@bedouin Can you compare your first set of injections with this round? Maybe with the parameters of:
Pain, fullness, effect on tinnitus (both loudness and annoyance)? If you remember, I'd love to see a comparison on a day by day basis from post injection day 1 (which would be the day after the third injection) through post injection day 14.
Hope you are doing well and made it home safely.
Thanks OddV. Yup. Home safely after a long 3 day hospital stint. Day 3 was another "sweaty palm" session. I did load up on ibuprofen, paracetamol and codeine beforehand. So this time round, injections were definitely less painful. Plus, the ENT injected into the bottom part of the eardrum. First time, he did it on the top. He said that could well be the reason this time was less painful.
You'd think an ENT would know that and do that the first time round. However, i also understand and everyone is different. Maybe most people don't feel pain when injected at the top of the eardrum. So maybe a combination of needle location and pain drugs, made the experience overall less painful. However, i was still very nervous, i think anticipating the worst. Last time i screamed. According to the trail co-coordinator AM reported only 1 out of 8 expereinced pain with the injections. The fact that both you and i found it uncomfortable makes me wonder...
So this is day 4. Ears very full and blocked. A good 3 hour journey home. I can hear myself talk which is really distressing. T is very loud in both ears. Like a 9 or even a 10. I think because the ears are blocked, the t seems worse. Any sort of external input, masks t. So if your ears are blocked (feeling deaf), then you are not getting as much external signal into the ear and thus your t has a party and sounds louder. The t is really cranked up today.
However, I also had to deal with a crisis on day 2 (when it rains it pours), 3 and 4 (and ongoing) unrelated to t, so i think that has possibly put my t firmly in the red. If this works, the people that have caused me distress whilst on this trial will be brought to bear and my judgement shall be swift. I sound like Judge Dread. Lol. Seriously though... last thing i needed.
After day 1, 2 and 3 injections, at night, the fluid gel seeped out of the hole in the eardum (esp the left). I asked the ENT about that and if it made the treatment any less effective and he said No. The 30 mins that you lie still, head to one side on pillow, is the window of time that the drug needs to work (presumably). It doesn't make sense to me but ok. Seemingly the drug when injected into the middle ear (and there is a lot if it (fluid) according to the ENT), seeps across the oval window membrane into the cochlear. That is why i was told not to talk. I also did not swallow for each 30 minute silence. The ENT thought that was a bit excessive but i remember reading that the Eustachian tube empties upon swallowing which would allow to drug to go down my throat. So as uncomfortable as it was, i made sure, not to swallow.
Feeling pretty miserable about it all. I guessed i would see an improvement by now after the real drug. According to the phase 2 paper, ppl started seeing an improvement after day 2. Even if the ears are blocked, the t should start coming down on day 3, if the drug works. I will obviously give it more time as the paper also says max improvement is at day 90. The one thing that is worrying though is the bar chart on the phase 2 report shows a "much worse" in the high dose and not in the low dose or placebo. I think I am just panicking here because my t seems excessively loud. It was loud last time after the injections. Maybe this time, i just expected it not to be this loud. I'll let the eardrums settle and then monitor.
How is your T now?
To answer your question, yes, it is pretty much the same as last time. The same fullness in the ears (deafness) and blaring T. So at this point no way of knowing if real drug has worked, placebo first time. No change. I don't want to blow my nose to unblock my ears as ENT says can affect the healing process of the eardrum perforation. So i'm just going to sit it out and try and mask. Loudest sounds on now....don't even mask my t :-(
Anyone else on here that had improvement at 3 days after having the real drug?
I asked the ENT when he thought i should start seeing an improvement. He didn't know.
~bdn