knew her stuff.
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Judy showed us print outs of his hearing tests and the others they did this morning, asked many questions again, going over the who, what, when, where, and whys of the onset, trying to narrow it down. According to their tests and examinations, Justin is totally deaf in his left ear, most likely permanently.
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Given the way everything played out, apparently Justin had a virus in his ear, not causing pain but producing pressure on the balance nerve as well as the hearing nerve, and the pressure apparently crushed his hearing nerve. Fortunately the balance nerve recovered, with the nerve that controls some facial muscles being unaffected. (Bell's Palsy). If there is a bright side to this, and of course, there is, Justin ONLY lost his hearing and not his entire equilibrium and facial muscles.
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Now, the questions come: How did this happen? Why did the family doctor determine it was allergy-caused rather than this virus at work? What could have been done to reverse this earlier on? The way Judy described it, this was just bad luck.
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Not believing in luck, good or bad, I was glad to hear her explain that even if we'd come immediately to their office and diagnosed the problem, they'd have given him massive doses of prednisone for a couple weeks, with a 50/50 chance that it would correct the problem. In other words, it happens.
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No one's fault, no one upon whom to afix blame. Not himself for contracting this virus, not his mama who was cruising in the North Pacific, not his doctor, who read the symptoms just as they presented.....even Dr. Potts, his roommate's mom, thought it was only an inner ear thing affecting the eustacian tubes and would take a few months to work itself out, which is what our family doctor said, too. His tubes are just fine, it's the nerves way inside that were affected, and again, we are thankful that ONLY the hearing one remains damaged.
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On the bright side, he has fantastic, perfect hearing in his right ear, which he was admonished to preserve with every effort possible. No lawn mowers, leaf blowers, jet engines, rifles, or rock concerts, unless he's wearing approved ear protection.
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Justin has to go back in a couple weeks for more in-house tests and have an MRI performed before getting to see the Big Guy--Dr. Green. He comes highly recommended and his staff claims he is the best when it comes to things like this. Oh, by the way, the PA said they don't usually see this in men as young as Justin, but in older men who like to play with loud toys (boats, machinery, and the cars that go thump, thump, thump from the speakers.) Since Justin's malady was caused by a virus, I don't understand the correlation between the loud noise and the nerve, unless just the results are the same, and not neccessarily the cause..........anyway...
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As far as treatment goes, there is none, as the damage is done. However, as Judy said, they always have some tricks to do with equipment that would transfer the "sound" from the left ear to the right ear, which hears for both then. It would not be perfect, but at least allow him to have what she referred to as "surround around" sound. Or, he can do absolutely nothing and live with it, or without it, as the case might be. We'll make that decision once the doctor has seen him, and proceed from there. The MRI is to absolutely rule out anything else going on in his head that could have affected the hearing.
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Naturally, I felt terrible about it, feeling totally responsible for not addressing this matter as soon as I got home from my travels, but Judy assured us both that there was little we could have done, and at best, the 50/50 chance of reversal if treated immediately. She said it's no one's fault, and I have to believe her on that. Some people are quick to assign blame in order to "handle" a situation, but that just won't work in this case. It happens. But, I feel sad for Justin, as his worst fear was realized, not being able to hear from his left ear again---possibly. If we decide to go ahead with some helpers for his hearing, that's another story. A hearing aid will not do a thing for him since it's not the ear drum that's affected, it's a nerve that got compressed by a virus.
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That's it..........
