How Many Are Deaf to Covid-19?

 

At the Ear Doctor's Office

As a voice crying in the wilderness, I went half deaf myself.

There is no need to panic or reimpose the initial lock-downs and masking. It is more than prudent to follow the current guidelines regarding Covid-19 prevention along with so many other communicable diseases:

1. Follow the consensus recommendations of serious medical professionals, scientific experts, common sense, and even the religious leaders of my particular preference and get vaccinated with necessary boosters.

2. When sick, stay away from other people until you are better. If you test positive for Covid-19, then self-quarantine until you test negative and then mask up for five days or so if you have to go out. (This also works well with a lot of other communicable diseases that depend on transmission in close contact through the air like the flu.)

My anecdotal situation is that while adequately vaxed and boosted, I somehow contracted Covid about three weeks ago. It laid me flat for a day, but I thought it was the flu. (Even though I've also been vaccinated against that - the annual vaccines do their best to anticipate the main strains expected in any particular season). After a day of feeling very poorly, I called my reputable, mainstream doctor's office and they suggested that I come in and get tested for the flu because it may have been early enough to try Theraflu or some treatment to help. I went masked up and after the blood-test results were in, the doctor said that I didn't have the flu, I had Covid. As I was also clogged up in the left ear, he thought I might have possibly had a bacterial ear infection as well. He prescribed an antibiotic. It did nothing to relieve what was near total deafness in my left ear. My doctor, with all the best mainstream science behind him, was wrong. The antibiotic did not help as my ear problems as they likely resulted from a virus, not bacteria. Probably, it was whatever strain of Covid-19 I had contracted. Fortunately, he had also recommended that I see the ear doctor expert connected to his practice. I could not get an appointment until a week later.

Over the past week, my hearing in the left ear slightly improved. But with the increase in hearing, what I did hear in that ear was badly distorted. I already use hearing aids for typical age-related hearing loss at certain frequencies. I turned up the hearing aid in my right ear and put an ear plug in my left ear to deaden as much of the distorted sound that I could. It is especially bad when there is a lot of ambient noise like being a car with the drone of the engine and the road. If a radio is on or more that one person is talking, it is even worse. My own voice inside my head is also distorted which makes it unpleasant to speak or sing. A finger held on the ear plug helps to block out all sound on that side and I have to use only my right.

I now have from experience a much greater compassion for those who experience deafness to one degree or even completely. It is terribly frustrating and depressing. I don't have to imagine anymore. We do take so much for granted when our bodies actually work as they were intended. We notice the loss of our senses.

The visit to the ear doctor was yesterday. He is of the opinion that a viral infection, most likely the Covid-19, got in my inner ear and caused some problems. I went through the whole ear-test thing in the sound-proof box trying to click on the buzzes and tones and repeat strange words back to them "cowboy, hot dog, playground, etc." It's not a pass-fail, but extremely frustrating. Compared against the test results from a couple of years back when I did get hearing aids, my left ear is significantly compromised. My right is slightly worse than the initial test. No idea if that is natural progression of age-related loss or additional effects of what has happened to me most likely from Covid.

My medical team and I are hopeful for a full or near-full recovery. The possibility exists that there may have been some irreversible damage to one degree or another.

Because here's the thing, Medicine is not an exact Science. In fact, Science is not always exact. That is the very nature of learning in this world. I won't go philosophical here into the depths of epistemologies, but we do the best we can to be rational human beings in a world full of complexity including our own reality that we are not even fully rational as human beings.

I could go on to show you some of the "research" I did reading peer-reviewed medical reports. I try to review all I can from accredited governmental agencies, NIH, CDC, WHO, medical resources from well-respected Universities, and countries I trust such as New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and sometimes the British NHS. I do not rely on advice from neighbors down the street or YouTube videos from anybody who promotes conspiracy theories or healing through unscientific remedies like medicines developed for horses or sniffing essential oils. My body, my choice.

You certainly don't need to rely on me. I just lay it out there as bloggers do.

Peace out.