September 08, 2004

The Ear, Part Four

So I finally went to the ENT today for my ear. There's some good news and some bad news.

Good news: The infection, pressure, and fluid are all gone
Bad news: I have some high frequency hearing loss

Good news: The steroids that I was on cleared up a lot of the hearing loss
Bad news: The rest of it might be permanent

So I'm back on the steroids for another week. Since they helped the first time, the ENT felt that they could be really helpful again in clearing up this final bit of hearing loss. I'll have another hearing test next week and we'll see for sure. The doctor said the hearing loss was cochlear (inner ear) but considered it "mild" and confined to a small number of high frequency sounds that aren't used very often.

I suppose this means that I won't be able to hear the upper register of Scout's nighttime whines (she is refusing to sleep in her crate and gets very mouthy when we insist on it).

Posted by Shelby at September 8, 2004 05:59 PM