The Kaiser Marathon (Day) / Ear Update

I met with three Kaiser practitioners today, in three different buildings, in two cities. At 10am, I met with a physical therapist to talk about my back pain that began in January (which is MUCH better now, thank you very much). I've stopped taking the muscle relaxers, bought some suspenders for my belt at work, and generally haven't been suffering from that like I was. She did make sure to point out that I was getting older, and such aches and pains were only going to become more common. :/ She also thought it was time to replace my bed (now almost 10 years old - Thanks, Judy!).

At 11:50am, I went to a different building (same campus) to meet with a nurse practitioner, my first follow-up on my right ear since my hospital visit VERY early Monday morning. She took a simple peek in my ear with the scope and told me, "You need to see a specialist. Right away. I'll call and get you in today." She secured me a 4pm appointment in the suburbs.

Curtis has been a fantastic medical chauffeur. He met me at a light-rail station (I still can't drive due to the pain meds I am on) and drove me to the otolarynologist (wow!). He was by far the best of the day, in information, humor, time spent with me, etc. He had more scopes, a cleaning vacuum, etc. He inspected, then said with total seriousness: "I don't know what you've got going on in there, but you have one messed up ear." I was waiting for the punch line, or the "just kidding," but there was none.

The doc says I had fresh bleeding, dried blood, and a hematoma. The body, trying to help, was trying to cover all this with scar tissue. Not good, he said. He removed as much tissue as he could. He told me to stop my current anti-biotics, because I needed something stronger. He also started me on a steroid (he clarified "not anabolic steroids"). I was hoping to leave the appointment being able to hear, but no such luck.

This means no swimming during Spring Break next week.

(The only good news from this is that we are now using an airline miles credit card. All of the prescriptions, doctor visit co-pays, etc. probably will add up to a free trip for us!)