Flunked The Hearing Test

I thought I was just pissy about my hearing.  Jeff would talk to me from the living room, I’d be in the bathroom and couldn’t hear a damn thing he said.  I put it up the fact that the TV was on, the dishwasher was on, the fridge runs like a jet engine and the bathroom fan sounds like a jet engine without the benefit of jet engine oil.  I would stomp out, hairbrush in hand (when I was allowed to use them) and say,

“WHAT????!!!”

I even came up with the rule “you may not talk to me unless we are in the same room.”  This later got amended to “you may not talk to me unless you can see the whites of my eyeballs.”

Turns out it has some credibility.

Chemo Round Three, when I announced there was some ringing in my left ear, I was quickly referred for a hearing test.  I also didn’t get my one chemo treatment that potentially is the cause of the ringing of the ear (I didn’t duck chemo that day; I still got the other three drugs). 

So three days after Chemo Three, with my mug of ginger tea in my right hand and the vomit/garbage can to my left, I sat in the hearing booth with a set of headphones on.  Thirty minutes later, after repeating word after word after word, both with static background and without, I got my results.

My hearing in my left ear sucks.  As is in moderate-to-severe sucks.

The audiologist did some tests about how loud I could stand a noise level before I asked her to stop (not long at all) and would play background static while saying a word.  At least I think she was saying a word.  All I heard was static. 

All while my left ear is quietly buzzing on its own accord.

Where do we go from here?  Three years ago I had a hearing test done because I had water in my Eustachian tube for a really long time that I couldn’t get out.  My primary doctor thought I had cholesteatoma so we went all out trying to figure it out.  I finally got a hold of my hearing tests from three years ago.  Turns out, my hearing was bad back then.  Not as bad; it has gotten worse.  It went from 40 to 70 (the higher the number the worse the hearing) in those three years.

Do we know if it is because of the chemotherapy drug Carboplatin?  Nope. 

Is the ringing from the Carboplatin?  Dunno.  It can also be caused by steroids and anti anxiety meds, both of which are injected every 21 days and in pill form for seven days after each chemo round. 

I didn’t get the Carboplatin on Chemo 3 or 4, and 5 and 6 are up in the air.  We do know the ringing only started when chemo started, but was the hearing loss a result of the chemo?  Or did I already have some of it?  And would more Carboplatin cause more ringing, or more hearing loss?  Or just do its job and kill the cancer?

Choices.  Life altering choices.

But don’t tell me about it.  I probably can’t hear what you’re saying.

On the flip side, whatever I can hear, I promptly forget anyway. 

Aeration With Needles - Acupuncture

You’d think that with all the needles and biopsies and blood draws and chemo pokes and anything sharp, I would want to stay away from all of it.

Well, no.  I intentionally walk myself into a little room with quiet music, lie on the table in my skivvies and subject myself to more.

On purpose.

I had my first acupuncture appointment after my second round of chemo.  It was done in Everett at their cancer center, so it was all designed for us cancer-ladled people.  I still had the face flushing, the wooziness, the incredible anxiety that accompanied my cancer diagnosis, that horrible sweet taste in my mouth.  I told all this to the acupuncturist.  She nodded her head and told me to either pull my leggings up and get down to my short sleeve t-shirt or undress and get into my robe.  For this one, I already knew my leggings would go up over my knees (yes, I practiced) so I went that route.

She came back and started in with the needles, placed strategically.

....Wait, go back a few steps.  First she asked me how I was pooping.  Well then.  No privacy here, eh?  Luckily I had read up on this part of the procedure and knew it was coming.  Also, the whole, “stick out your tongue” business. 

Okay, now I’m on my back and the needles are coming at me.

Again, completely intentionally.

Some of them stung when they went in.  For about three seconds.  Most of them I didn’t even feel. 

Then I was told to lie perfectly still for 15 minutes, alone in the room, call if you need anything.

You stick me full of needles and tell me to stay still?  Wait.  This is OUT OF MY BOX to be still!

Oh, and I have an itch on my nose, can ya get it?

I was good and didn’t move.  She came back in 15 minutes and pulled out the needles.  Again, didn’t feel a thing.  Then she put these little balls in my ear, stuck with tiny band aid and those were to stay in for about 5 days or until they fell out.

I walked out not really feeling any different, but wasn’t expecting some miracle.  As a matter of fact I had this metallic taste in my mouth instead of the sweetness that had plagued me.  At this stage in the chemo I had been having a horrible time with the inside of my nose; dried crustiness, nose bleeds and just really tender.  I figured they took away the sweetness in my taste buds, but gave me the metallic.

Turns out my nose was bleeding and I was swallowing it. 

Neato (and sorry if I just grossed you out, but welcome to my world).

The metallic taste went away before I made it home.

And the sweetness taste has not been back since.  Seriously.  The sweet is gone.  Subsequent visits to the acupuncturist have confirmed something to do with the spleen and I make sure she gets that spot EVERY SINGLE TIME!

So is acupuncture working or is it a placebo?  Don’t know, don’t care.  I sleep better, am less worried, only took three anti nausea pills during the last chemo round, don’t have as much face flushing, and felt fairly good this last round (fairly good despite poison running through my veins to kill the cancer cells).