So apparently I have Herpes.....
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:07 pm
A little bit of background, we had just moved to Houston last week and things have been stressful. Our water and power were days from being turned on, and I was definitely frazzled. On Thursday (July 3rd) I started getting this weird pain in my left ear, and then pretty quickly my hearing went out altogether on my left side. Pain continued to worsen.
Days of agony later, I now have suffered partial-face paralyzation. Our medical insurance doesn't kick in for another 20 days or so, and I just can't take it any longer. I look up a clinic in Houston on Google (jackpot!) and actually find a nice regular doctor's office that takes walk-ins with no insurance. $65 visit, definitely can't hurt.
Nice Indian doctor, very cute actually, takes a peek in my right ear and finds nothing out of the ordinary, good cleanliness and no damage to the eardrum. Checks out my left ear with the scope and she can't even get the thing in there without horrendous pain! Remember I am deaf on that side now. She says that there are nodules, possibly blisters, forming on the roof of my ear canal (but away from the tympanic membrane/eardrum).
She performs sound tests on both ears and finds that I can't hear anything over 100Hz on the left side. I also have no feeling in my face, ear surrounding area, jawline, and cannot close my left eye from paralysis. She says that whatever the nodules/blisters are, they are exerting enormous pressure on a nerve bundle that sends messages to the brain from the ear, as well as the surrounding muscle tissue in the face.
She says it's Herpes. In my ear. I say, WHAT?? I haven't been near Paul Whitehead for months! (joke)
Actually she says it's more likely a form of Chicken Pox, but it comes from the same base virus, that never goes away. My extreme stress over the move to Houston probably brought it out, and that she (and her associate doctors) have never seen it in an ear canal, and that their research has shown very very few cases as well, but no other information other than that it is insanely painful. I agree, and they take lots of blood to confirm. And it's way expensive, but I'm kind of stuck with this kind of pain.
So I'm doped up on two kinds of corticosteroids and a virus medication that is driving me NUTS, I can't sleep, very dizzy from the hearing loss, and I can't feel the left side of my face and my speech is slurred. And now $300 lighter. A very nice time indeed!
Just wanted to vent, not too many new friends here in Houston yet since we've been spending most of our time getting the house unpacked and not "out on the town". We did get our new washer/dryer installed today...seem very quiet, but that could be my problem.....
Days of agony later, I now have suffered partial-face paralyzation. Our medical insurance doesn't kick in for another 20 days or so, and I just can't take it any longer. I look up a clinic in Houston on Google (jackpot!) and actually find a nice regular doctor's office that takes walk-ins with no insurance. $65 visit, definitely can't hurt.
Nice Indian doctor, very cute actually, takes a peek in my right ear and finds nothing out of the ordinary, good cleanliness and no damage to the eardrum. Checks out my left ear with the scope and she can't even get the thing in there without horrendous pain! Remember I am deaf on that side now. She says that there are nodules, possibly blisters, forming on the roof of my ear canal (but away from the tympanic membrane/eardrum).
She performs sound tests on both ears and finds that I can't hear anything over 100Hz on the left side. I also have no feeling in my face, ear surrounding area, jawline, and cannot close my left eye from paralysis. She says that whatever the nodules/blisters are, they are exerting enormous pressure on a nerve bundle that sends messages to the brain from the ear, as well as the surrounding muscle tissue in the face.
She says it's Herpes. In my ear. I say, WHAT?? I haven't been near Paul Whitehead for months! (joke)
Actually she says it's more likely a form of Chicken Pox, but it comes from the same base virus, that never goes away. My extreme stress over the move to Houston probably brought it out, and that she (and her associate doctors) have never seen it in an ear canal, and that their research has shown very very few cases as well, but no other information other than that it is insanely painful. I agree, and they take lots of blood to confirm. And it's way expensive, but I'm kind of stuck with this kind of pain.
So I'm doped up on two kinds of corticosteroids and a virus medication that is driving me NUTS, I can't sleep, very dizzy from the hearing loss, and I can't feel the left side of my face and my speech is slurred. And now $300 lighter. A very nice time indeed!
Just wanted to vent, not too many new friends here in Houston yet since we've been spending most of our time getting the house unpacked and not "out on the town". We did get our new washer/dryer installed today...seem very quiet, but that could be my problem.....
}:) 
