Ear fuck ups, heat waves and Byron

Trip Start Jun 28, 2009
1
9
10
Trip End Feb 15, 2013


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Flag of Australia  , Queensland,
Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Basically on the flight from Townsville to Brisbane i ran into a little ear trouble! I completely lost the hearing in my left ear and was left in quite a bit of pain. Once i landed i was basically deaf in my left ear. I was trying to equalise and chew gum and all that crap but nothing worked. Finally the ear gave up and my eardrum burst from the trapped pressure. i was suffering a lot,  throwing up from the pain and so on, it wasn't nice. Anyway luckily as the fam was over for a holiday id managed to do it just in time to have a car to drive me to the hospital. 4 hours later i saw a doctor, after lots of swearing at strangers and snapping at nurses i was able to see someone. She injected me with a wonderful dose of morphine and gave me plenty of codeine, antibiotics and so on. Unfortunately despite the fantastic side effects of morphine and codeine and sleeping for days without a care in the world it did mean i couldnt do my dive course, and there was a worry i was going to be stuck in surfer's paradise unable to fly home!

After a week and i was still feeling quite uncompfortable i managed to see a doctor who told me nothing for $65. woo. He did refer me to a nicely expensive specialist however. And a few days later i had a lovely little operation to stick a grommit in my ear, where he had to reperferate the eardrum, which by the way was a very pleasant experience. Not. I could feel the swelling and my face feels huge. It hurts but... it means that the hole in my ear will allow me to fly home as the pressure will be the same in my ear as outside my ear. Yay? There is no way i can continue to see doctors and have check ups out here as the price is ridiculous... and have spent over $1000 already. I have mixed feelings, im not happy about leaving but at the same time i think i need to recover, remove the grommit and heal myself up with the goold old NHS before i come back. Im hoping i can return in november with a working visa to carry on my travels and earn some cash. On the bright side im home for my birthday :) yay!

I managed to get to byron for a day.. couldnt stay longer because of doctors appointments yaddeyaaa, but byron is lovely and i will definately return when i come back. Im sad to leave Australia after ive been backpacking for so little time. But i will be back :) and i wont have holes in my ears!
Another side note.. no pics from the last couple of weeks because of camera issues, but i do have pics and they will be updated when im home. yipyip!
til next time, probably in a few months!
katxxx

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