I can hear again ... sort of

I saw the ENT specialist at 1:15pm today.

And by 1:30pm I was hearing just fine, thank you very much.

Seems my problem had nothing to do with allergies.

My ear was clogged with "dead skin," as he put it.

He suggested that I must have had a mild ear infection at some point, and the debris had collected and festered (gross!).

Anyway, he vacuumed it all out.

And, man did that hurt.  It felt like he was sucking my throat out through my ear canal!

Didn't take long, but it seemed like forever.

I'm not to wear my hearing aid for the next "day or two" to let the ear heal.

Great -- that's my "hearing" ear; I rely on it for the majority of my hearing.

Life is not going to be fun for the next few days because everything sounds really muffled without my left hearing aid.

But, on the upside, the tinnitus has reduced considerably.  And that's a good thing because it was getting unbearably loud.

Anyway, a woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do.

So, no hearing aid in my left ear for the next couple of days.

And if my ear fills up again, I'm to go back so he can clear it again.  At which point we discuss how I prevent the recurrence.

Otherwise, I'll see him at my regularly-scheduled visit in October when he will check it again to see how it's doing.

Oh, and I discussed my leg cramps with my physiotherapist.

Her first question was, "Have you done a lot of walking lately?"

Seems my having embarked on that walking program on Sunday was a little too ambitious for me.

So she mapped out a program for me -- ten minutes to start, increase by two minutes each day until I reach no more than 20 minutes max.

She explained that my body has to be extremely conservative with these programs because of the way it reacts (and history has shown that I always pay dearly).

But she was delighted to hear that I'm now able to start a walking program at all -- that is significant progress for me.

I've come a long way baby!