steroids and needles and tears, oh my

The past five weeks have been a pretty big drag for me (and most people around me), since whatever is happening to my inner ear won't let up. I'm not sure if this is some devious plan that fate has cooked up for me to miraculously feel better at Christmas so I will realize I should never take anything for granted, especially my health, ever again. Or maybe I'm just genetically inferior and I will have to learn how to survive the rest of my life feeling as if I just stepped off a giant amusement park ride with a wad of cotton shoved in my right ear. Which ever one it is, this dizziness and hearing loss is starting to make me lose my mind, a little at a time, everyday.

I finally dumped and filed a grievance against my primary care physician, because honestly, no one should have a doctor who tells you that you shouldn't be coming in for a visit once a year, but only when you have an "issue" to deal with. The wacky thing about this guy is whenever I did have an "issue" he would tell me to wait two weeks to see what happens. When push finally came to shove with this whole ear thing, he flat out refused to give me a referral to a specialist. So adios to you, bad healthcare provider. I did find out that I am not the only person who was treated this way, so let's keep our fingers crossed that he retires soon, because no one should be subjected to his kind of treatment.

The ENT and I went head to head last week for round two of me trying to explain my ailments. Attempting to describe what kind of dizzy I am experiencing has turned out to be a exercise in patience, and the results have not been very good. You can't just use the word dizzy or lightheaded with this ENT, and if it's not vertigo he can't help you out. After ten minutes of trying to explain myself and deciding against saying "well, it kind of feels like I'm drunk all the time, except I don't want to make out with everyone," I ended up in tears. He handed me a tissue and we pleasantly decided to agree to disagree. Then he wrote me 4 prescriptions, one of which was for Prednisone, and told me he's pretty confident these symptoms will stop soon. I have more tests next week.

I also started acupuncture treatments. I figure that even if it's not proven to work at least I'll be in an exam room for an hour where someone actually listens to what I have to say and is committed to helping me. That's got to be worth something to my psyche.

I don't know what else to do. Sometimes I think about suing the pants off of the two guys who rear ended me, because it would be so much easier to have some sort of explanation of why this is happening to me. And a big wad of cash sure would be pretty sweet right now.