My currently Barotraumatic life

I've been suffering for almost a week now with Ear Barotrauma - also known as Barotitis media, Eustachian tube dysfunction or plain old Airplane ear.   Caused by flying while congested with a head cold, it has happened to me many times before, but usually clears in a day or so.  This time both ears have been affected, and so too, has my hearing.  Quite disconcerting to be 'off the air' for so long, but a taste of what it may be like later in life when my hearing really does deteriorate.

I found the term Barotrauma on the several medical websites I searched looking for a quick-fix.  No luck yet with decongestants, nasal sprays, or anthistimines, so I am just carrying on with muffled hearing - and frustrating others by whispering, because my own voice is echoing in my head.

One hardly needs to go away to relax when living in the hinterland, but my trip to the NSW South Coast was pleasantly different.  I stayed with a friend at Tuross Head and enjoyed the lake and the beaches as well as the countryside.

We had tea and coffee on the verandah of the secluded Forest Gallery ....

and a swim at the equally secluded One Tree Beach ....

Used to the heavily congested traffic on the Pacific Highway north and south of Brisbane, I was amazed to find that the Princes 'Highway' is mostly only one lane either way -- and surprised to see the roadsides infested with the same lantana, wild tobacco and morning glory that we see in the north. 

Also similar is the vast number of closed dairy farms with their forlorn and rusting milking sheds.

So I added another photo to my collection .... 

And now, after a cool, relaxing (and blogless) two weeks, it's back to more life in the slow-lane in my quiet hinterland corner.

Comments

WELCOME BACK!!

(shouting so you'll hear me. : - )

[Sonia]

I hope you feel better soon.
Beautiful photos!

All my best wishes to you.

[Alice]

I hope you are steadily recovering. Isn't Tuross such a pretty place with all those beaches and lakes? Astonishing just how many houses are down there. Someone did tell me they are about 70% holiday homes. If you go down again then pay a visit to the Trunketabella Gardens and Nursery (on the Highway, close to the Tuross turnoff), but mind you take PLENTY of insect repellant. The mosquitoes will eat the shirt off your back!

[joared]

Enjoyed your pictures! Glad you had a good trip. I think how wonderful it is to go to the ocean and have few other people around. Seems it's harder and harder to find any very easily accessible areas in nature that allow experiencing only the sights and sounds in their natural state.

Sorry about the eustachian tube problem. I experienced one for a number of years when I was much younger. The problem was diagnosed variously, including as a migraine with increasingly expensive and ineffective medications prescribed.

Finally, a very astute physician listened to the symptoms I described, paid attention to the area I indicated seemed to be most affected, put it all together with his having treated military personnel watching radar for long hours during the USA Cuban Missile Crisis, concluded I experienced a low grade sinus infection (temp below normal) which resulted in vertigo and many of it's accompanying symptoms. What a godsend to have the correct diagnosis and simple relatively inexpensive treatment those many years ago.

Sounds like you, at least, know what your problem is, so hopefully you're over it all by now.

[Val]

Jude, how wonderful to have you back. You have been missed. I do hope you are feeling better soon.

The photos were an interesting mix: great beach shot, the table setting looks so welcoming, and the photo of the abandoned farm and accompanying text about the Pacific "Highway" are so interesting. I only know the Pacific Highway just north of Sydney, and even at the end of the 80s it was pretty busy and congested.

[Anna]

Glad you are back. Sorry about the 'cloth ears' as they say round here, try pinching your nose while you drink hot water a few times.

[Tjilpi]

Tjilpi's "patented" quick fix.

Prednisolone 50mg po mane 3/7.

[Buck 1936]

Very painful and annoying Jude any ear complaint; I have tinnitus and it's terrible so I know the feeling; When I lived in NSW a few years ago I visited Tuross Beach frequently as you say a beaut spot; they have done the highway up now north of Newcastle but it will be a long time before it makes it to Brisbane but that is the idea it seems.

[Jude]

Thank you for all the sympathy - and the suggestions. It's 10 days now and no sign of any improvement - even after I tried Anna's hot water, and some-one else's idea for a mini ear sauna using a cup of boiling water. On Friday I accepted the earliest available doctor's appointment, which will be at midday tomorrow.

Meanwhile I now have Tj's prescription, and thanks to an asthmatic husband with a supply of Prednisolone, will begin on it immediately. (Must say it took me as a lay person a while to sort out what 'po mane' meant after Google first told me Po Mane was a town in Vietnem.)

[pablo]

Good to have you back in the virtual world. Take care.

[Tjilpi]

Well. Did it work?

[Jude]

'Fraid not yet. But I paid my $50 today to get the same script in writing - "bringing out the Big Guns" my GP called it. Oh well, two more days to go!

[Tjilpi]

It would have been $60 here, although Health Care Card holders are bulk billed...

Which reminds me...I once saw a sign in a garage in Birdsville, where I went to have a 4WD tyre repaired...

"Prices vary according to the attitude of the customer"

[Jude]

I got a discount for my cheerful nature -- and the self-diagnosis.

[Tjilpi]

You owe me 10 bucks!