Here’s the picture of Jasmin’s first gift of six. More pics later. I’m throwing in one of the latest amaryllis to open up because it was a day that needed the distraction of pretty flowers.
One of the side effects of wearing hearing aids is it seems like the ears are always trying to flush these foreign objects out, so the wax tends to really build up. Which, when you’re deaf enough already, is a problem. I’ve had the left ear plugged up for awhile, and I was astonished and delighted at the astuteness of one doctor (I think he was a resident), while I was at Stanford, who told a fellow surgeon to speak closer to my right side, that I could hear better there. I had told nobody, and here he’d figured it out! Good for him–that level of attentiveness on his part will serve him well as he goes forward.
My family practitioner has been off every time I’ve called for an appointment, but with Stitches so close, and given how noisy the packed convention center always is, I didn’t want to put it off any longer. Today I simply went with whoever was available, thinking, it’s just earwax, I mean, c’mon.
The nurse I got had clearly only ever been given the most basic instructions. She didn’t prep the ear with softener and wait and then rinse, she simply took her squeegee bottle and proceeded to try to carve Mount Rushmore out of the inside of my face. Not realizing that when the patient is in that much pain, you’re not doing it right. I made her stop after I suddenly had what must have been blood going clear down my eustachian tube.
Well! Look! The wax is all gone now, sure, we can stop!
The doctor came in after the nurse left, was horrified when she looked, and gave me Cipro drops and told me emphatically to come back if that didn’t do the job. At home, I crashed and slept for hours.
I can’t wear that hearing aid till things heal up somewhat. Friday, though, I will, regardless.
I’ve been debating endlessly with myself whether I should mention the episode to my own doctor, not wanting to scold someone who didn’t know her job better but definitely wanting her to know better how to do it for the sake of the next patient. Who, I assure you, will not be me.