I had an appointment with an ear nose and throat specialist today at Tripler Hospital. He listened to me, looked at my ears, and said he saw nothing physically wrong with my right ear, which is the one in which the tinnitus has appeared. I told him that it seems to have diminished over the past couple of days, which is true. It’s still around, but it’s not nearly as loud or as constant as it has been since March 20 when it first showed up.

He said I need to have the audiogram to test whether I’ve actually lost any hearing. Once that’s done, depending on what it shows, I may have to see him again. If it is going away, he said, it might have been just an inflammation within the ear somewhere. He said “That would be good.” Well, yeah. I could live with a temporary inflammation rather than a permanent condition.

I have the audiogram next week.

Oh yeah. How weird is this? Tripler is an Army hospital and has been since it was first built in 1948, but the doctor was a Navy Commander.