Hear yee, hear yee

The other day I was sitting at my desk at work when the ground began to rock, as if I was on a boat in the middle of the ocean.  Some of the peaks of the swells were so high that I had to hold onto my desk until they passed.  It was like a free P&O cruise.

When the swells went away, I was simply bobbing up and down.  It was really quite exciting, but evidently not particularly healthy.  Apparently I was suffering from unsteadiness brought about my vertigo, as a complication of Eustachian Tube Dysfunction. 

By the time I went to the doc that afternoon, I had lost some of my hearing and everything sounded quite tinny.  The doc told me to expect more deafness and spinning and dizziness, which fortunately didn't eventuate.  This Eustachian Tube connects the ears to the throat and mine was stuck open when it should have been closed, or vice versa.

All external sounds are a bit muffled and internal sounds are sort of amplified. But when I hear a loud noise it bounces between my ear drums and is amplified 10 fold. It is so very strange.  The first night I could hear my heartbeat when I was trying to go to sleep which was very disconcerting.

You can imagine all the jokes at work - evidently there are many many songs related to sailing and shipping and oceans.  It feels like the sensation that you get just before your ears pop on a plane - except it is constant.  And there seems to be a droning air conditioner in my head.  Apparently my condition is caused by flying on a plane, which I did last week, on a five-hour flight.  My ears didn't pop when I landed on Sunday so that might be related too.  This build of pressure in my ears is a new probem and might explain my new claustrophobia on flights. 

Anyway, my 'earing is mostly good as new now, but I guess I'll be wearing ear plugs for future flying adventures.