When it's really quiet, like late at night when you're trying to fall asleep, do you ever hear a mysterious buzzing or ringing in your ears? Sort of sounds like a million cicadas on a hot summer night - that indescribable yet completely recognizable sound that they make. Of course you haven't, because you're normal. We'll I'm not.
As I continue to chronicle and catalog my various side effects from the myriad medications that I take, alone or in concert (pun intended) - there seems to possibly be some combination of quantity and frequency of chemos and chemicals that I ingest which could be aggregating into this aggravating and annoying auditory cicada-like SFX. Oh, I'm not complaining (not really), but I do find it curious that I'm not mainstream enough to contract one or more of the top-level side effects listed among the known adverse reactions. Not like I'm looking for your standard: nausea, fevers, the runs, the "stops," puking, loss of appetite, metallic taste in my mouth or a whole sore mouth. But how is it that I do end up with an ingrown toenail, 48 hours of Chatty Natty, and now this: tinnitus. Must be lucky, I guess.
Tinnitus - SMH. I confess that I didn't scour the Important Safety Information or Package Inserts that came along with each of my treatments. You know, that blanket-sized sheet of near toilet paper with what looks like the entire Encyclopedia Britannica printed on it (that was a series of many thick books with all the world's knowledge printed within them; but you're all probably too young to remember . . . well maybe not, my beloved chronologically advantaged faithful readers). But even if I had read the warnings, I likely wouldn't have lasted long enough to get to the chapter on tinnitus. Or it may not have even been there if it is the result of two or more drugs mixing it up inside my body. And I definitely wouldn't have refused the meds or saving my life in exchange for a buzzing in my ears - even if they had told me outright.
It's no secret, no great conspiracy of the drug companies, or even that big of a deal, but it is yet another Twist of Nate. It's not the cancer chemo causing chimerical cicadas creating a cacophony in my cochleae, Forrest. It's just life. My crazy life!
(PS: Rin Tin Tin and Rusty)
