Listen, I know it sounds silly. Call me a hypochondriac if you want, but I don’t care. I need to write about this so that I know I’m not going crazy. I know all of you reading this have sneezed at one point or another. But you know that small, tingly sensation, just before it happens? It usually goes away once you sneeze, but here’s where my situation is weird: I’ve been feeling that for the last three weeks, and I haven’t sneezed.
Some of you might be saying, it’s just allergies, or that it’s harmless, but that’s not the only thing that’s happened to me. My face is stuck. Stuck in this pre sneeze look that absolutely terrifies me every time I see it. Plus, my eyes are always watering and half closed, so every day things have become a little more complicated. It’s been progressively getting worse since the sensation began, as has my forced facial expression. I’ve had to take sick leave from work because I’m too ashamed to be there, and when I’ve gone out to run errands I wear an N-95 to hide my odd expression.
On top of all this, my voice sounds like a balloon being slowly deflated. I sound absolutely ridiculous when I talk, so have more or less only done so when necessary. All of this put together may not sound like much to you, but it is driving me to the brink of insanity.
Now, I know. At this point you’re probably wondering why I haven’t tried making myself sneeze. I have! I’ve tried pepper, smelling salts, shit, I even detached my vacuum bag and tried inhaling it. If you can think of something that makes you sneeze, I’ve done it. Nothing. After these attempts, I started to get slightly worried. I ended up going to the doctor and all he did was give me some antihistamines, told me not to worry and that it would go away sooner or later.
Now that it’s been three-ish weeks, I’m starting to get worried. This isn’t going away. I’m going to be documenting my symptoms and overall experience here in case something does happen to me. I’ll update you all if anything changes.
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Hey all, so it’s been a few more days of the mentioned symptoms, not many changes. With that said, I have noticed that there’s a slight dullness in my ears that won’t go away, almost like they have earwax or water in them. I used Q-tips to try and clean them, and although they came out with some wax, the dullness hasn’t left. I really don’t know what to think of it. Maybe this is all some weird new sinus infection? I’m starting to get scared.
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It’s now ben officially 5 weeks since the sensation in my nose started. My face has gotten worse. My vision is slightly more blurry and I now have trouble fully closing my mouth. I went to the doctor again today and he booked me for an appointment with the Disease Control Center, but I need to wait a whole two weeks for that because they’re STILL backed up from the pandemic. Ridiculous. Will post again soon.
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One more week until my appointment. I’m really starting to get scared. I woke up this morning with this immense pressure behind my eyes, in my ears, and at the back of my nose. It almost feels like someone has stuck a bike pump in my nose and is slowly inflating it. I can barely hear and my vision is seriously suffering. I’ve been ordering all my groceries to my door and have more or less stayed inside, partly because of how morbid my face looks. I hate this. I just want this to stop.
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It’s the night before my appointment. I can’t sleep at all. It feels as though my head is literally about to explode and I have fully lost my hearing. I’ve called my sister who lives about four hours away and she’s going to take me to the emergency room. I can’t take another second of this.
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I’m going to sneeze. I can feel it. It’s as though my entire body is building up to something. I’m scared.
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UPDATE: This is OP’s sister. I wouldn’t usually have posted anything, but because my brother obviously cared enough about you to share what was happening to him, I decided to.
I arrived at his house late last night to bring him to the hospital but he wouldn’t answer his phone and the door was locked. After trying some more to get in touch with him, I called the police and they broke the door down. What we found was awful. I won’t go into too much detail, but my brother was sprawled over his keyboard with a white, chunky fluid covering his monitor, his wall, himself. I would later learn from EMT’s that this was brain matter.
He wasn’t dead when I got there. But the sounds he was making were not human, and as sad as it sounds I almost wish I hadn’t had to see him suffer. I had no idea what could have happened to him until I read his posts. God. I wish I’d taken his illness more seriously.