Shenanigans in my head

At my ENT appointment last week the doc told me he was going to order an MRI, an allergy test and some weird electro cochleal something or other test. I haven't been called about scheduling any of them yet, but I'm hoping that will happen soon. It will sure we nice to get those out of the way and hopefully HOPEFULLY one of them will shed some light on what my head has been up to these past 7 1/2 months.
The boys and I went to the commissary this morning to get a load of groceries. My hearing in my left ear was especially bad this morning when I woke up. I can always tell it's bad. I have a litmus test - if I gently scratch the top part of my outer ear and can't hear the base sounds it should create the clearing of my hearing will likely cause vertigo and some degree of exhaustion (for whatever reason. I was expecting the trip to the commissary to be slightly complicated by that, and it was, as is everything when one of your 5 senses isn't behaving the way it ought. With Eglin being in Florida we find a HUGE number of our population of military folks to be retirees, usually ones that are significantly older than us and significantly older than even our parents. We're talking folks that are in their 80s and 90s. Many of the elderly crowd that I've seen frequenting the commissary have hearing aids. They ADORE the boys and come to pinch cheeks and ask about toys that Elijah is playing with and wiggle Judah's toes. A gentle old man walked up today and was talking to the boy and turned to me to ask a question. He was right there, I was just feet away grabbing a bundle of celery and my left ear was facing him - I heard NONE of his question, just the droning on of an unidentifiable voice. I felt like he should be the one saying "pardon?", but it was me, over and over again as I walked closer and got right up next to him. They are doing construction in the commissary right now. Between the jack hammers, surrounding conversations, the sounds of children laughing or crying (or both) and this little old man asking me a question I couldn't make out any one sound from another. The deep base sounds of the construction equipment resonate like a gong or base drum, drowning out an higher pitched frequencies. The trip was filled with me straining to hear what Elijah was saying or asking, listening for what people were asking or telling me and trying to keep from becoming completely overwhelmed with feeling like all the sounds in the world were trapped in my barrel of a head. Sounds anymore don't go in one ear and out the other for me. They go in my ear and roll around for a bit all collecting up in there and making a giant ugly gonging sound that drowns out everything else. This is common now, for me, but it remains outrageously irritating. I know, there's a lot more in life that could be wrong and there are hundreds of thousands of people around the world that hear a lot worse than I do and many that don't hear at all. I suppose the biggest struggle for me is the inconsistency, the not knowing what is wrong with me. I never know when it's going to hit, or what it's going to be like or how long it will last or if it will lead to vertigo, severe and not. It did today. I put the groceries in their respective places as quickly as possible after arriving home and proceeded to put lunch on for Judah. Elijah was spending a few minutes resting on the guest bed (where he takes a nap) because he was being more aggressive than I like him to be with a plastic toy and the wall in the dining room. He fussed at me when I asked him to stop beating on the wall, so I sent him to chill in the room for a bit while I made lunch. He sang to himself and rolled around on the bed for a while and was feeling much calmer after. I sat down to feed Judah his food and was hit with the familiar feeling. I knew what was coming down the pike. I placed a hand on the table and stared at a still object to be sure to keep my balance. First the white noise in my left ear disappeared. All feel silent for a few seconds and then the sensation of extreme pressure clear deep in the creases of my inner ear - we're talking really deep in there. Not where you get "swimmer's ear" or in your eustachian tubes, but REALLY deep in there where all the balance and equilibrium stuff happens. I felt like I was gently shoved side to side with a silent wind and then I heard it. If I closed my eyes and didn't know any better I would think I was standing in a metro station - the underground kind. The rush of wind that comes out the tunnel before the train comes squealing in at lightning speed and screeches to a halt. The problem is that this train needs several hours to come to complete halt. The grating screaming of the breaks can last up to 12 hours at times. After, I'm left with hearing everything through a tin can - the noises and voices I hear for the several hours after sound artificial and annoying. Just the simple every day noises like Elijah asking me a question with a tinge of whininess or Judah fussing can send me over the edge. I find days like this one especially challenging when it comes to keeping my temper cool with the kids and being patient for the storm to pass. No one knows whats wrong with me. The ENT doesn't think it's Meniere's disease (a disease of the inner ear that causes these symptoms), but the ringing is throwing him off, We thought for a while it was just an inner ear infection (Labrynthitis) but it's not behaving that way anymore either. I'm blessed to have seemingly been freed from the debilitating vertigo and nausea it used to cause. I'm not sure how I would manage. The boys are down for a nap now and it's a good thing. My head is starting to feel like it weighs 100 pounds and the whole room is starting to spin along with the ceiling fans above me. I better find a place to lay low for a while. I just don't get it.