On our lovely vacation pictured below, we stopped to eat at a little pizza joint on our way to Kemah. (Very yummy pizza too, even though Tyler will probably disagree...but I digress). Everything was well and good until about 5 minutes down the road. Tyler's ear pops and he starts yelling that I need to pull over NOW! Thankfully, we weren't on the Interstate, but in more of a shopping district. If anyone reading this happened to be in the day spa whose parking lot we happened upon, I'm truly sorry for what you saw!! After about 5 minutes, Tyler felt ok enough to get back on the road.
Trusty Tom Tom leads us through a neighborhood to get back on our way. Again, I want to apologize to the home owners whose yard we borrowed for approximately 30 minutes!! (Thankfully, he was hidden by a large shrub). I finally coax him back into the Tahoe with the words "There's a pharmacy just down the corner...." On the way to the pharmacy, he rolls down the window and just says not to look. One trip to CVS, bath with bottled water, change of clothes, motion sickness pills and drive thru car wash later, we were back on the road. We skipped Kemah and headed for our hotel in Galveston.
The motion sickness pills helped enough that we enjoyed the rest of our vacation. Didn't make it to Kemah, but went to the Strand and the beach twice. Once we got home, Tyler started taking amoxicillian. At this time, we thought it was an ear infection like he had had back in September. By Thursday, it wasn't better, it was worse. Tyler scheduled an appointment with Dr. Wilgers. Dr. Wilgers's comments to Tyler included "Man, it looks like you drank too much Tequila last night," and that he wanted to get him into a specialist that day. There was no infection, in his ear or visible swelling.
On to the ENT (Ears, Nose & Throat) doctor. He saw an audiologist first whose conclusion was "You ear has went ka-put." Hmm ok... He has lost all of his hearing in his right ear! The doctor he saw put Tyler on some anti-nausea medicine, steroids, and Valium, to calm him down enough to sleep. He had us come back on Monday to see a inner ear specialists.
On Monday, there was no improvement in Tyler's balance or hearing. The doctor has basically said it is one of three things 1.) Inflammation due to a viral infection of the inner ear 2.) Meniere's disease 3.) Thankfully, there is only a 1% chance of the tumor! Tyler had an MRI on Friday and hopefully we will get the results back on Tuesday.
The doctor told us a few things at that appointment. Basically, their main goal is to get some type of hearing back in his right ear. If they can get some sounds to go through, then our next goal is to get his ear to pick up some words, if we can get him to that point, a hearing aid is an option. To do this, they are keeping him on the oral steroid and applying steroid directly to the ear. (Yes that's as bad as it sounds. He inserted a tube in Tyler's ear and is going through the tube with a shot for the next 3 weeks). The doctor was very quick to say not to get our hopes up. The treatment that we are doing has been proven to work. However it works best with patients with little hearing lost. It boils down to the more hearing loss you have, the less of a chance you have for your hearing to come back. Since Tyler has lost 100%... you get the point. He was also quick to tell us that he has seen it happen, so this isn't just to put Tyler in some pain. :)
This week, Tyler is scheduled for another shot in his inner ear and a 2 hour balance test. For the balance test, he has to be off his Valium, and nausea medicine for 48 hours. Also, no caffeine. (Thank goodness he's not a smoker or a big drinker, we'd all strangle him! You have to be off those too.) He's been on the nausea medicine for over a week. We have no idea how much it's helping, but we definitely know that it is. WARNING... TMI!! He hasn't thrown up since he's been on it, so it's helping!!!
In the balance test, they are going to make him lay down, sit up, stand up,
watch things move, anything to make him dizzy. This test will give us a game plan on how to correct his balances, which exercises he needs, etc.
Long story short, if you see Tyler stumbling around, he isn't drunk. If you see him kneeling on the floor, just give him a minute. If you see him run into walls, or throw food off his plate because it's moving on him, try not to make too much fun of him! One other thing, it's affecting his vision, I think this has solved itself some, but he was seeing double and unable to read without closing one eye.
Yikes! That's a lot! On to me, we thought I might have a problem with my thyroid which would explain my constant tiredness, the crazy amount of hair I pick up off the floor and hopefully my weight gain... Not so much. Seems I'm fine. My thyroid is enlarged but still working properly. At least I'm not falling apart yet.....
Jace is having nosebleeds about every other night. It looks like we mascaraed someone in his bed last night. He even got it on his wall some how!?!?
Mallori is doing good. She's at her mother's for 2 weeks with the new baby. She's had some moments where she's freaked out. I think with everything going on she's just stressed... I definitely understand! But we've worked through them and she's good to go now!
As if this post wasn't long enough.. we're still trying to sell the house. Haven't really had any serious phone calls yet. If you know anyone who wants some peace and quiet, send them our way! We've found a few places that we are interested in but can't do anything until we sell this place obviously!
Are your eyeballs bleeding yet? Ok...Ok.. I'm done! Til next time....
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