ear wax makes wood beautiful
Jun. 19th, 2001 09:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanpaku_backupSo Frank wanted to know about the deal with ear wax. Well, as it happens, Frank, I have just finished doing several days of research on the ear wax front. Warning: not to read for the easily grossed out.
I had ear wax in my ear on Saturday. I say to myself, "self, why not use a Q-Tip of the sort that Mrs. Sanpaku always uses?" I do this and I'm gently swabbing, swabbing. Hm. Suddenly I can't hear anything out of the ear. Well, that will go away. Swab some more. Uh oh.
No problem, I will go to the store and get me some ear drops. In the meantime it is amazing to discover how bad a mood you can be in simply by having your hearing reduced by half.
The ear drops are supposed to magically melt the wax away. It is difficult for me to tell whether or not they are going into my ear or what because when I put them in nothing happens. I try using the little puffer bulb that comes with the medicine to gently squirt my ear with warm water. Of course, now that I have defied the instructions on the Q-Tips to only "gently go around the outside of the ear-- do not put in ear canal" I am terrified about what will happen next.
Of course nothing happens and I spend the day and the next day unable to hear anything. I call the nurse at the nearby medical center and she tells me it's probably water in my ear and to take sudafed. Lady, I can practically feel the wax. It feels like I have an earplug inside my ear. Oh well, try the sudafed. Nothing happens.
So I finally go in to see a doctor. She looks in my ear and then takes out a syringe the size of a frosting gun filled with hot water and grain alcohol and shoots it repeatedly into my ear. I had a piece of wax in there the size of a peanut. The hot water melts it. Good to be able to hear again. She cleans out the other ear for good measure and tells me to clean my ears out with a mix of peroxide and alcohol every week because I make a lot of wax. Now this is really the first time I can ever remember this happening to me-- I can't imagine that wax is such a big deal-- but I guess too much is not a good thing.
What I don't understand is, there's all these warnings not to put the Q-tip or the puffer thing or the ear drop bottle anywhere near your ear canal. (I mean, look at the Q-Tip. Is it made for ANYTHING ELSE?) But they can shoot hot water into your ears at high pressure for 5 minutes and it's OK. About 5 years ago I went to the beach and I came back with an earache and they put a friggin' WaterPik in my ear for 10 minutes. Both times it was not really that painful-- I mean, somewhat, yes, but more like uncomfortable. Now how can someone do that, but I put a Q-Tip in a little too far and I'm deaf? Makes no sense.
****************************************
Saw Wonder Boys after finishing the novel this weekend. At first I was amazed at how faithful it was to the book. But by the end I was a little disappointed in it-- they took the sting, the darker parts of the story, and kind of cheered it up a little. I don't know what Michael Chabon was saying with the novel but I didn't exactly get the sense of "oh those wacky writers-- that fun life they lead!" But maybe I took it too seriously.
I had ear wax in my ear on Saturday. I say to myself, "self, why not use a Q-Tip of the sort that Mrs. Sanpaku always uses?" I do this and I'm gently swabbing, swabbing. Hm. Suddenly I can't hear anything out of the ear. Well, that will go away. Swab some more. Uh oh.
No problem, I will go to the store and get me some ear drops. In the meantime it is amazing to discover how bad a mood you can be in simply by having your hearing reduced by half.
The ear drops are supposed to magically melt the wax away. It is difficult for me to tell whether or not they are going into my ear or what because when I put them in nothing happens. I try using the little puffer bulb that comes with the medicine to gently squirt my ear with warm water. Of course, now that I have defied the instructions on the Q-Tips to only "gently go around the outside of the ear-- do not put in ear canal" I am terrified about what will happen next.
Of course nothing happens and I spend the day and the next day unable to hear anything. I call the nurse at the nearby medical center and she tells me it's probably water in my ear and to take sudafed. Lady, I can practically feel the wax. It feels like I have an earplug inside my ear. Oh well, try the sudafed. Nothing happens.
So I finally go in to see a doctor. She looks in my ear and then takes out a syringe the size of a frosting gun filled with hot water and grain alcohol and shoots it repeatedly into my ear. I had a piece of wax in there the size of a peanut. The hot water melts it. Good to be able to hear again. She cleans out the other ear for good measure and tells me to clean my ears out with a mix of peroxide and alcohol every week because I make a lot of wax. Now this is really the first time I can ever remember this happening to me-- I can't imagine that wax is such a big deal-- but I guess too much is not a good thing.
What I don't understand is, there's all these warnings not to put the Q-tip or the puffer thing or the ear drop bottle anywhere near your ear canal. (I mean, look at the Q-Tip. Is it made for ANYTHING ELSE?) But they can shoot hot water into your ears at high pressure for 5 minutes and it's OK. About 5 years ago I went to the beach and I came back with an earache and they put a friggin' WaterPik in my ear for 10 minutes. Both times it was not really that painful-- I mean, somewhat, yes, but more like uncomfortable. Now how can someone do that, but I put a Q-Tip in a little too far and I'm deaf? Makes no sense.
****************************************
Saw Wonder Boys after finishing the novel this weekend. At first I was amazed at how faithful it was to the book. But by the end I was a little disappointed in it-- they took the sting, the darker parts of the story, and kind of cheered it up a little. I don't know what Michael Chabon was saying with the novel but I didn't exactly get the sense of "oh those wacky writers-- that fun life they lead!" But maybe I took it too seriously.
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no subject
Date: 2001-06-20 12:35 pm (UTC)You went deaf because you pushed the wax further into your ear with the q-tip. I walked around like that for months. When they cleaned out my ears I felt like I was in a new world.
Tell me, if the alcohol and peroxide works, because my ears are wax factories as well. (Possibly because I'm always putting things in there to get the wax out).
do you hear what i hear?
Date: 2001-06-28 10:41 am (UTC)read your entry and was intrigued. you see - i am going to the ear, nose & throat doctor this afternoon. i've been partially deaf for almost two weeks now (family doctor says wax build up and tried to drain the ears and prescribed antibiotic ear drops - well i still can't hear!) so now..i'm going to THE doctor.
all i want is to be able to hear television without using the captions.
anyway, rock on. i'm trying to get my master's degree in history right now. i have a long way to go...but i'm getting there. slowly, painfuly, but surely. ha!
Re: do you hear what i hear?
Date: 2001-06-28 10:54 am (UTC)Good luck with history... it is a very long road... and then there ain't necessarily a pot of gold at the end... but it can be fun sometimes.
Re: do you hear what i hear?
Date: 2001-06-28 05:38 pm (UTC)i can hear everything.....
even people's thoughts.
bless all you ear, nose & throat doctors!
q-tips = bad
Date: 2001-07-05 11:57 pm (UTC)the hairs in the outer part of the ear canal move wax out of the ears naturally. by using a q-tip, you can push the wax too far into the ear where these helpful little hairs do not exist, thereby lodging wax in your ear canal permanently.
water-piks, on the other hand, work by melting or softening the wax so it can come out on its own.
i speak from experience.