The risk associated with staying up too late engaged in a project: Hearing things that go “bump” in the night.
About 11pm last evening I heard what sounded like a gunshot. It’s not all that unusual to hear gunshots up here with woods all around the lake. A minute or so later I heard another one. Then again. Each time it sounded a little closer, as if someone could be creeping along in a vehicle moving closer to my location and shooting at something…..Animals? lights? Windows? I knew my doors were locked, but I got up, lowered the window shade which I have rarely felt compelled to do in the past and turned out all the indoor lights, positioned myself to easily go for the personal home “protection equipment”, if needed. And I waited. I did not hear anymore shots and after about ten minutes I relocated my activity from the living room to the bedroom and locked myself in. I finished my project and went to bed, sleeping well.
Although it was disconcerting for a few minutes, at least I COULD hear. I had a hearing issue in my left ear about 3 weeks ago, realizing over a weekend that when I put my right ear down on my pillow I could not hear through my left ear. It was a weird sensation that caused me concern. Immediately after the weekend I reached out to an ENT office and was scheduled for an immediate visit. When I got there I had considered every symptom that might be related to unilateral hearing loss…. balance, earache…. etc. and decided something was definitely wrong. When the ENT saw me he looked in my left ear and said, “I love Q-tips! They keep me in business!” I had a severe buildup of compacted wax that had gradually occurred until it had compressed to a point I could no longer hear! We were both relieved. The alternative was a neurological problem that could have gotten sticky (pun intended.) He put a diluent solution in my ear and suctioned and poked around in my ear for what seemed like several minutes, pulling out more earwax than I could have imagined, repeating the process twice. My toes curled in my sandals from the tension I put myself under as he worked in my ear. Wow! What a difference! We both laughed. He ordered an audiology exam just to be sure and scheduled a recheck after the test. Monday I had gotten the hearing test and the recheck. It was a relief to discover that my hearing was normal, good in fact. He rechecked both ears for wax and suggested it might be worth coming in once a year for a check, as I apparently am producing an abundance of wax that is somewhat dry and compacts easily. Q-tips are just not getting the job done. Instead they are complicating the issue. Diet? Medication changes? Age? It just happens.
It was also the week that I had to report for a CTscan to monitor a lung nodule that has been present for at least 12-15 years. Previous monitoring have shown no changes, but the last radiologic check on it had been over 5 years ago….. So, off I go for that check, too. Between periodic monitoring of a kidney cyst, a lung nodule, annual mammograms, periodic GI scopes, semi-annual checks on skin lesions with a dermatologist, occasional visit to the ortho to address some new nagging ache, the time required to set up a medication regimen weekly, and now my prolific earwax issue, I am a finding the increasing demand for maintenance on ME in my sixties to be a bit of an intrusion on my time and mental checklist cataloguing for self-care and well-being needs! Oh, the joys of aging! LOL!
I’m requiring as much self-monitoring, health care oversight, and periodic procedures as an infant and child in the early years of growth requires, except it’s for the reverse process…. the creeping problem of decrepitude!
Proverbs 31:25- Strength and dignity cover her and she laughs at the years to come.
Keep it up, satan, and one of these days I’m going to step out of the raggedy shell, hand it to you and say, ” Here, I’m done with this. You can have it.” (12/16/2020)