The Other Ear

Back when I was pregnant with Joan and Kate (whoa!- that was 5 years ago now), David suddenly lost the hearing in his right ear. It happened one night while we were watching a movie. He complained that he couldn't hear well on the right side, but he also had a major head-cold going on, so we thought his ears were just plugged.

The next morning, the hearing loss was more profound, so he went to the doctor. He was diagnosed with having sudden neurological hearing loss, presumable from a virus. He was told that had he went in earlier, they couldn't have stopped and/or reversed the hearing loss with a heavy-duty steroid.

Over the next few weeks, he slowly gained back some of his hearing. He now has about 60% in that ear. He uses his "good ear" (left) for talking on the phone, and always tries to sit so his left side is closest to me. This makes conversations in the car, when he's driving, infuriating as hell. He's constantly turning to me and saying "What?". I understand why old people get so crotchety with each other- it's maddening not being heard.

Which brings us to last night, when David suddenly lost the hearing in his other ear, his good ear, his left ear. This time he went in to the ER right away, and is taking some seriously fucking strong steroids. He had a hearing test and saw a specialist today. As before, the most profound loss is in the upper octaves, the higher pitches, like the kids' voices.

He's been so stoic to me about this, unable to speculate on what this could mean for him. It's sometimes like that with the ones we love the most. But I read some of his IM conversation he had with his sister last night (I think he left it up on the screen, hoping I'd see it.) It said that he was worried about not being able to hear or understand Marin's first words. He said it was heartbreaking to have Kate or Joan try to tell him something and not know what they were saying.

It killed me, reading those typed words, knowing he wasn't able to yet say them aloud. He wants me to keep the faith, and I do. I do.