I went to the ear specialist today to check on the hearing distortion in my right ear. He did a bunch of little tests. The most bizarre: he rang some tuning forks next to each of my ears in turn, and tones sounded several notes up in my left ear compared to my right.
The diagnosis at present is sudden hearing loss. It seems to be affecting the mid-tones of my hearing, and it's likely due to a completely out-of-the-blue viral infection. It's relatively mild as sudden hearing loss goes, because I haven't gone deaf; I'm just getting lots of garbled information through the nerves.
There's no medication to take except steroids, which I'm already on. They're already pushing me to the edge of panic and giving me tons of manic energy. The problem will probably resolve on its own, though my hearing may have been permanently damaged; the doctor didn't want to speculate. I suspect that my diminished immune system following treatment is partly to blame.
I'm feeling jumpy, confused, wired, sad, okay, tired. It's very disorienting to be out in public because I can hear a lot of rushing and feedback, and my own voice sounds totally different. If I'm like this forever, it'll be pretty difficult. I'm relieved, though, because it looks like this probably isn't something more serious.
Sometimes I feel like all of these problems are leading up to one enormous punchline.
