JCC Alas, earwax!

Hearing impaired person here. I wear hearing aids all day and only take them out for when I swim, shower, or sleep.

Basically, having hearing aids compounds earwax problems, because unless you diligently take care of the earwax with removal kits like Debrox, it just stays holed up in the ear all the time. I also have really tiny ear canals. I've had several doctor visits to get earwax removed, because all the sudden I'd be losing a lot more hearing than I'd lost already. One time in high school, my doctor took out a popcorn kernel-sized ball of earwax from my right ear. I'm pretty sure if you could pass kidney stones through the ear canal, that's what the pain would be like. As the ball of wax was going out of my ear, it was all, "**** you, mother****er!" and took a chunk of living skin with it.

 

One of my ears is prone to blockages no matter what I do (usually Debrox and plenty of lukewarm water) so I'm familiar with the ear blaster thingy.

Interesting side story: a friend of mine in college had a similar problem and couldn't, for the life of him, get it out. He tried all the things I told him to do and he said he just felt it go deeper. Finally I took him to my doc and asked him to try and extricate the blockage. The doc took a single look in there only to recoil a bit and then head for the blaster thingy. He told my friend to sit down, relax, and let him do the work. First blast of solution and there was a bit of movement. Second blast of solution and there was a LOT of movement. My friend started to panic saying that it felt like something alive was in there. The doctor told me to hold his arm down (poor guy was flailing about by this point) as he did one more blast of the solution. The third blast did the trick as plenty of wax came out - along with a half inch long cockroach which had then scampered down the side of the cup holding the used solution and wax and made its way onto the floor. My friend looked on in utter terror as the doctor quietly stomped on the roach and then swept it up with a broom.

Ever since then, I keep a bottle of Debrox, a bulb syringe, and plenty of roach traps handy. You just never know.

 

CORRECT.

 

freaking bugs in ears!! i'm sleeping with my headset on tonight

 

i have psoriasis or another sort of skin condition in my ears and because of how moist it gets in them babies, skin comes off pretty easily. awesome right?

SO, awhile back i went to clean my ears one day and used one of those little plastic scoop stick things to do it. took some of the skin with it, got an infection, whole ear canal swelled up and closed off. super painful. doctor said it was the worst he'd ever seen. so that was fun.

a week or two later, just after it healed, it happened again in the other ear.

**** ears.

 

Master_Jacen I puke a little in my mouth after that.

 

Nice to know I wasn't the only kid dumb enough to do that. Though in my case I didn't tell anyone for a while, for fear of getting in trouble. So I took numerous baths with popcorn kernels in my ear and when the water hit the kernels, the kernels swelled. When I finally came clean, the kernels were about the size of peas and the doctor had to use a vacuum to get them out.

Nowadays I'm just another one of those people who can't resist shoving q-tips into the ears. A few years ago, I was trying to clean out my ear and I felt a sudden sharp pain, pulled the q-tip out, and to my horror, saw it was covered in blood. I dunno if I punctured my eardrum or what, but it healed on its own and I hear fine. But I didn't learn anything as I still use q-tips.

 

Better be listening to good music.

 

Same thing happened to me... didn't tell anybody, and they swelled. Had to have mine vacuumed out, as well.

 

Seriously. At what point did you think there was a payoff for putting popcorn kernels in your freakin' ears?!

 

I was seven or eight years old.

... actually, I think I was 6.

 

26

 

well, you've always been a bit hot headed. i can imagine six year old you thinking it would be a decent way to make the kernel pop.

 

See, YOU are someone who has the proper experience and training and need to clean out your own ears.

Other people (like Master_Jacen) have caused themselves problems with cleaning.


I used my phone. Beware.pf.typos.

 

I never stick anything into my ears, and I cringe whenever I see my girlfriend using a Q-Tip.

 

Dirty Gypsy.

 

So anyway, OZK, can you talk about maggot debridement of wounds next?

 

Next thread: maggot debridement of necrotic prepuce tissue after use of Gomco clamp. I imagine everyone will love it.

Maybe maggot debridement would have helped in cleaning you out that time?

 

If you could explain how use of maggot therapy can sometimes be curtailed by the patient's inability to endure the tickling sensation as the maggots make their way around the open wound cleaning it by eating dead tissue, that would be particularly helpful.

 

Sadly, I don't have any direct experience with it.

 

JTS EDIT: Let's not go there. It's getting tiresome.

 

oh, you're a Carcass fan too?

//obscure metal joke

 

Jesus! You're looking for this thread.

 

"Let me introduce to you the last remaining indigenous species of Ceti Alpha 5." [/khanvoice]