Today I am so thankful for the gift of hearing!
One evening last fall, after I washed my hair, there was water in my ears and before it drained all the way out I held my nose and blew to get the pressure correct in my ears. Ouch! That was the wrong idea for my left ear for some reason! It really hurt and gave me pain for a few hours. That was unusual! I tried cleaning it out with a Q tip but it felt like something was in the way. I couldn't get my ear properly cleaned out for a long time.
Then on December 10, I went for my annual physical, and when Rachel the Nurse Practitioner looked in my left ear she said it was so full of wax that she could not see in my ear! That was super unusual! She recommended that I get some Debrox drops and put them in twice a day. I did that and it felt so good to have the bubbles going around the wax and softening it. A lot of wax just turned to liquid and my ear felt better. I went back to see her to get my ear cleaned out on Dec. 16 and she said the wax was all cleared away and I did not need the irrigation. I said let's go ahead and do it anyway (because I had waited nearly 2 hours to come in, I didn't want to just do nothing!!!) So the assistant used a high powered water jet and blasted in my ear canal for a while--it felt like a massage of my eardrum and felt really good. Not much wax came out but Rachel said my ear looked clear.
A couple days later my ear started to really hurt a LOT and it felt full. I used a Q tip and a large drop of bright red blood came out. I was alarmed! I looked online and it said don't let anyone irrigate your ear if you have a ruptured eardrum. I didn't think I had a ruptured eardrum! But because I was having pain and could not hear now, I started taking some amoxicillin that we had in the cabinet from Russia, in case I had an infection, and made an appointment for right before Christmas to have Rachel see me again. When I went in, she said she could not see any rupture in the timpanic membrane, which was good. She didn't know where the blood was coming from, or why I could not hear, but she said to stop pressurizing my ears and I should go to urgent care if my ear bled again. She said I did not need to take the antibiotic but I should finish it since I started it. She said I should go see an ENT specialist because I have a dysfunctional eustachian tube.
My appointment at the ENT dr. was set for February 9. Oh! That was SO long to wait, since my ear was still bleeding every day a little bit--I did not feel like I needed to go to urgent care, but each day my ear would feel a tiny bit full of fluid and then I would go clean it with a very gentle Q tip and there would be blood. What was going on? If I pressed on the side of my ear I could hear a bit, and if I put my finger in my ear and created a vacuum, I could hear for a few moments but then my hearing would go away again. If I tried to pressurize my ear canal it didn't work very well.
I talked to Christina, the person in charge of referrals at Peachwood, and she said to call the ENT dr. office each day to see if there was a cancellation. She said they had told her at the ENT dr. office that they will give cancellation appts. to people who call in rather than to people who have their name on a list to be called in case of cancellation. So I called and called, and had my name on a list for cancellations also. On Monday (yesterday) I sent my BSF leader a prayer request and asked for prayer that I could get in to be seen by an ENT dr. about my ear, and that I wanted to be able to hear again! Then I called the ENT dr. again and asked if there were any cancellations. The receptionist asked if I could come in TODAY (Tues) at 10! I said Yes, of course I could!
When I arrived at the ENT dr. office I was treated really well and they got me in to see the dr. very quickly. Dr. Jennifer Davies is wonderful. So kind and thorough. She looked in my ear and listened to my entire story, and then said we should go to the room with the microscope so she can see in my ear better. She had me lie down on an exam table, and then she used a special microscope to look in my ear. It seemed that she was sending a scope into my ear and it was rather amazing. She said there was a lot of fluid in my ear and she would suction it out. She said it would be really loud and it was! I felt a lot of fluid being removed. Then I felt her put something in my ear --I thought it was forceps--and then it felt like she pulled something out. I asked her if she had pulled something out of my ear, and she said yes, and you will not believe what it was--it was a foxtail! She asked if I do a lot of gardening and I said yes I do! I could hear again! I just started crying and said, "Praise the Lord!" I thanked her SO much for getting that foxtail out of my ear! And I was SO glad that I could have the appointment instead of waiting over another month to get in on Feb. 9th! She said she has seen two other people with foxtails in their ears, and they were in a lot of pain with it. She couldn't believe I was in no pain! She said the foxtail had most likely been in my ear for over a month. That was so amazing. I just continue to praise God for the gift of hearing and that the foxtail did not dig in any deeper. As it was, it had blood to 1/3 of the way from the sharp point, so I think that may be how far it had already penetrated in. Thank You God!
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