06.26.25
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What the Heck Has SD Been Doing?

I’ll tell you. I woke up one day and I was an old fuck. Went to the Dr. six or eight weeks ago, had sinus pressure, no congestion, near constant headaches, and my tinnitus was louder than a train. Turns out I had a few things going on.

First, they said my blood pressure was a little high. And a little bell in my head went *ding* I’ve been told that a few times over the years, and as I had to drive to the Dr’s office, a minimum of 25 minutes to an hour, depending on which Dr, I’d tell them “I got behind two slow asses on the way here,” or “I had to drive 50 minutes on the interstate to get here.” I, we, just wrote it off as temporary high blood pressure due to stupid people. But this time I was like, wait a minute, this has been going on a while now. We will circle back around to that.

Dr. informs me I had bronchitis in my left lung. Well whoop tie do! That’s one steroid pack and a round of antibiotics.

Turns out, we had a helluva pollen season this spring. Many people had issues. So did I apparently. But I was super lucky. I have a retracted eardrum. A what? Yeah, I’ve never heard of it either. Turns out, that your Eustachian tubes, when you’ve been subjected to a lot of dust/pollen, can get clogged. Causing a pressure imbalance in your ear. Which in turn causes the ear drum to get sucked inward. Son of a!

So they sent me home, I took my antibiotics and the steroid pack. Was also monitoring my blood pressure, where there aren’t quite as many stupid people. And it’s been running high. Ranging from 150-180 on the high side. I had a follow up visit after a couple of weeks, and I brought them a damn chart showing my blood pressure, three times daily, because I knew that would give them a better picture than a one time check at the office. So now I’m taking a little pill every morning for blood pressure.

The retracted ear drum is still a problem. I can’t go diving with it. Probably shouldn’t fly either, not like that’s likely anyway. But here I sit, spring has done sprung into summer, and my dive rig sits idle in the yard. It’s killing me. From what I’ve read it can take months for a retracted ear drum to pop back into place… Just great.

I can still cut the grass and ride the motorcycle. Do stuff around the house. But dammit man, I feel hog tied and half useless.

I hope y’all are faring well.

15 thoughts on “What the Heck Has SD Been Doing?”

  1. Well, I hope this clears up sooner rather than later, so you can dive again! All my best wishes to you.

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  2. Getting old is a bitch. Like you I had highish BP and set about losing weight to get it under control. I lost 30+ pounds and my BP became stable and “normal.” But now, for the last six months I have been fighting another medical problem (I have never taken so may pills in my life, over 1000 over the past six months), and because of the associated pain I have been eating more “comfort foods” than usual, certainly more than when I was losing weight, and I gained back 10+ pounds and my BR is up and down, ud and down … itshay.

    Hang in there, old man, the world is a better place with you in it.

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    • Another +1 to the old folks list! You hang in there too Steve. Me and pain have been old buddies for a long long time. That is something I can relate to. I truly hope your other ailment is benign, and easily controlled with the meds. Kind of nice having you around too.

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  3. If it’s not one thing it’s another … and unfortunately, this saying becomes more true than ever as we age. 🥴 Hang in there!

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  4. amazing all the shit that goes wrong as we get older and older. My knees and back feel like someone took a bath to them some mornings from my arthritis. I hear you, man. But at least we’re still here and kicking.

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  5. Ouch! Sorry you’re going through all of that. I’ve been dealing with high blood pressure for years. We finally got it down to around 130/60. sometimes down to 120. They’re happy with anything under 140 I guess. I’ve had tinnitus forever. But in my case it’s due to loud noise exposure when I was young. mostly working around excessively loud farm machinery. but I’m sure all the concerts I went to back in the 70s didn’t help either.

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    • I know exactly when I got perma tinnitus, It was shooting a 357 Magnum probably 30 years ago. Usually after doing stupid stuff to my ears, they would stop ringing after a day or two. Not this time, they are still ringing. My diving isn’t exactly good for ear health either. I’ve been to several loud concerts myself, no regrets. Also been on some loud stages, and practice rooms. It’s wonder I can hear at all.

      I’m new to the blood pressure thing. But we can see the medicine is doing a fair job. Wish my ear was doing half as good.

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      • I know what you mean. when I was in my teens I used to unload grain into a grain blower, standing right alongside of it. It was so loud it was actually painful. I’m sure that’s where a lot of this comes from. I didn’t do a lot of shooting, but I did do some trap shooting one year and back then nobody wore ear protection. You could always tell the old timers who’d been doing it for years because they were always going “Uh?” when talking to them. Despite the constant high pitched whine I hear all the time, my hearing is still remarkably good, all things considered,. so I’m lucky there.

        It took two different meds. one pill in the morning, one in the evening, to get my BP down to a reasonable level. It was running up to 180 or so. Interestingly, my tinnitus reacts exactly the opposite of yours. when my BP gets low. the tinnitus actually gets worse.

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        • I was at a local concert a week ago. Some friends do some touring, they were close enough to go see. The other band that opened was the one they recommended ear plugs for. Since they were handing out ear plugs, I took ’em. I used ’em. Small venue, indoors, sound bounces off the walls really bad. I’m much more careful these days with the ears.

          My tinnitus definitely gets worse as BP goes up. My wife can tell when her BP is up because she can hear her heart beat it in her ears. You know you’re in the old folks club when you start sharing ailments lol.

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  6. Knees and brain is all you need 😉

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