In mid-June I got a head cold, just a routine head cold, but it caused both of my ears to become blocked up. So much so that I couldn't hear much of anything for a week or more. I finally broke down (relatives and friends hounded me into it) and saw my doctor. She prescribed antibiotics (grrrr -- I knew she'd do it even though I'm in that club that thinks we take far too many unnecessary antibiotics). But, it turns out to have been a good thing because at this same time I'd been bitten by a tiny tick and within a few days after starting the antibiotics for the ears I noticed the classic bull's eye around the site of the bite. The doctor extended the Rx for the anti's and said they would do double-duty: combat the nasty Lyme spirochete and any bacterial opportunists in my ears. She said I could also take standard OTC antihistamines (over the pharmacist's counter that is, since you now have to register with the Drug Enforcement Agency to score pseudoephedrine -- thanks methheads).
Two weeks of antihistamines and three weeks of antibiotics later one ear was still annoyingly blocked up. So I saw an ENT specialist, reluctantly. I was pleasantly surprised when he sent me home with this little balloon device. Nothing pharmaceutical, nothing invasive -- unless you count blowing air up your nose invasive.
I think it helped! I used it for a week, felt that my ear was gradually clearing up, then stopped for a few days. The blockage started creeping back so I resumed using it, and now my ears feel fine. As with many medical treatments, I'll never know if the ears were going to clear up anyway so I don't know for a fact that the balloon worked, but I'll use it again if this should happen again.
Otovent seems to be big in the UK. People there use it for what they call "glue ear." I've been telling people that I had "blockage of the Eustachian tubes" which everyone seemed to immediately understand. But if I was in London I could have just said "glue ear" -- a vaguely disgusting term although it is succinct and descriptive.
I loved telling people that I was treating my blocked Eustachian tubes by blowing up a balloon with my nose.
1 comment:
I have missed so much on your blog. I think it's because my RSS reader is late notifying me of new posts. Anyway, I blew into Otsy's nose when she wasn't feeling well. She loves it! I call it nose re-breathing. Sometimes she tries to do it to me. Hahaha.
I am glad that you are getting treatment for the tick bite and that your doctor is taking it seriously.
I will email sometime.
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