Insomnia?

About a month and a half ago, I picked up a cough / cold of some kind. It never really developed enough to bug me, so I let it go for a while. Finally, this past Monday, the 14th, I scheduled a Dr. and Dentist appointment, and took the day off of work. I asked the Dr. about the cough. She suspects that it's viral, since she could find no indication of anything more serious at this point. So, she prescribed a course of Zithromax (Azithromycin) to kick out the last dregs of the bug. That was Monday. Tuesday evening I developed an absolutely mind bending headache / earache one-two punch in the right ear. I worked a small portion of the day Wednesday, and took Thursday off completely. Friday I was back at work with no pain, but little hearing in my right ear. Friday night, the left ear suffered the same one-two attack. Sunday, I went to the Urgent Care center, and got a prescription for a course of Omnicef (Cefdinir) and instructions to follow up with my Dr in a week if things don't start improving.

In addition to all of that, I've been working with various dosages of Advil for pain, as well as Mucinex, Sudafed (the pseudoephedrine kind, not that weak-ass phenlyephrine crap), and a Vicks Inhaler for the congestion. I even went so far as to put Benzocaine drops in my ear. Those, unfortunately, had no effect, since the infection is behind the ear drum. Speaking of which, the Dr I talked to today said that if the hearing loss, which I'll get to in a minute, is not improving in a week or so, that I should get a referral to an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist) who can make an incision in my eardrum and drain all the pus from it. Nice, huh?

The main problem I have, now that the pain is just about gone, is that I am experiencing both a pretty significant hearing loss, and no small amount of tinnitus. My tinnitus varies between a B and a B-flat... I usually listen to an iPod at work. That's going to make this week very interesting. With the iPod, and the hearing loss, I'm not going to hear anyone approaching, nor my office-mates. (Actually, that's not so bad.) I can't take much more time off work, though, without running into issues with vacation time, so I have to go in.

One of the really interesting things about this particular ear infection was, early on, I had enough blockage in one ear to alter the pitch of incoming sounds. It made notes come through slightly flat, and I couldn't tell if things were in tune or not. As a musician, that's fascinating, but damned annoying. The interesting part about that was how my brain began to process that information coming in as two separate signals. I've had double vision before from a little bit of strabismus, or from the occasional purposeful crossing of my eyes, but double hearing was new to me. I'd never heard anything like it. It was almost like a very quick echo. It was fun for the first few minutes, then it got annoying.

The worst part about it is really the hearing loss. I have difficulty now, hearing voices. If two or more people are talking, I can't make out anyone at all. I am used to being able to hear a pin drop at 50 yards or pick notes out of really complex chords, so this is becoming really tiring.

The ringing has it's side effects too, which is actually the title of this post. I can't sleep. I got a little 1 hour nap mid-day Sunday, and slept from probably about 11:30 to 3:00 or so last night. About 3:45, I looked at the clock, and decided to get up and work a little bit. I have not been back to bed since. The upshot is that I got a good bit of work done on ASR. The downside is, it's time to shower and go to work.

I am NOT looking forward to today. However, work must go on, and so must I. Here's hoping that Omnicef kicks in really soon.

-D.