Ears!!

Hello, all!

Wow, so it seems my blog has fallen into an "every other day" pattern, rather than every single day.
Oh, well. After you hear what I've been dealing with the past 48+ hours, maybe you'll understand why! (Warning: graphic-ish ear-related depictions to follow!)

So on Tuesday, I woke up feeling like I ought to clean my ears with a Q-Tip. I had just started when I immediately felt this "thunk" kinda sensation, and lo, my hearing felt completely blocked! Thankfully, I was able to hop in the shower and use water to clear it back up again...and the rest of the day went fine.

But then in the middle of the night, I could feel that my hearing was muffled again, and the next morning, the shower didn't do the trick like it had last time! Still, I had to drop Ella off at school despite having this bizarre feeling of having half my head submerged underwater, or somebody having stuck their finger in my ear. Yuck! >_< It was all so very uncomfortable and irritating.

By the afternoon, I couldn't stand it any longer and got Dash to buy those weird "ear candles" I'd heard about:

Open flame + ear = sweat!!!!

Very cool-looking, but it didn't help at all! Nor did all the warm water we doused my ear with, nor the "ear wax removal" kit and its fancy solution, nor even good old fashioned hydrogen peroxide.
Nothiiiiiing. ;_;

So Wednesday, I spent the whole day with this clogged ear, through a mama-baby session, work, and then knitting. On Thursday, I attended a bilingual playdate and did some more work on campus...even though I was partially deaf still! It was so frustrating!! My own voice sounded distant in my head and even scratching my head or walking around reverberated in my ear in a very distracting way. Bleeegh!

Okay, so I was so desperate at this point, that I went to Urgent Care.
I was afraid they'd think me a freak: a twenty-something who clogged her own ear because of wax build-up...really??
But when I explained my story, they said that they actually handle things like this at least once a day! Go figure!!

With a little solution-soak and then irrigation (key!!!!!) they unclogged my ear!!
And the beast that was the impacted wax...oh god, it was disturbing to see that this thing had been dormant in my ear for who knows how long!! I should've taken a picture or something -- it was epic! It looked like a sweet potato, all lumpy, but longer (I wanna say over an inch), and very dark brown/orange. Thinking about it right now is making my stomach heave... @_@

The folks at Urgent Care were so nice as to clear out the other ear even though I didn't feel any problems with it, and they extracted a sizable piece too! In made me wonder how something so large could actually have been in my ear all this time...

I wish I had gone to them sooner, but I'll just have to see what the bill is like to see if it was a 100% perfect move on my part. Why, oh why, didn't I just ask how much the treatment would have been? I am so unversed in the ways of health care, I feel..

I don't know who taught me that Q-Tips go in the ear, but this whole experience has shown me the very real problem with doing that. From now on, no Q-Tips beyond the outer ear!!

You guys ever have wacky ear/wax issues? Isn't it so glorious to get your hearing back after it's been on the fritz? Totally made me appreciate my ability to hear unobstructed. And I swear it's even sharper than ever -- the sound of my clothes rubbing on my skin as I move is almost distracting it's so pronounced to me!

Well, until next time no Q-Tips in the ears and Happy Clean Ears!!