For those who read my earlier entries about my hearing loss, here’s a brief update:

I visited the ENT Thursday, September 2, after four weeks had passed since the previous visit. I still have fluid “sloshing around” in my right ear, as he put it. After telling me that I wasn’t going to like what he was going to do, he probed up (down?) my right nostril with an endoscope (a procedure I highly recommend for anyone who enjoys discomfort and pain), adding, “You know, this doesn’t hurt me one bit, so you have to speak up if it hurts you.” He also gave me a cursory look up the left side, which had not been anesthetized.

He said I have a couple, “well, three” things going on:

• Sensorineural hearing loss in both ears (permanent and progressive)
• Conductive hearing loss in the right ear due to the fluid
• “Something” (officially, “neoplasm uncert. pharynx oral cav.”) that is obstructing the right Eustachian tube

Wednesday, I’m to have outpatient surgery for a biopsy. Since I will be “asleep” for that, he’ll take advantage of that to put a tube in my ear to drain the fluid. So on Wednesday I should experience relief from the fullness and discomfort (not to mention near-complete deafness) in my right ear. I’m also thinking this will help me gauge the practical impact of the sensorineural loss a little better, as my hearing now is too one-sided to judge. I also think, although the audiologist and ENT may not agree, that my right ear might not be as bad.

As for the biopsy, I’m trying not to be too concerned about that.

I had a CT scan Thursday; on some of the films my head looks like that of an alien. This could explain much.