Hello blog,
As I said yesterday living with sick is generally unpleasant. Sometimes parts of the diagnostic process can be interesting…like having an Otorhinolaryngologist play a piano tuning fork on various parts of your head to test your hearing. Other parts like them sending a camera through your nostril and down your throat are way less fun, even though they can be interesting albeit gross.
This was the second time that I had a camera through my nose. This is a completely conscious procedure and is about as pleasant as it sounds, especially without any local anaesthetic. The first time that I had this procedure was last year before my thyroidectomy and it was less intense, I think because my body did not know what to expect.
Today when Dr Neels van Schalkwyk said that he needed to do a nasoendoscopy I responded with dread, because I remember how unpleasant it was. Last year was the first time that my curiosity did not triumph over discomfort where the doctor offered to explain what he saw through the scope. The net result of this was an interesting manifestation of an anxiety attack (made more challenging by battling to breathe through my nose. My go to trick is slow mouth breathing when I get an anxiety attack) so I needed to breathe through my nose with tears streaming from my ears.
But the good news is that it looks like I have a diagnosis for the persistent ear and throat infections. Or rather, I have two (what can I say, I am an overachiever when it comes to these things). The persistent earaches are the result of something called Costen syndrome which is strongly linked to anxiety. And the persistent throat infections are the result of asymptomatic reflux. So some extra meds to the morning cocktail and hopefully that will be under control as well.
Hopefully next week will be much less health related stuff and more fun things.
Love and diagnosis,
Trisha