The voices in my head don't think they're imaginary - April 21st, 2008

Home from NYC.

Slept all day Saturday and Sunday in a disease-riddled fog. Starting to feel a bit better today -- hoping to see the other side of this miserable cold-flu thingy.

I took decongestants before my flight home on Friday night, but they didn't keep my eardrums from being severely mangled on the descent into PDX. I'm having a hard time hearing, it feels like I'm wearing earplugs, and my head rattles every time I swallow.

This is known as "airplane ear" or, more elegantly, "barotrauma."

I've fallen victim to this before, so I'm not panicked enough to go running to the doctor. There's nothing she can do. Unless I start bleeding from the earholes, or leaking pus, I just have to woman it out.

I need one of those old-fashioned ear trumpets, though. I can't hear a word anyone's saying to me.