Tag: ear

Ear and flathunting and Daniel Craig ice lollies

thegirlinthecafe 11 Comments
  • Firstly – and this will be the last time I write about it – my dizzyness is gone. I am not quite sure how well my ear is hearing, but I do hear with it. I just tried to listen to my iPod for the first time in weeks, and it seems that the music is more evenly balanced and true stereo now. (Don’t worry I am playing it on low volume!)

    They removed the packing from my ear yesterday (so nice because it itched like mad) and I need to return for a full hearing test six weeks from now.

    Even if my ear seems to hear better than it did before – I am not sure if I will ever do an operation like this again. My other ear has the same issue (but it is not bad enough to operate yet) and I have to be pretty deaf before I even consider going through this again. But all is good now, and I hope it will stay that way. Thank you for all the concern and thoughts and comments regarding this!

  • When I came back from Holland, I heard that my current landlord is contemplating about what to do with his appartment (the one I currently live in that is). I have decided that I no longer want to live like this – not knowing when he feels like raising the rent or quickly having to move because he suddenly wants to sell it (we don’t have a contract) . So I am now a full time flatshare searcher and am looking for another place to live. I have some potential rooms on the radar and will check them out – but if you happen to know someone who knows someone who has the nicest room ever – then please do get in touch. I won’t stop searching until I have found a nice place.

And here for some good news:

  • Summer has arrived, not only in London, but all over England. I found myself having a lovely freshly made milkshake at the Rinky Tink beach cafe in Lyme Regis last Saturday and it was marvelous just to be able to sit outside without having to wear a coat. Long may this weather continue – wherever you are.
  • The Boat That Rocked is still on in London! Rock on! I think I will catch it tomorrow, just to see what it sounds like with two normally functioning ears.
  • And oh dear – they have made Daniel Craig popsicle ice lollies … Enough said.

And you – how have you been?

The small things in life

thegirlinthecafe 5 Comments

When my head started to feel a little bit less dizzy, I started to make some small walks in my hometown IJsselstein, and noticed that the small things in life are very worth noticing.

I am slowly getting better every day and I am back in London now. I am still having some trouble reading a book, or staring at a computer screen for too long, but I am sure that will all get better too. On Monday (1st of June) they will remove the dressing from my ear and have a look. But even with the dressing still in, sounds are coming through already, which is a good sign.

A helicopter

The young ones

Young swans

Mother and child

Pink flowers

Dexter in da house
My brothers dog – not at all pleased with his outfit and waiting to bite someones nose for revenge.

Very slow recovering from Stapedectomy

thegirlinthecafe 10 Comments

It is very slowly getting better after my stapedectomy operation. My dizzyness is not completely over yet but the good news is that it is now slowly getting better. It has taken nearly two nervewrecking weeks which is much longer than the couple of days they mentioned in the leaflet I received from the hospital.

I am still having trouble reading and staring at a computer screen for more than 10 minutes, but I am now able to walk around without having the feeling that I am wearing a huge heavy space helmet on my head. It is a big relief and I am sure all will be fine some time from now.

Another good thing is that there are moments where my operated ear opens (it is still stuffed with the dressing and cotton wool – that will be removed on the 2nd of June) and in those moments I can definitely hear things with it. It is hard to say how well I will hear with it until after the 2nd of June but it seems promising.

I am still in Holland but will return to London on Friday.

A big Thank You to all the nice people who left those very nice comments on the previous post! I am sure it helped!

Temporary on hold (I hope)

thegirlinthecafe 13 Comments

I am on my way to Holland (with bus and ferry because I am not really allowed to travel otherwise). Things are not how they should be with my dizzyness and I just need to be with my mum.

I don’t know if this dizzyness will ever disappear, I am still hoping it does, but until it does – I won’t be writing much here. There are more important things I have to worry about at the moment.

Be good readers, and I really do hope to be back soon with a steady head.

Otosclerosis and Stapedectomy

thegirlinthecafe 19 Comments

No you didn’t accidentally ended on a medical website. I have a funny ear which suffers from Otosclerosis, which means I am not hearing very well with it.

Tomorrow they will operate it and that type of ear operation is called Stapedectomy. I had the same type of operation done five years ago, and that did improve my hearing dramatically – it was close to being normal again. However, somehow I lost a fair bit of my hearing again last summer, so they will operate in order to see what is going on. The tiny prosthesis (and it really is incredibly tiny – look at the photo of it next to a 10p coin!) they inserted at the time might have moved, causing my hearing to become worse again.

Because this is the second time they operate my ear this is treated as a revision surgery, which means they will do it under full anaesthetic. And in stead of doing it all through the ear drum (like last time) they will make a tiny cut behind my ear too, so it is a bit easier for them to work.

Normally these revision operations have a good chance of restoring the hearing too.

Needless to say that I am pretty nervous for it. I have to be in the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital at 11am tomorrow, the operation will take between 30 minutes and 2.5 hours, so cross your fingers for me.

After the operation I will be off from work for some time and I will have to avoid flying, sneezing, and heavy lifting. They will insert a thin ribbon like pack in the ear canal after the operation (in order for the ear and ear drum to heal properly) and that will be left in for two weeks. I remember that it felt like having a football in your ear, but hopefully after a couple of days I should be able to experience some slight hearing improvement, even with the football still there.
After that it should continue to improve steadily day by day. When the pack is removed I will have to do a hearing test again to see how my hearing has improved. I will twitter when I have woken up after the operation (if there is a signal in the hospital and it is allowed to use mobile phones!).

Me and my ear hope to be back soon, and I can’t wait to write something like – yahoo I am back and they didn’t cut my ear off.

I (f)ear you

thegirlinthecafe 7 Comments

(*)You didn’t know I was a bionic woman did you? Or maybe you did, I had a simular operation about 5 years ago (in Dutch sorry – but they replaced one of the tiny bones in my ear with a tiny platinum replacement – yes they have to cut through the ear drum and this time they will also make a cut in my ear – brrrr) and about 2 weeks from now I am going to go through the same procedure again. Or kind of, they will try to figure out why my bionic ear is no longer that bionic anymore (in other words, I am pretty deaf on that ear).

This operation came a bit unexpected but the good thing about that is that I can’t worry about it for too long, as it is soon. The other good thing is that it will take place under full aneastetic, which means that unlike last time, I don’t have to worry about laying still: I will as I will be fast asleep so the doctor can laser around steadily. And it was pretty scary to hear all the sounds in my ear last time when I got operated while being concious, so I am glad I won’t have to go through that again.

I am also glad I wrote down how the recovery period went, I had forgotten about the strange noises in my ear, the loss of taste on a side of my tongue and things like that. This was all temporary and all went away after a few days. I am not looking forward to it, but hopefully I will regain a big part of my hearing in my left hear when it’s done. And maybe, just maybe, my tinitus will disappear again too.

It will take place in Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital in London. They have been around for quite a while, so let’s hope they do a decent job.

I will have to stay at home for a week or two after it’s done. So I better start preparing and make sure I have stacks of films and books ready by then. Is The Boat That Rocked DVD out yet? What do you mean, No?

I am not complete

thegirlinthecafe 9 Comments

There, I said it. I am missing something. When you look at my right ear, it is missing a piece on the corner. It looks like they run out of dna clay when making me. It looks a bit weird, and feels weird too, as the earshell is simply missing a piece. It is not that obvious, but is is noticable and boyfriends have been joking about it.
Normally I don’t think about it at all. So why do I write this, you wonder.
Because today in the Caterham train, I sad opposite a guy who had the exact same thing! He was missing a part of his right ear, on the same place as I do.

So we are not alone, and maybe I am an alien after all.

I actually took a picture of my ear, to go with this post, but decided not to post it. Not the least because of the shockingly increased number of grey hairs I spotted on it. Where did they come from, all of a sudden?!
I absolutely adore grey hair, on the heads of men, it makes them look distinguished and intelligent and interesting, but I am not really ready to have them myself.

Do you happen to miss a piece of your ear ?