Paralyzed Wax

I am paralyzed from the chest down, leaving me very sedentary.  After my auto accident and before I was to be discharged from rehabilitation, my doctor wanted to look in my ears.  He stuck a small exact-to knife looking piece of metal straight in my ear.  Then he pulled it out and on it was what looked like a tablespoon of gross yellow looking gunk.  Is that TMI? Sorry, but it is the truth.

I had both ears cleaned out and my gosh, it felt wonderful.  I could hear better and my ears no longer “itched” like they had been.  As I rolled outside the breeze picked up and it felt like it went right through me.  I was freezing on an 80 degree day!

I try to get my ears cleaned twice a year.  You can clean them two ways; candling or a nurse visit and I have done both.  Candling requires the help of another person.  It consists of lying on your side, and a hollowed-out beeswax candle is gently inserted into the ear canal.  Check it out on You Tube.

At the doctor’s office, they pour half a cap of hydrogen peroxide in each ear and seal it with a cotton ball (not my favorite part).  You then sit for 8-10 minutes and hear it crackling and loosening the dry hard wax.  The nurse comes in, sprays a small stream of warm water in the ear and then the nasty wax trickles out and into a container below your ear.

Once because my ears were so impacted, I had to go to an ENT (ears, nose & throat) office.  They stick a vacuum-like tube in your ear and it draws everything out. It is as un-fun as it sounds.  It’s cold and loud but, I had a large piece of wax stuck in front of my ear drum.  So it was worth it.

If you are a sedentary individual, disability or age, get your ears checked. I wish I would have known this when my mother was alive.  She might have agreed to turning down the TV volume.

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