I apologize for the delay in updates - between juggling everything and having the kids last night I haven't had the energy to finish this until this evening.

One thing I wanted to note is that I see my hearing situation as a public example of what I find when I connect with friends around me - many people are experiencing great challenges right now. What I've been telling people individually and now collectively - know that you are not alone in being challenged. It's not 'you', it's something bigger. From what I can tell the challenges are touching on our deepest fears and I believe the point it to identify the fear(s) and walk through it / them. Keep in mind that most of the time they are paper tigers.

I was talking to a friend the other night and she asked me "What does someone to say to you?" meaning that while it's not like I've been told I have a Bad Disease and six months to live, my current experience is closer to that than say getting a paper cut.

It's a good question and after some thought I've come up with a list of perfectly reasonable and caring things people can say to me (this is by no means a complete list :-) ):

• "How are you doing?"
• "I'm thinking about you." (and variants e.g. "I'm praying for you.")
• "Please let me know if I can help in some way."
• "Would you like a hug?" (Yes :-) )
• "Would you like to have lunch / dinner sometime?"
• "Would you like to talk sometime?"
• "I have some recipes for easy / quick to prepare great-tasting dishes involving fresh or lightly cooked veggies. Would you like them?"
• "Would you like to go kayaking / hiking / any other moderate exercise in a relaxing and quiet environment with me?"

Clearly some of these offers work better if you're in Austin but hey it's the thought that counts. :-) ("Yo, Brendan next time you're on the Big Island look me up and we'll spend some time in the Hawai`i Tropical Botanical Garden and then have a picnic at Rainbow Falls State Park." I'm so down with that. :-) )

I am approaching this completely opposite to how I approached my hearing loss thirteen years ago - I am being upfront about my situation and reaching out to people around me. The above suggestions, while seemingly 'simple', are simple in the sense that they are vehicles for a larger message - a message of caring and that puts you on my 'healing team' and how cool is that? :-)

I have read about this for people who've experienced larger and more permanent loss e.g. death of a child and I experience the truth myself - the message isn't what you say, the message is you.

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Monday my friend A in HI responded to my last update suggesting I see a chiropractor:

I lost and still on and off lose the hearing in my right ear. It began about 6 years ago...

If the "atlas" (the place where the head sits on the neck) is out - or the lower vertebra in the neck it can: A). Screw with your sinuses and/or B). throw off your inner ear structure.

It would be like my ear needed to pop - only it won't. When that happens I can't hear a thing out of that ear until I go get an adjustment.

It may not be the same thing - but if it's sinus related - then I suspect a good neck adjustment will do the trick for both the sinuses and the ear/hearing problem.

Since I've been stretching and popping my back quite a bit lately and knew a good chiropractor I figured I had nothing to lose so I went.

I'm relating to him that I've come to see this as part of something similar to a healing crisis and his response was "That is so cool, I'm so excited for you!" :-)

Given that I understand his worldview I accepted this as a message of caring. :)

He confirmed A's point that the Atlas (C1) effects just about everything in the body and could be involved. He also tells me something interesting involving Omega-6 / Omega-3 ratios and mucus production. Ping me if you're interested.

I get on the table and after he feels around he's like "Dude, your C1 is way out of whack" and then proceeds to do his thing three times on my head / neck. Cccrrraaaccckkk, Cccrrraaaccckkk, crack.

Whether C1 is involved in my hearing or not I clearly needed some adjustment which perhaps contributes how I'd been feeling the previous couple of days (described below).

Tuesday I saw an audiologist and an ENT. Both remarked on how much fluid was in my ears, the audiologist was quite impressed by how little movement I had in my ear drums.

Translating from medical speak the gist is that my sinii and ears are filled with the body's equivalent of Jello (my kids, apparently referencing a TV program they watch, take delight in imagining they're filled with Grape Jelly. Same difference I think. :-) )

I have copies of the charts from the audiologist showing the extent of my hearing loss compared to 6y ago. It indicates some nerve damage in the upper frequencies (that would be considered permanent [1]); the current difficulty however is thought to be due to the temporary loss due to the ear Jello / Grape Jelly preventing the ear drum and middle ear structures from vibrating like they should.

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[1] there's no way of knowing when this loss was experienced and likely preceded my current experience; also I'm not convinced it is entirely accurate as I noticed that the tinnitus was so loud that I had difficulty hearing some tones. I am quite interested in retesting once this is cleared and the tinnitus has faded.

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According to the ENT I have a sinus infection and infections in both ears. He told me to continue my current antibiotics and wrote me a scrip for a 2nd 10d round of a more powerful antibiotic if I'm still not clear; I'm followup in approx. four weeks.

He thought it was premature to investigate hearing aids; if I don't respond to antibiotics the next step would be to drain my ears via surgery to pierce the ear drum. In the interim he suggested trying a hearing assistance device from Radio Shack which I bought; since getting it Tue afternoon I've had mixed results which means that some of the time I'm in better shape than I was before (there's one guy in the office who comes through loud and clear, unfortunately I don't interact with him that often...)

After the ENT I saw my homeopath for a previously scheduled appt. After an extended session she changed my remedy; her thinking, which I agreed with, was that I've spent the summer transitioning off my previous remedy and this was a clear indication it was time to complete the transition.

So here's the thing. My Western Doctors tell me my head is filled with infections. Based on previous experience I should be running a high fever and sleeping all day. Listening to the body I've spent the last ten plus years getting to know and learning to trust my perceptions I don't see it. I believe this is something else and have some ideas about what that is. Time will tell...

As of now (Thursday evening) I don't appear to have had any significant relief wrt to hearing. My perception has been that Wed and Thu night when talking on the phone w/a friend that I could hear her better and that my voice wasn't booming quite so loud in my head. It could be I'm beginning to drain during the day...

I'm intermittently tired which I think is due to (past?) poor sleep and coping.

I do (with a couple of exceptions) continue to feel better emotionally (feedback and support from friends is a big part of that so ya'll give yourselves a pat on the back now, ya'll hear? :-) ) leading to I think a better night's sleep the last three nights (a big deal since I've had problems sleeping for about a month) and improved energy levels, mood, etc. Tuesday and Wednesday.

This is a very interesting journey. What I find very interesting to ponder is my hearing has been attenuated enough to catch my attention and take notice that Something Big is occurring yet at the same time I have enough left to cope fairly well. Goldilocks just popped into my head...

My thinking is that I'm going to continue posting updates but unless they're relating to physical changes I won't send e-mails letting folks know something new is ready for consumption. Feel free to check my blog (or me!) if you haven't heard from me and please continue sending your support - it means more than you know.

Namaste.