I've been off the board for quite a while, had to travel and was pretty overwhelmed with life and couldn't handle anything extra, I'm sure many of you can relate. I wanted to give an update on the ear related issues. I had a second blood patch for the perilymph fistula. It helped with the symptoms but again only lasted a couple of weeks and came loose. I was out of the country and had to wait until last week to try it again. I had another patch on Thursday. The ear doc said they may not be sticking (my non-technical term) because my injury was too old and may have scarred around the edges. I didn't see him until 8 months after the injury. So we'll see if this one lasts, if not, I will schedule the outpatient surgery with him.

The relief from the ear symptoms is great, but also a little depressing when I realize that I still have a fair amount of brain stuff going on. Mostly in resolving the ear stuff I'm hoping to be able to sing, talk and laugh again without dizziness, nausea and eye blurring (Tullio's phenomen-I want it to be GONE!).

I'm a month past the one year mark and am attempting to come to terms with the fact that some of this may be a good as it gets. I am mostly functional, just not the same as I used to be, lots slower mentally and physically and lower capacity overall. I still get headaches but they aren't as bad as they used to be. Overall, when I look at where I was a year ago, my improvement is dramatic, I guess I just have to keep trying and be patient. Gotta keep positive and hoping, otherwise it is too easy to despair and have a big pity party. ;-)