ALHL

Hello, I’m back. Kind of… I have overcome my cold from last week, so I am up and running again. Unfortunately, now I have developed ear problems: Especially the right one feels “blocked” somehow – just like when you get water into it. The feeling itself is annoying, and I obviously have problems hearing properly and on top of that, there is some background white noise sound.

Since this condition has now prevailed for more than a week, I decided to see a specialist. As the whole thing started when I had the cold, I thought it would be some sort of sinus infection going awry, and that it could be cured with simple antibiotics or some such.

No such luck: The doctor informed me – after a hearing test – that I had developed ALHL, acute low tone hearing loss, and that there was no fast track cure for this. He had problems determining a cause, as I could rule out the usual suspects of stress and tension in the neck. Listening to loud music might be a factor, but I’ve been doing that for ages now, not fitting the “acute”.  

For the coming week, I am on medication: there is one diuretic the usefulness of which I don’t understand (but it is commonly given), and a couple of other things that seem to be more for reassuring the patient rather than doing anything in particular (vitamin B12 anyone?) At least I have found out that the condition may go away just as spontaneously as it has occurred, in about 75% of the patients. That’s something.

I spent all morning at the doctor’s, together with a friend of mine. Looking back I’m not sure it was a good idea to take her along because now I don’t know whether the doctor is actually capable of speaking English and whether I could go there on my own. He carried on his explanations in a breakneck speed Japanese; even my friend whose English is exceptional, gave up translating at some point and only gave me the gist of what he said. Oh well, with a bit of luck I will not have to consult him again any time soon. We’ll see.