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In spring 2024, I wanted to visit my father-in-law in the hospital. Weeks before, I heard a rumor that some hospitals in Austria were taking "C"-like measures again. On that Sunday morning, I spoke to my mother-in-law on the phone and she said that there were restrictions in the hospital on how many visitors there could be and that you had to register, etc. I thought I was going crazy, they were completely crazy. Full of tension and packed with memories of the last few years, I drove to the hospital, but with the clear attitude that I would not do anything I did not want to do. Contrary to what was said, nothing special was required on site, no registration, no masks, etc. So it was a relaxed afternoon.

The next morning I woke up with slight pain in my right ear. Not really funny, but I had to smile. I had suffered and resolved an archaic hearing conflict. I wanted to hear on the phone "everything is normal in the hospital anyway", but that didn't happen. It was only about five hours later, when I realized that everything was normal anyway, that I was able to resolve the conflict. Once I knew what the conflict was and that the amount of conflict must be small, it was also clear that the pain and duration would not be particularly severe or long. And that's how it was. I had slight pain and hearing impairment for the rest of the day. On the second day there was only a minimal reduction in hearing and then the noticeable symptoms were over. What was interesting, however, was that a week later I was in the mountains and as I got higher I noticed that I couldn't equalize the pressure in my right ear. So there must still be swelling in the Eustachian tube that was causing problems and leading to pain that disappeared immediately when I came down from the mountain. Another week later (another mountain tour) this symptom had also disappeared.