An Anniversary and A Neat Experience

Today is the eight year anniversary of the car accident I was in.

Before you think this is a grisly thought, don't. I don't see it that way. I see it as I survived - that eight years after I'm still alive, walking, talking, eating (too much, but one can't have everything!), doing things I enjoy. I wasn't an EMT then, but I was in Human Resources, and still there. I had Luis, and being with him is always wonderful. Every day above ground is a good one! I'm really happy with that.

So eight years ago this wasn't the best day I ever had but it wasn't terrible. I walked out of the Emergency Room at Morristown, even though I came in on a backboard and with a collar. I was moving prior to being packaged, but that was not my fault - I was outside of my vehicle when it happened. I'm always telling patients not to move around after an accident!

This is also (to me) the start of autumn! I realise that astronomically speaking that is not the case, but it is September - that is the first day of autumn to me. It certainly feels like it.

It is much like it was eight years ago. It is a beautiful, sunny, perfect day - blue skies, not a single cloud. It is in the high 70s. It is setting now, but still lovely. Every first of September has been like this since then - it's a little freaky. And that year we had a long stretch of perfect weather that began on Saturday, 1 September 2001 - past the 11th - which I was home to see. I was still out of work and I had gone to the fifth and final interview for HR Supervisor at Dish Network. It was not difficult to see why I lost that position. I know the manager I met with took one look at me with all the bruising and scratches and road rash and thought, "No way". Anyway, Luis called me at home from the office and told me to turn on the telly.

I put it on and at first I thought this was a movie being filmed. I really didn't know what I was seeing. Luis asked me to describe it and I did - one of the Twin Towers was burning. As I was telling him about it and realising that this wasn't a movie in the making, I watched in horror as the other plane struck. I remember starting to cry. I remember it as if it was yesterday.

Well, how depressing. Onto the "neat experience"!

I went to the doctor on Thursday last week to see about taking more definitive action about my tinnitus. It's annoying the hell out of me and I have the feeling that just accepting this is not the answer. I have the occaisional day where I don't have it, sometimes as many as three days in row. Then it returns, screaming in my ears when I wake up the next day. I think the fact that I have days without it means that it is a byproduct of somehing else, rather than some unexplained phenomena.

I hope so.

So I told the doctor about it and she gave my ears a very cursory look and suggested that I use ear drops. I picked them up at the drug store and tried them out in my left ear. It clooged right up and when I righted my head, it remained clogged - all I could hear is my voice reverberating off my skullbones. Scientific progress goes "thud". I was unhappy but willing to wait it out.

Good thing I did not ride that night - I would not have been able to get any sounds on patients.

By Saturday I was pretty pissed off. I still couldn't hear out of my left ear and while the tinnitus sound is unbelievably annoying, this was far worse. So I scheduled an appointment for this afternoon, with a different doctor. (The other doctor is okay but she's not warm and fuzzy and I always feel as though I'm being judged and found lacking. And the ear drops - and lack of interest in my issues - were the final straw.) I wanted my ears flushed.

This doctor is great! Very warm and fuzzy and a great sense of humour! He's delightful! He looked in my ears with interest, and even it was feigned interest, he did a great job of faking it. He said that there was a lot of wax and let's find a room with a sink, and he'll flush them out.

He got out a huge syringe, filled it about 3/4 with water, then held a small bucket under my ear and suggested I keep my head still or I'll end up all wet. He said that this will be weird. He shot the water into my left ear first and it felt fine, and sounded like the ocean roaring - but at megadecibals - about twenty times the normal volume! It was really cool! He did it again and it was really amazing. I thought it was cool! Like being at a launch for the Apollo missions! I'm sure a Saturn 5 rocket booster sounded just like that.

He did it to the other ear after and it was again really neat. And here is the coolest thing! While it did not get rid of the tinnitus, it did clear my ears - both of them - and it did dramatically improve my hearing - I have the telly at half the volume I've been watching it and I can once again hear a whisper from 50 feet!

I LOVE it!