Medical update
Loyal readers will have noticed ta very quiet period over the past six months, after the Medium Contubernio. In November doctors discovered a growing cyst inside my middle ear – cholesteatoma. It corroded my auditory chain and invaded the skull behind my ear. Many of you have sent kind messages (thank you!) so here’s a small status update.
I had surgery mid February. Technically that went well: my head has been cleaned out and my auditory chain has been preserved successfully. It is wonderful what they can achieve these days, filling up cavities with synthetic bone, replacing eardrums and all that.
On the other hand I’m still suffering from a number of side effects that aren’t exactly easy. My hearing has noticeably deteriorated and it’s not sure whether this will come back. Also my chorda tympani – the taste nerve that passes through the middle ear – has been affected. At first I had no taste whatsoever on the left half of my tongue, then the balance between different tastes was off. It feels quite unfair to sacrifice taste, which I enjoyed and explored every day, to avoid further damage in my head. But then again, there was really nothing to choose.
Ready to (slowly) pick up my love for sherry
Currently I am still experiencing ups and dows but the good thing is that I do have some days in which everything is more or less reliable again – though still less intense than before. I treasure these days and I’m enjoying wine again. I’m slowly picking up where I left off with SherryNotes. I will probably finish some of the reviews that I wrote before this situation, but I’m also preparing a couple of new reviews. Now let’s hope all check-ups will be good and my taste will come back entirely in the near future.
About the Author
Ruben is a Certified Sherry Educator who fell in love with sherry some 25 years ago, but switched to a higher gear in 2013 and started writing about it. Lived in Madrid for a couple of years, now back in Belgium. I also run a whisky blog over at www.whiskynotes.be
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