The ENT specialist diagnoses Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. By this time my ear is really red, blistered and swollen – very tender to touch. The specialist tells me to keep going with the Prednisolone and eardrops, but also prescribes Acyclovir – 5x400mg tablets/day to attack the virus. I get one dose in that night before I go to bed. I’m feeling really exhausted and dizzy from being in the hospital all afternoon. I have some beef noodle soup at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant for dinner – noodles are really not the thing to eat when your mouth is half paralysed, but I’m persistent and a sloppy eater at the best of times, so what the hey. My girlfriend drives – I don’t feel up to it.

The ENT specialist sends me to the ophthalmology area as well to check my eye, since I’m now unable to close it fully. They check – all is okay, but they advise me to take lots of care to keep the eye moist (using Polytears) and to put ointment in at night and tape it shut to protect it.

Both the ENT specialist and Ophthamologist suggest I visit again mid-week for a check-up and an assessment of my hearing loss by an audiologist.

I read more about Ramsay Hunt on the web. A few years back I studied Korean. They have a saying that too much knowledge is like an illness, ignorance a medicine. I’m inclined to agree now that I’ve found out that my chances of full recovery are not as good as those I would have had, had this illness been Bell’s Palsy. Frankly the shock is leaving me and the depression is setting in as I absorb the implications of what this all means. I feel terrible – dizzy, exhausted, worried and overwhelmed.

My girlfriend takes the afternoon off work to take me to the audiologist. Results – moderate hearing loss in my right ear - particularly in high frequencies. It feels more than moderate – I’m having real trouble hearing clearly when there’s any background noise. The good news is the hearing in my left ear is perfect. Growing up in my house, where everyone talks as if a foghorn has been surgically fitted to their mouths, this is remarkable.

Not much to report on any front. Still feeling unwell – just tired and dizzy, but not nauseous. A friend drops around for dinner, and frankly I struggle to keep up a brave face to talk. All I feel like doing is being alone in silence. I’m too tired to think about much.

Back to see the ENT specialists at the hospital. I’m feeling a bit better today. The Anti-virals are having an effect. The blisters in my ear have started drying out and aren’t anywhere near as painful. The ENT specialist adds little that is new, just advises me to complete my course of Aciclovir and ear drops, and to start tapering off the steroids (prednisolone) in the second week. Otherwise she reiterates that I should be taking care to protect my eye, and says the paralysis may take weeks or months to correct – says it’s about a 50% chance of full recovery. I enquire as to whether I should be seeing an neurologist as well. She says that there is little extra they could do in addition to what has been done already. You really have to probe to get any information out of the doctors here.

My girlfriend drives, I feel like my balance is out and I’m really fatigued as well.

Not much to report. I called up work to let them know about my illness as I’m due back on Monday. I was due to take a work trip to Italy in September, but that won’t be possible. Well, I might recover in time, but not too keen to put any more pressure on ears than absolutely necessary right now. Somehow the 18 hour flight to Rome might not be the best for me.

Anyway my boss is fantastic about this – it’s okay if I start a week later, she says, provided I feel well enough. This is a load off my mind. It would have been difficult to think about a lot of new stuff in a job while dealing with this.

I take my car down to a local café to pick up some lunch – bad move. Every time I turn my head the road starts spinning around me. I drive home carefully and slowly, probably creating some sort of road block along the way. The ground feels soft under my feet as I walk from my car to my house, and I have to sit down for a while to stop spinning.

I’m getting a bit more energy back with each day. No change in the facial paralysis, but none expected yet. If I can just get rid of the vertigo, life will improve immensely.