*So about 5 weeks ago I was trying to fall asleep and I felt/heard what seemed to be a fly or another unknown entity flying in and around my ear. It scared the shit out of me. I jumped up and with my finger in my ear started to dig around to make sure whatever it was didn’t go in my ear. Then I started to think it was something inside my pillow. So I beat my pillow half to death and threw it out of my bug hut. After I was finally finished freaking out I went to sleep. The next night, the same thing happened but 3 times. Then next night again, and again. Now it is 5 weeks later. I haven’t gotten used to whatever this noise is…a buzz, humming, vibration sound. Some nights it only happens once, some nights 3 times…the other night it happened every time I laid my head down. I sat up crying until 3:30 in the morning when I could no longer keep my head up or my eyes open.
For a while I started to think there was something actually living in my ear. I don’t know what, but something. Then I started to think that the mefloquine(malaria prophylaxis) was making me hallucinate. One of the many side effects, including but not limited to anxiety and paranoia. I told my brother about this and he assured me that it was probably something burrowing into my head. Asshole!! So now I think about that. I have realized that it doesn’t only happen at night. I have heard it during the day but not very often. I think it probably happens just as much but with all the other daytime noises and people talking and me talking it drowns out the noise. I also found that if I sleep with my ear buds in and my MP3 on very low it will usually drowned it out as well. Enough that I can fall asleep. I don’t like sleeping with the ear buds in though.
Knowing that I would be at Tubaniso I decided to wait to contact the doctor. May as well do it while I’m here right? So two days into our stay I talked to Robin, the new doctor on staff. I told her what was happening. She kind of giggled when I told her that I, more than anything else, just want to confirm that there is nothing living or burrowing in my ear or head. She looked in my ear and confirmed that nothing was in there. She also reassured me, and I thought of this as well, that even if something was living in there it would have been dead after 5 weeks. She checked my hearing…all is well. And then we discussed what it could be. Her diagnosis is that it could be Tinnitus. Tinnitus usually presents itself as a ringing in the ear, but after checking it out on the internet it could also be a humming or buzzing or whooshing sound. She said this diagnosis has it pros and cons. The pros, it’s nice to have a diagnosis opposed to not knowing what it is. The cons, there is nothing they can do about it. It may or may not ever go away. My brother and my oldest sister both have Tinnitus and have had it, ringing in the ears, for years.
It can be brought on by taking certain medications, Ibuprofen, aspirin, caffeine. It can also be brought on by certain conditions…such as high blood pressure…which I have. But the doctor said it would be really, really dangerously high blood pressure that would bring it on. Not my little bitty 155/95 blood pressure…which is only that high probably because I’m freaking out about the bugs in my head…and I stopped taking my medication. My doctor in San Diego said that my blood pressure could have been caused by my extreme obese (LOL) weight. So if I lost weight I could wean myself off and see what happens. My blood pressure was 104/62, 120/75…pretty frickin low. So I stopped taking my pills about 1 month ago. Kept monitoring my blood pressure and it hadn’t gone up until now. Needless to say I’m back on them now. In the meantime, the doctor said she would consult the other doctors on staff and also consult Washington DC doctors. Protocol don’t ya know.
No comments:
Post a Comment