It

 

(sigh)

 

So, what has been going on?  Not a whole helluva lot, but then again.... actually a whole helluva lot.  Let me try to elaborate:

• The Friday of Labor Day weekend, I started to feel considerable discomfort (in other words, a helluva lot of pain) in my neck, my lower jaw, and in my ears.  
• Initially, I thought the pain was simply my TMJ (temporomandibular joint disorder) acting up.  
• So, Friday afternoon and evening, I went through all the different exercises, machinations, and what-not that typically cause my TMJ symptoms to abate. I figured with a good night's rest, the pain would subside by morning.
• On Saturday morning, I awoke, and all the symptoms remained, but were INTENSIFIED and added to.  Now I also had a splitting headache, in three different areas of my head, my neck felt very stiff and painful to move, and my lower jaw and especially my ears were especially painful.  But, with the normal TMJ treatments having proven ineffective, I then began to suspect perhaps I had wax build-up in my external auditory canal.  I have had wax accumulate occasionally where it stiff, hard plug.  I went to try my "tried-and-true" method to get the was out.... which involved a sink of warm water with some hydrogen peroxide in it, and a large, rubber bulb to lavage my ear canal.  
• Unfortunately, it turned out that my rubber bulb for this purpose (~15 years old) had degraded somewhat and the side-walls of the bulb leaked (squirted out) fluid when I would squeeze the bulb.... and the net effect was the fluid pressure was greatly reduced.  No ear plugs came out.
• Still in pain, I went to Saturday Mass (I had duties at Mass) in the late afternoon/early evening, and then on my way home, I went to three different pharmacies before I found one that had a large volume, ear bulb like my broken one.  They also had an ear lavaging syringe with a special ear tip as well, so I bought both.  At home, I again filled the sing with warm water and peroxide, and lavaged my ears again using both the new bulb and the syringe, fully expecting to see one or more giant blobs of ear wax leave my ear and fall into the sink.  
• Unfortunately, nothing came out.  But, my head seemed to feel a little bit better, so I was hopeful that with rest, it would be resolved by morning.  
• Sunday morning, I felt reasonably "normal" as long as I did not move.  So, I laid in bed, not moving.  I started to move to get up, and my neck hurt like hell, so I laid back down.  I took a home Covid test... out of fear, because these symptoms just made no sense to me.  Fortunately I was Covid negative. 
  
• My wife informed me I was snoring the prior night (I typically do not snore, according to my wife), so I decided to attribute the neck pain to that since nothing else was making sense.  
• By Labor Day itself, I was feeling so ornery and rather despondent that couldn't stand it anymore.  The headaches moved around, sometimes in my sinuses, sometimes at the top of my head, sometimes at my temples.  All the TMJ symptoms were fierce.  My neck and shoulders ached.  I was fearful what my blood pressure might be, and was also afraid to actually measure it.  
• So, around noon, I forced myself out of bed, and dressed and drove myself to a "Redi-Med" for evaluation.  I dreaded the whole drive and the whole process.  But, I hurt like hell.   I had to wait in the waiting room for about 90 minutes before I could be seen by a nurse practitioner.   

The regular nurse came in first to record my basics (heart rate, temperature, blood pressure, etc), and then I had to wait about another 30 minutes before the nurse practitioner came in.  I went through all the background as I could regarding my symptoms and ended by asking her to check my ears with her otoscope.  She did, and reported that the canals were very clean and free of wax, but that she could see a buildup of fluid in right, middle ear, and this fluid was cloudy.  

From that information, I knew even before she told me her diagnosis, that I had a middle ear infection.  Yet, I was quite shocked, surprised and confused, as this didn't feel like any damn middle ear infection (ear ache) I have ever experienced before.  I have had sporadic ear aches my whole life (I had tubes implanted in my eardrums as a young boy due to CHRONIC ear infections... following the surgery, they became more manageable.... sporadic).  So, I KNOW what ear aches feel like for me.  This DID NOT feel the same at all.  Usually, I would experience a sharp, "beating" pressure in my middle ear.  This was feeling so different that I never imagined a middle ear infection until she told me of the information about the visible, cloudy fluid behind my ear drum.  

Apparently this was some particularly odd type, as she prescribed for me a very LARGE, atypical antibiotic to take.  The antibiotic wiped me out completely.  I took these large "horse pills" every day for the last seven days and finished the last one Monday morning.  Other than lecturing my classes at the U, forcing myself to get in my damn running miles (for which I was horribly, horribly slow, and achy beyond belief from the antibiotic), and eating a bit..... I slept the whole week after Labor Day.  

But, gradually, the antibiotic did succeed in combating the damable pathogen, and I began to feel a bit closer to normal by Wednesday and Thursday.  It still hurt every muscle in my legs to run, but I forced myself to stay with the goal.  

Now, it is Tuesday, September 13th, and it is 11 days since I started to feel sick from what ends up being a very odd middle ear infection. 

I would say I am now about 85% of my usual, old-guy self.  Running is still not the most pleasant, as the aches and pains, while getting more mild, are still there.  I think it may take a few more days to get virtually all the residual antibiotic out of my system and I am *HOPING* that leads to the leg pains finally disappearing.  

PipeTobacco