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Midform: Occupying that sweet middle spot between short & long form writing — 3 to 5 minute reads of 1100 words or less.

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Dodged a Bullet, Yet Again…

3 min readOct 20, 2026

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Photo by David Trinks on Unsplash

For the last week, all I’ve been able to think of is the possibility of getting a horrendous diagnosis. I’ve been dealing with pulsatile tinnitus for over a year, and at the end of summer, it seemed to be getting more frequent.

Cleveland Clinic defines pulsatile tinnitus as:

“a thumping or swooshing noise in your head. The noise seems to keep time with your heartbeat.”

For a person already afflicted with insomnia, having a pounding in one’s ears while trying to sleep was an unpleasant complicating factor. Finally, in early September, I decided to have it evaluated to see if something awful was going on in my head. My provider agreed we should get some imaging done — namely, an MRI and a CT.

Just last night, I asked my husband if he thought brain tumors or other brain-related disorders were becoming more common. He didn’t think so. We agreed that it's most likely that we just hear about these things more often due to social media and the news. I brought it up because last night the PBS Newshour reported that a renowned movie critic our age recently died from a glioblastoma. We also had an old friend die of one in 2024. And, I know of three others who had received that diagnosis over the last thirty-six years.

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Carol Labuzzetta, MS
Carol Labuzzetta, MS

Written by Carol Labuzzetta, MS⁠

I write about the environment, education, nature, and travel. Having two master's degrees, in nursing and environmental education, I am a teacher at heart.

Midform
Midform

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Midform: Occupying that sweet middle spot between short & long form writing — 3 to 5 minute reads of 1100 words or less.