I think I’m getting old and starting to fall apart.

For the last year I’ve had this Eustachian tube dysfunction that causes me to hear myself really loud in my left ear. If I’m talking, all I hear is me. When it’s really bad, I can hear my heartbeat or my breathing. Walking around would cause a thump-thump-thump sound with every step.

I ran through five days of prednisone and cipro, then 10 days, with no luck. After a 25-day-run of prednisone, I ended up going in on Monday and gettinga tympanostomy tubein my ear.

When they do it, you lay on your side and they drop some anesthetic in your ear. You lay there for a while letting that soak in, then they pop your eardrum and put the tube in. The tube itself is about the size of a pencil lead. It didn’t hurt going in, but there is still some occasional soreness a couple of days later if I yawn really big or bend over such that the blood rushes to my head.

I still hear myself a little, but in general that whole side of my head feels clearer. I’m waiting for a few days before I test to see if I can clear it.

That same day I noticed the left half of my tongue had gone numb. I let it go for a day, but it was still numb, and that freaked me out a bit, so I called the doctor’s office.

When they puncture your eardrum, some of the anesthetic runs through your Eustachian tube into other areas of your head. Apparently some hit my tongue just right (though I didn’t taste anything) and numbed me up. Today, two days later, I’m better… but that lasts a really long time. What was most freaky was that I could feel things on my tongue, I just couldn’t taste, like half of my taste buds had just died. I’m guessing some nerve got hit or something.

I also got some new glasses because Phoenix got ahold of my old ones and decided to rip the arm off. Since my prescription had expired, I had to get a new one. Upon getting my new glasses, I noticed everything looked like I was looking out a slight fish-eye lens – straight lines weren’t straight anymore. Looking at, say, a brick wall was really trippy because the whole thing looked curved. I tried them for a week and took them back.

The optician said I wasn’t adapting to the lens material, so I went from polycarbonate lenses to some other higher-density material. Same thing – weird curvy vision. Again, I tried for a week and never adapted, so I fell back to plastic lenses. (I did inquire as to whether something in my new prescription might be causing this but I was assured it was the lens material.)

I’m wearing the plastic lenses right now and still seeing curvy. Keeping in mind it takes about a week to get my glasses fixed up every time I take them back, we’re going on well over a month now since I first tried to get new glasses. I’ll give these two weeks before taking them back, but right now I hate these stupid glasses with every fiber of my being. I hate that nothing looks right. I really just want my old glasses with my old prescription even if I wasn’t seeing 20/20.

So that’s three of my five senses that have gone out on me recently and I have to say, it’s stressing me out.

I won’t even get into the pressure cooker work has become, or my lack of time to do anything at home, or the bathroom caulk I’ve replaced twice now because I can’t get it to set.

Basically I’m just tired all the time now. I’m hoping things pick up soon because I’m really just falling apart.