Health Issues

It's summertime. . . and we're sick! Baby boy had strep last week, baby girl is battling an infection, and I lost my hearing in my left ear at 11 o'clock two night ago--party time! When I was pregnant with baby girl, I lost my hearing in my left ear in about my sixth month of pregnancy. When it still hadn't come back and she was five months old, I went to a doctor in Lufkin, who told me (as I was holding my five month old on my lap) that it was quite possibly a brain tumor. SOOOOO, I decided to go elsewhere.

Went to Dr. Fred Owens in Dallas, who is a SUPERSTAR--he ran three thousand plus tests on me (I wish my camera had been there, as I had three or four 18 inch needles sticking out of my head at one point) and said that I had lower tonal hearing loss and an imbalance of fluids in my ear. He recommended for me to take LipoFlavonoids three times a day, Niacin til I flushed (a lovely experience--let me tell you--pins and needles all over your body for about 10 minutes), a Benadryl every night, and a special drug that only Baylor pharmacy could make (they didn't have the ingredients in Lufkin). He also told me I had to completely eliminate caffeine and bring my sodium intake down to 2000mg or less a day. Within six months, and after an MRI, my hearing was restored and I was overjoyed. I also happened to lose 25 pounds after eliminating salt and caffeine (read--chocolate) from my diet. Of course, six months after all of this, I resumed my old eating habits and ditched the pills--after all, I was better!

All was well. . . until . . . two nights ago, when I literally felt a loud pop in my head and then the ringing began. . . and it hasn't stopped since. Except this time, I have upper and lower tonal hearing loss--when I put the phone up to my left ear, it sounds like aluminum foil getting crunched, which is not such a great thing. The good news about this (I am hoping) is that I will be eligible for a hearing aid with the upper tones . . . the bad news is that this ringing is driving me nutto. Needless to say, I have started my low sodium, no caffeine thing back up again, so at least I'll lose a few pounds, even if I don't regain my hearing again! Good times!