The night of Thanksgiving is when I heard this high-pitched feedback again. I had spent a long day at work (yes, work!) in effort to save my holiday time for Christmas and we had spent the evening with Frasers’ parents cooking and eating dinner, so I was pretty exhausted that evening. Fraser collapsed in bed and I jumped in bed on top of him, laying my head on chest. This was when I heard the squeaky high-pitched feedback for the second time. I looked at Fraser and asked him if he heard it too. He seemed puzzled as to what I was talking about. As a joke, my husband calls my hearing aids my “squeakers” because every time I try to cuddle with him and lay in his nook, they would produce a loud screeching feedback that he could actually hear. I guess he cannot hear feedback from my Esteem!
Throughout my life, even as a young child, I have always experienced seasonal allergies but since my surgery, my head congestion has been a bit out of control. I have been coughing up some questionable mucus and just feel like I have a permanent sinus infection. Interestingly, I have not actually felt sick. I was told by Dr. Marzo that I should expect to have some head congestion for the next couple of months and that taking an over the counter decongestant should help reduce the amount of fluids and make this a bit more manageable. During my activation, I was told that head congestion or having a cold may make it more difficult to hear, as it would when a person with normal hearing has a cold. I was also told that having a cold produces fluids in your ear which could also cause feedback. Throughout the last couple of month I have been taking Zyertec D pretty consistently and have found that this does have an effect on how well I am able to hear. I am generally able to hear much better when it is in my system.
Towards the end of November, I saw my doctor for a check-up and told her what I was experiencing. She put me on an antibiotic for 10 days but that didn’t really seem to do the trick. For the last week, I have been experiencing the high-pitched screeching feedback every time I blow my nose. Basically, my ear would pop while blowing my nose and I would experience this feedback until I swallowed and my ear had un-popped. This was even happening when I went down to C3. When my ears popped, it sort of hurt. The pain was not unbearable but it definitely didn’t feel good! I have only had one ear infection in my entire life and I just remember my ear popping and it feeling similar to this.
So, basically I have been experiencing the signs of a cold for the last month but I did not actually start feeling sick until this weekend. When I woke up yesterday, my nose was so stuffed up I could barely breath, my glands were so swollen I couldn’t even talk, and I was coughing up some questionable mucus. I spent most of the day sleeping, which my puppy Rufus did not like. He kept sneaking into the bedroom with his ball, trying desperately do play fetch with me. At one point, he dropped his ball underneath the bed and started whimpering because he couldn’t get it. I stuck my head underneath the bed so I could grab his ball and my ear started screeching with the high-pitched feedback but this time it did not stop. I had to turn my ear down in order to get this feedback to go away. Something was definitely not right.
First thing this morning, Fraser called the doctor and made an appointment for me. She said I have an ear and sinus infection (boo!) and put me on the Z-pack, steroids, a decongestant, and cough syrup so I hope to get this cold out of my system before my readjustment appointment next week. I am very concerned that this will impact my appointment and I pray to God that everything will work out for the best.
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