Body trouble

About ten years ago I was diagnosed with Ménière’s disease. You probably didn’t know this because I don’t talk about it much, and the reason I don’t talk about it is because, as with most illnesses, there is a psychological aspect that doesn’t benefit from dwelling. The more you advertise any illness to other people, the more opportunities they have to say, “oh, that’s terrible,” and the more inclined you are to respond with, “actually, yes, it is terrible,” and then next thing you know you start to get brainwashed with the thing you keep saying and hearing over and over, and then one morning you wake up wondering why you feel so terrible all the time. It is especially important to avoid negative self-talk with diseases like Ménière’s, because there is no cure, so the best you can do is just suck it up, live the best life you can, and try not to wallow.

I’ve been lucky in that my Ménière’s episodes have been few and far between; even though I have a constant low-level tinnitus and minor ear fullness, I’ve learned to ignore both, and the big flare-ups usually only happen a few times a year, and never last more than a day or two. However, I’ve recently been experiencing a flare-up that has gone on for longer than a week, and it seems to be getting worse, so I’m headed to the doctor even though I know he’s likely to tell me, “you have Ménière’s and you know that already, so get over it and wait it out.” I’m hoping that maybe it’s a bacterial infection that just happens to be in my affected ear, and maybe antibiotics can sort it out. You never know. We’ll see what the ENT says.

So to make up for what has been erratic posting over the past week or so, and will probably continue to be erratic posting over the next few days, here are a few links I found interesting. No theme here other than my personal interest— enjoy.

• Bored at work? Got a couple of lighters? Try this.
• This man got shot in the head, but then sneezed out the bullet like it was nothing. He’s expected to make a full recovery.
• No matter how much you think your life sucks, it really, really doesn’t.
• Memo for Lars Ulrich: embracing potential fans works a lot better in the long run than calling them dirty criminals and trying to prosecute them. Just saying.
• It was brought to my attention last week that there are still a handful of people on earth who are not familiar with Maru. When you fall in love with him, be sure to check out his other videos.