Monday, August 27, 2012

What? Huh? What was that?

A few titles for this one…But decided on the most creative…

Never Think It’s not related…
What ISN’T a Diabetic complication…
This can’t be…

About 6 months or so ago, Vince complained he couldn’t hear out of his right ear. We went to one of our family doctors and they flushed the ear however nothing came out so they sent him on his way. When the problem persisted, we went to see our regular family doctor and he also flushed out the ear. Again, nothing came out. He said there was some wax build up, but the other ear actually “looked” more clogged than the one he complained about. He flushed both ears and suggested he see an ENT specialist. Shortly after, I called the specialist and made an appointment. Due to my work schedule, and the fact that I am running out of vacation time at my full time job, I pushed back the appointment about another month to a day I already had planned to be off. (you would think 21 days off a year would be enough, but nope) We finally went to the appointment and met with the doctor. After filling out the paperwork on his medical history, the doctor came in and looked in his ears. He also said that there was some wax, but the “good” ear was more built up than the bad ear. He physically removed the wax from both ears and sent us to another part of the hospital for an extensive hearing test. Afterwards, we went back to the doctor’s office for the results. The doctor explained that there is very significant hearing loss in the right ear which he thinks is due to fluid in the inner ear. What the test also showed however is that both ears have some sort of hearing loss. He showed us lot’s of charts and graphs that were a result of the test but basically, his hearing was barely at the normal line, aside from the suspected fluid. He said this could be hereditary or Diabetic related. At that point, I did not worry too much. He gave Vince some instructions on some over the counter medication to take and instructed us to come back in 3 weeks to see if the fluid was gone or not. If not, they would cut the ear drum and drain the fluid. I thought this sounded relatively normal for a “fluid in the ear” situation. It wasn’t until days later, that Vince expressed how concerned he was that got me thinking. What if this was yet another Diabetic complication in the works?? All this time, I had brushed it off as a normal, non emergency type of situation and underestimated how bad the problem really was. Of course I did what your never supposed to do, but I always do: I googled “Hearing Loss + Diabetes” Below is a link that came up. I am inclined to believe what I am reading since it is the American Diabetes Association site. It seems that this problem is not a known complication, but a true complication that can arise. GREAT. All I can do now is hope to God that it is simple fluid and not another complication. He already has significant vision loss. Please let’s not lose hearing too.

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