Waxing Poetic

A teaspoon amount of something is not a lot of material. However, when it is a teaspoon amount of earwax syringed from your right ear, it seems like an awful lot.

Well over a week ago (closer to two weeks now), I was shaving in the shower and got a little water and shaving cream in my right ear. As expected, my ear closed up and I became temporarily deaf in that ear. I finished the shaving and the shower and assumed that everything would be okay in a few hours or a day or two, at most. As the deafness extended day after day, and using ear wax removal drops every other day did nothing, I began to worry a bit. My hearing isn't great to begin with, and losing it or, when it was working, having sounds muffled and obscured was not working for me.

I've had tinnitus in both my ears since I was in my late teens or early twenties. With this constant situation, the tinnitus in my right ear had grown to be incredibly, annoyingly loud. I was also hearing a sloshing sound and even pops, as of bubbles popping, inside my ear.

Finally, today, I was able to get into the nearby clinic and have the doctor take a look. He used a giant syringe to wash out the ear after seeing a ton of wax in there. Approximately a teaspoon full of hard, golden-brown material that looked like cottage cheese came coursing out of my ear. He rinsed my other ear as well, and got about a half-teaspoon of what looked like golden-brown hair or thread out of that ear. Pretty disgusting and disturbing that there can be that much inside your ear!

My hearing appears to be fine now, and everything seems to be dried out. I'm a little disappointed to find that the tinnitus hasn't really improved in that ear. I have an appointment for later this month with my GP, so I'll mention it to him at that time. For now, I'm just happy that my hearing, such as it is, has been restored to me.