Getting to the UCLA medical campus is an adventure all by itself. Crowded freeways and streets. Garmin got us to the building.
Dr Gopen met with us for 20 mins, I guess. I didn't keep track but I talked a long time of where I have been since first developing tinnitus, Dr Hegarty and the ENT I tried in SLO. He discussed Meniere's disease at length, giving more detail than Dr Hegarty did. Subgroups, new imaging revealing new anatomy that is insignificant in actual treatment of people and he discussed my audiogram in detail that Dr H never did. Overall, he didn't have anything new to offer me and besides much more detail, he didn't tell me anything I didn't know. Meniere's is a mystery, treatment is a guess and when I am dead, my temporal bone can be donated for research.
He offered the steroid injection and I said yes. It was what I came all that way for. That sucker hurt more than when Dr H did it. I believe he put an extra volume in. I never tasted it when Dr H did it, either. I laid there with the ear up for thirty minutes and then walked out. Just like that. He had already moved onto his next patient. He gave me his card with an email and said that if I wanted another injection, to email and he would squeeze me into his clinic.
By that evening, I had a large improvement in my hearing and turned off my aid. I didn't notice until after that the tinnitus was gone. So, apparently, I am in that subgroup he talked about that responds to steroids. Lucky me!
Being in San Diego and visiting, we ate out a lot. I know I had some meals that went way over my salt allowance. I took double diuretics and flushed with a gallon of bottled water. The tinnitus is back at a low volume 36 hrs after the injection but I think the hearing is still good. No hearing aids all day. I turned them on for a bit today and it was just too loud.
I'm going to contact the SLO ENT one more time and see if he or one the partners will reconsider doing the injection here in SLO and save me the drive to LA.
