From Experimental Surgery to Unintended Consequences: My Journey from Hearing to Listening

This is what recovery looks like after the doctor prescribes pain medication based on your alcohol intake

In October of 2019, the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor I had seen for years suggested I get a procedure done.

Will insurance cover it? "No, it is still experimental." he said, "But, this would be the answer to the nearly 40 years of pain, infections, tubes and clogged hearing. I've done it hundreds of times" he said.

So I started to save money for this out of pocket, how could insurance not cover this procedure.

February of 2020 arrived, my mom showed up at my doorstep to drive me there.

I told her, "Mom, I can just uber, it's not a big deal. It's out patient."

"I'm coming" she said without hesitating.

I had to go pick up the pain and numbing medication on the way to his office of which he would administer before the procedure.

"How cheap of a drunk are you?" he asked.

"Huh?" I responded.

"Do you get buzzed off a glass of wine or more?"

Without knowing why he was asking, I responded "well, I prefer tequila". This was in my clear liquor days.

"Oh, well in that case" he said, and he handed me two of the pills. Then he started the numbing drip in my nose. Why my nose? That's how the procedure was done, through the nasal cavity.

What he didn't ask, was if I had ever had any reaction to anesthesia or pain medication. I have, I do, I did. He didn't ask if I had a pain tolerance, I don't, I didn't.

In my fear of feeling any discomfort, likely, I just kept saying I could feel something when he would test it.

The procedure didn't take long. The recovery, on the other hand. His office was downtown, basically in an area where all people convene from all offices for food, prescriptions, meetings or doctor visits during the work hours.

I was wheeled out of his office with a bed pan on my lap because I could not stop throwing up due to the excess of pain medication plus numbing drops that had dripped into my throat with the combination of not eating.

It took me 30 minutes to crawl up the 13 stairs to my bedroom with my mother sitting right next to me on each step.

No phone call to check on me after. Nothing. But I was supposed to endure it, financially and painfully, because I was going to no longer be in a constant state of trying to hear everything.

In case you are wondering, and you probably aren't, I can't hear perfect, but not poorly enough to necessitate hearing aids. But what happens is everything is a bit muffled and a bit delayed and anytime there is pollen in the air, I basically have the feeling of a cotton swabbed in Vaseline in my ear because it's all muffled.

When I went back for my post op check up, after Covid had entered our lives and now masks were added to the agony of my listening. I told the doctor, nothing has improved. I still feel like my head is in a bucket and there is cotton in my ears. Oh and now, there's clicking. "That's weird." That's all. "That's weird." And every time after that when there was no change to what was bad and now felt worse, the masks made my hearing workouts like Hyrox challenges for the listening. Every single time, his response was, "That's weird."

And then, he left the practice. Gone. Poof.

I was flummoxed on what to do. I was out thousands, and there's never a guarantee, but c'mon....we don't pay for "that's weird" either.

I saw a new doctor. A specialist in the field. A new practice. I cried when I walked into his office. I was at a loss. "I would have never done this procedure on you, with your scarring and your history. There are not many doctors in Houston who do that procedure and none more than 10 - 15 times each."

I cried. I just cried.

I felt like I hadn't been heard before that day. We started on a road together for the next 3 years, until it was time to send me to a specialer specialist...is that a thing? It is! But for 3 years, I followed every rule. I never got water in my ear. And I taught paddleboard yoga! I would check in every 3 months to watch the progress, or degress, if you will. I would get him to clean my ears, Q-tips are a no-no, in case you haven't heard.

And then a year ago, I had surgery. This one insurance paid for, which was a good thing because I lost my job 7 days later. And this was the first surgery of what will hopefully only 2 to fix what was damaged and then damaged again by that "experimental" doctor.

Why am I telling you this story? Because of one thing, and 2 things only...

Get a second opinion.

And 2. When I tell you I can't hear, what I mean is, I can't understand a muffle, a statement from another room, a song playing in a crowded place, when you are talking and walking behind me, if my left ear is on a pillow, and apparently when you say things like "it's experimental".