Excuse my French, but as you will read, 2024 wasn’t exactly my best year ever.

In March, I woke up on a Saturday with some pain in one of my ears. I decided to visit the GP on-call service. The friendly doctor examined my ears and concluded that both were infected. He reassured me not to worry too much; 99% of ear infections in adults heal within a few days.

In a case of misplaced solidarity with the 1%, I found myself a few days later in the emergency room, experiencing almost unbearable pain.

What followed was a rollercoaster of treatments: liters of antibiotics, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, CT scans, MRI scans, a spinal tap, surgeries, physical therapy for vertigo and auditory rehabilitation... All to make me what I am today: A proud member of the quite exclusive (luckily!) group of single-sided deaf individuals with a cochlear implant.

This remarkable technology, with an implant under my skin and a probe inside the cochlea of my ear, along with a small device that magnetically attaches to the outside, will eventually enable me to "functionally" hear again on my right side.

With also the vertigo, aside from the occasional weird sidestep, under control, I’m ready to return to the regular world in 2025!