Its Tuesday...time to go to emerg

So there I was sleeping (two weeks ago)....when all of a sudden I got this "ZING" in my nose. So painful that it woke me up around 3AM. I knew if was a flu thing....and there was no liquid echinacea in the house. That's my sure fire "kill the virus" solution, and it always, always, always works. All I do is down the whole bottle (or any part that is remaining in the bottle), then drink something else to get rid of the horrible taste. And if one gussles it down in one big gulp....well it always works. And I had none, I already new that. So I layed there humming and hawing...I know the both markets in my neighborhood are 24/7. I could just get up and go buy a bottle. But its 3AM,...Do I have to get dressed I wonder, or can I just throw my jacket over my pj's? Or I could just throw on some sweat pants thing over everything.....Do I really want to get out of bed? Nooo, I will go in the morning...big deal, what's a couple hours? By morning I had this incredible head cold from Hell. I could not believe it. It's too late for the stuff now. So later Friday I trudged to the store and drank the stuff in the car on the way home....better late than never.. Saturday morning I woke up with the same "zing" in the left ear. OHHH oh, this can't be good. I hade some Advil cold stuff plus, By monday morning My throat and ear and head were so stuffed and sore I had to go to the clinic. Antibiotics worked by wednesday except for my left ear, and left side of head. I couldn't believe my ear was so sore, and ringing I couldn't stand up, kept bumping into things, couldn't get up without severe pain in my head. And the headaches by the end of the day just got worse and worse. So Thursday I went back to clinic and was told I would just have to "give it time" .....bull I was taking sleeping pills to sleep at night because the noise in my head wouldn't let me fall asleep. It was torture. I talked to pharmacist (3) for advise. 1 give it time 2 nothing you can do 3 take 2 advil at once....that should work - no more than 4 a day...... ...wonderful. I thought great, that's got to work. It didn't, if anything it made it worse. I was using a bag of frozen peas, alternating with heating pad on my head. I was taking so much med's I should be dead, headache med's, sinus med's, migraine med's, not to mention sleeping pills, and hormone replacement shit. And still massive calcium/mag and vit d for my leg cramps...... Nothing was working....I thought I might find a tall bldg with a really fast elevator, that might blow the ear....or the last seat in a plane-maybe a short trip somewhere.... I was desperate. My daughter googled and found "labyrinthitis" ....interesting - but I don't have vertigo so much - just walking down the stairs (they seem to reverse and go up instead of down) and no mention of massive headaches in symptoms. The long weekend was coming up. I suffered through the long weekend, by monday night I decided tuesday morning I would go...no point in going to emerg on the long weekend. And besides I was tired of being dismissed. So Tuesday morning arrived and 6:30 AM I was in emerg. I was fortunate to be assessed by an intern that was curiously stumped. She blew water bombs into my ear, scraped away and poked and proded and couldn't remove a black spot far in my ear. Then the Doc tried...."Hmmm that might not be wax, order up a ct/scan" Back in the waiting room waiting...it's now 8:30 AM Scan complete and analysed and ...."what's that discoloration of your left lobe" "Does that have anything to do with my ear" ask I "NO...but the scan doesn't give any info about your ear, but this is a troubling discoloration, it shouldn't be this light--- we're going to have to order an MRI of your head" "what about my ear" and "what about that spot" "The MRI will be helpful for a diagnoisis of your ear" blah blah blah So off I went to MRI booking with my paperwork, they sent a lab tech over to draw massive amounts of blood for bacterial screening, and something to do with mri prescreening...I couldn't really hear what was what....all the noise in my head. So...once the lab tech left, the mri booker said she will call me sometime this week to book the mri. See ya, bye It's 10:30 AM give..or take My left side of my head is the same. I went home, some what gladdened that...well at least I'm not being dismissed anymore. But my head still f*king hurts and I can't take it anymore,........... Around noon I get a call from the booker "We are booking emerg mri's for September....ohhh wait a minute - I have a note here - I have a cancellation, can you come at 10PM tonight?" "wtf"......(no I didn't actually say it...but couldn't believe the september crap) Of coarse, I will be there, thank you......wow---hmmmm that was weirdly good-luck. When I drove out of the garage I looked up and couldn't beleive the black sky and the lightning.....I drove all the way in the worse torrential rainstorm. Holy cow. lighting everywhere, hailstones....actual lakes on the highway.....it was awful It was one of the most awful tests. All the noise from the machine...I was expecting my ear to blow just from the noise. It's a good thing I'm not clostrophobic. It's as though a jack hammer was blasting away for 1/2 hour above my head. And the vibrating back and forth....left and right....then both back and forth and side to side.....And I'm wedged into this noisy thing thinking...."wow I'm amazed I got an mri this soon" certainly can't complain about our health care that's for sure. Now I have to wait a week for the results of this whole experience...... ...And strangly....the pressure in my ear, and my left side of my head ----seems a little ---eased---today. Hmmmmm Now I have this discoloration of my left lobe to worry about........agghhhghgh As an aside.....Why do doctors make one feel so .....dirty - when they say "you have wax in your ears"....it's as though they said "you have lice" EVERYONE has wax duhhhhh... and then they say stupid things like...."don't put anything into your ear smaller than your elbow" Next time I'm going to rip that thing out of their hand and checkout their ears....