The Big Flush

I don't know about anyone else, but apparently I have a hell of an ear-wax buildup problem. I don't want to be too gross or share too much personal information here, but I'm ready to come clean. "Hi, my name is Kirsten and I have excessive ear-wax." There, I feel better. I mentioned in my vacation post that my ear had been blocked for over a week, and it was really starting to get annoying. I suspected it was just wax, but a small part of me thought it was something worse, like maybe a giant bug had crawled in there or something. Anyway, I started to miss not being able to hear out of that ear and my husband has started the habit of standing on the side of my blocked ear and saying things under his breath that I can't understand. When I ask him what he said he just smiles guiltily and says "oh, nothing." Very suspicious. So off I went to the doctor's this morning. Actually I had to see the Physician Assistant because surprise surprise my doctor was on vacation. By my calculation he has around 7 or 8 weeks of vacation time each year. So in I went for the big flush. He looked in my ear and proclaimed that it was completely clogged, to which I wittingly replied "what?" He then took a GIANT syringe thingy that looked like a turkey baster and filled it with some sort of solution that was probably just warm water but could have had some sort of medicinal substance in it, not too sure. He then proceeded to put it in my ear and push what felt like the equivalent of Niagara Falls into my ear with about the speed of a person shooting out of a cannonball at the circus. Quite unpleasant. But right away I could HEAR! Hallelujah I could hear. And everything was so LOUD. The sound of the collar on my shirt rustling against my skin was magnified by about 1,000 and really started to freak me out. So in all it was a very productive visit. I do have a tip for anyone who has this done, after they shoot all the water into your ear and it comes back out into the little basin you are holding under it, don't turn your head and take a peek into it to see what came out. Not that I did this or anything because that might be gross and I'm sure seeing that would make you want to gag, but just trust me and don't look!