On Tuesday, I had a follow up appointment with my ENT. We were following up on the tinnitus in my left ear, since about a month ago he had put me on a mild diuretic hoping to reduce any fluid in my ear. I realized fairly quickly that I wasn't going to be able to tolerate the diuretic, but I gave it 3 weeks. Not only did it make me feel completely dehydrated (duh), it was also lowering my blood pressure and making me dizzy. Considering I already take medication to RAISE my blood pressure, I knew this wasn't going to be a good choice unless I was seeing a dramatic difference in the tinnitus.
I saw no difference in the ringing after 3 weeks, so I stopped taking the medication. At Tuesday's appointment, we discussed the options from here. The first thing the doctor wanted to do was test my hearing again to see if there has been any change. I was skeptical at the need for this because I feel like my hearing is fine, but the damn ringing needs to stop, and the occasional pain and dizziness, too. Anyway, I reluctantly agreed to come back the next day for the hearing test (I had already waited an hour and 15 minutes to see the doctor, and I had a migraine, so I didn't want to do the test that day). The doctor promised to call me the day after the hearing test (which would be today) to decide on the options we had discussed.
The options were: 1) a shot of a steroid in my ear - not very appealing to me, especially since the oral steroid hadn't made any difference; 2) a much stronger diuretic which is shorter lasting, with hourly hearing tests to see if the diuretic makes any difference; 3) a trial of doxycycline, which is an antibiotic used to treat Lyme disease.
The hearing test was at 1:00 yesterday. At 5:05, as I was getting in my car to leave work, the doctor called me on my cell phone with the results. He (and I) was surprised to see that in just 2 months since my last hearing test, the hearing in my left ear had in fact declined. Don't get me wrong, it's not a dramatic difference or anything that I would notice. But the difference between my ears has increased.
The doctor's suggestion was to go with the trial of doxycycline. Based on my collection of symptoms, including the tinnitus and hearing decline, a diagnosis of Lyme makes a lot of sense - but like everything else in my medical history, the test results don't confirm this 100%. While I agree that I might benefit from the antibiotic, I actually want to be sure that it is the APPROPRIATE treatment if I do have Lyme. Coincidentally, I have an appointment to see a Lyme specialist on Monday. I mentioned this to the ENT and asked if he minded if I opted to wait to see what the specialist has to say. He was fine with that, and said that if they opt not to treat me, he would still like me to try at least 2 weeks of the antibiotic so I should call him next week and let him know what they say. He also asked me to make sure I talk to them about the decline in hearing.
So, while it's not great news that my hearing is declining, I am really hoping that this is putting me on the right track for diagnosis and proper treatment. Things only seem to be getting worse lately so this could be my silver lining. I'm a bit anxious for my consultation on Monday afternoon!
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