A lot has happened in a few days, mostly good. I appreciate the metaphor of the game "Sorry" - meaning two steps forward one back. I did, in fact, have some acupuncture Friday (don't worry, light on the face) and then led a lot of singing. Still some distortions in my ear making pitch sound interesting. And a sudden tiredness in the middle of one chant. However, for the most part my singing was up to par.

Then Saturday morning I did not feel well, eye felt funky, face ached....but there were some things I really needed to do. So there I was, one eye offline (covered in ointment), slightly lopsided face, escorting my elderly mother through the mall in one of the scooters! What a decrepit looking pair! When I got tired, I envied her with the scooter. Came home and spent the late afternoon and evening gratefully in bed.

Sunday woke up feeling almost perfect, no pain anywhere and lots of energy. Had a relaxing day, did some cooking. Unfortunately I still have some tummy issues leftover from my week of steroids and antivirals and ended up with tummy ache waking me up in the wee hours of the morning.

However, today was my neuro-otologist or neurotologist appointment so had to get moving. This was the greatest suggestion - I think it came from Bumpy. The family medicine doc was not going to think or it, nor were the ER docs. Fortunately my wonderful eye doc made the referral so I could cancel what would have been a worthless family medicine visit, scheduled just to get a referral.

This doc had actually seen a few cases and since this is the OHSU teaching medical facility, there was a student with him. How great she got to learn about RHS! Turns out my ear looks great (that little bump is gone and was not a "shingle"), my sensitivity to touch was gone so he could actually look inside my ear. He explained about the nerves and all the sensations I have. He suggested an MRI to rule out brain tumors but agreed that since this was not the mysterious Bell's Palsy (which can be caused by tumors) and I was very classic for RHS, having had the rash, that it was not essential. I declined to have it.

My hearing was tested and good news there - merely age related loss of hearing of the higher tones, the same in both ears, so no hearing loss from the RHS. He was especially pleased to see my rapid progress in healing, 50%-60% of my face is back. And best of all, he approved me flying with some tips to minimize possible pain. He said there would be no damage. He was genuinely delighted in how well I was doing, attributing it to early diagnosis, steroids and antivirals. I also suspect the acupuncture helped too. He discussed synthekinesis but did not think acupuncture could cause it. (Not going against the website view here, just stating his opinion.) He was optimistic, encouraging and helpful.

So, I registered to continue in my training, got my plane ticket and in three weeks will do my program. I will take care of myself - i.e., NOT flying all night to get there for a late afternoon session - will be late. Will have my own room so I can rest when I need to rest.

I realize tomorrow may not be as good a day as today but I feel encouraged.