Chapter 2: “Candid Story of Me”

It’s been 1 week since I posted about my sudden drop in hearing in my right ear, which seems like a lifetime ago. Needless to say it’s been a roller coaster ride since. I finished a 5-day course of oral corticosteroids (essentially 60 mg of prednisone per day by pill form). After completing 3 days of the medication I opted to start what is called “intratympanic injection treatments”, which is basically injecting the same medication into the middle ear. The idea behind this treatment is that you enable a much higher concentration of the drug into the area where the problem is situated. A needle is inserted through the eardrum, which is the start of the middle ear, and the drug fills the area. Within a couple of seconds of receiving the injection I immediately feel extremely dizzy and experience a little bit of discomfort (even though the doctor applies local freezing inside the ear), of which both wears off within 10 minutes.

The Result?

Well it’s really tough to say if the treatment worked. The hearing in my right ear has gone up, and dropped a couple of times now, but it appears that is has stabilized. I’m not getting too excited because I know how quickly it can drop. I finished my 2nd injection course this morning and will receive 1 more next week. As I noted in my original post, all I can do is cross my fingers and hope the treatment works.

The Moral of the Story

Life CurveballLike everything in life, we are thrown curveballs when we least expect them. Sometimes they come in flurries, and we’re dealing with an immense amount of pressure and stress. For me, throughout my life I have learned that all you can do is control what you can control, and be ready to react the right way when you get thrown a curveball. Believe me, it’s easier said than done because our natural tendencies come to the forefront when our backs are up against the wall. Some people have far stronger abilities to effectively handle and manage curveballs than others. Unfortunately I was not one of those people. It’s been a lifelong struggle to build the skill to do this, and I am nowhere close to mastering it. I likely never will be, but I’m fine with that. Why? Because I’m 10 million times better today than I was 15 years ago, and the fact that I know I have made progress is what I’m proud about.

This lesson can be applied to any facet of life, including family, personal relationships and work. From a work perspective, this particular skill has been highly advantageous as an HR Professional as I am tasked with managing multiple, often competing and complex situations. 1 + 1 does not always equal 2. In fact, in my world it never does. So for me, I know with 100% certainty that I am going to have to deal and manage a gazillion more curveballs during my lifetime. Now that I know they’re coming, what am I going to do about them and how am I going to manage them? This is my lesson that I have taken away from my recent struggle with my hearing loss. Sure this struggle royally sucks, but it’s life, and life isn’t always perfect and full of effing unicorns. My strength lies in how I deal with the struggles and adversity that I face, whether it be in my personal or professional life.

So the next time you say to yourself, “woe is me”… think again, and turn your mindset around to, “how am I going to get through this and hit that curveball out of the park”?

Workplace Stress

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