on the mend

The middle of September I began experiencing my normal fall congestion/sneezing, etc.  Except this time my ears begin to fill up with fluid. It finally reached a point where one ear was totally stopped up and I couldn't hear out of it.
I've been through a round of steroids, a round of antibiotic ear drops, and this past week I finally saw an ENT. He vacuumed out my ear, and I could hear!!! But then he put powder and a syringe full of medicine in it, so it is stopped up again. I go back in two weeks where he'll clean it out and possibly repeat the process. (The ear canal was still halfway swollen shut so he couldn't take care of everything...as opposed to totally swollen shut a few weeks ago!) It's still ringing some, but the pressure is gone, and for that I'm extremely grateful. Had a brief scare today when my left ear started filling up.  I think if I had muffled/no hearing in both ears I would go crazy. I have several friends who have gone deaf in one ear, and it makes me wonder  how they adjusted. It's been hard.  I can't tell how loud or soft I'm talking. Sometimes I can hear a person's voice but their words are a few degrees toward the adults in a Peanuts movie. Sometimes my voice echoes in my head, and it sounds really strange when I eat.
It seems like it's been one thing after the other this year.  Poison ivy reaction which took several months to totally clear, a bad fall that I'm still not totally recovered from, and now this. I'm hoping 2020 will be less injury/sickness heavy!