My week spent in the pool was not kind to my ears. I woke up in Aqaba Friday morning with a terrible earache. Being a doctor's daughter, which practically gives me a license to practice medicine myself, I knew I probably had an outer ear infection. But I really wanted to finish my certification, so I toughed out the ocean dives and went home, ear throbbing the whole time.
By the time I got to work on Sunday morning, the pain was such that I knew I was in trouble. After seeing three nurses, and surviving a blackout and duck and cover alarm in which I was pulled forcibly from the exam room into a broom closet, the doctor informed me my ear canal was swollen shut and I would need to visit a local ENT to have my ear "toileted" aka cleaned out and examined, for confirmation that it was, indeed, an ear infection.
Afraid that Sebastian and the rest of the "Under the Sea" crew was hiding out behind my swollen ear canal, I decided to follow through with the visit to the ENT instead of just calling my Dad from the pharmacy for the name of a medicine to take.
After using a mini-vacuum cleaner to suction out my ear (which felt amazing, by the way), he sent me off with a prescription. Sadly, two days later I was back with even worse ear pain. He vacuumed out my ear again and then, using a series of popsicle sticks, cremes, powder and gauze, he made a dressing and stuffed it into my ears. "Leave it in for two days" he said. So I did and I don't know whether he whispered a secret spell over it, or the antibiotics finally kicked in, but when I finally pulled it out two days later, shriveled and disgusting, my ear was better.
I really thought I'd make it through my two years with no hospital visits but, as overseas medical experiences go, this was pretty painless so I'll take it!
By the time I got to work on Sunday morning, the pain was such that I knew I was in trouble. After seeing three nurses, and surviving a blackout and duck and cover alarm in which I was pulled forcibly from the exam room into a broom closet, the doctor informed me my ear canal was swollen shut and I would need to visit a local ENT to have my ear "toileted" aka cleaned out and examined, for confirmation that it was, indeed, an ear infection.
Afraid that Sebastian and the rest of the "Under the Sea" crew was hiding out behind my swollen ear canal, I decided to follow through with the visit to the ENT instead of just calling my Dad from the pharmacy for the name of a medicine to take.
After using a mini-vacuum cleaner to suction out my ear (which felt amazing, by the way), he sent me off with a prescription. Sadly, two days later I was back with even worse ear pain. He vacuumed out my ear again and then, using a series of popsicle sticks, cremes, powder and gauze, he made a dressing and stuffed it into my ears. "Leave it in for two days" he said. So I did and I don't know whether he whispered a secret spell over it, or the antibiotics finally kicked in, but when I finally pulled it out two days later, shriveled and disgusting, my ear was better.
I really thought I'd make it through my two years with no hospital visits but, as overseas medical experiences go, this was pretty painless so I'll take it!
No comments:
Post a Comment