At Least It's Not A Toothache

Just in time to start my weekend shift, I came down with an earache. It only actually hurt for a little bit the first day, then it mellowed down to a dull ringing in my left ear. It's not too bad, more irritating than painful. At work I can't even tell anything's wrong because the machinery drowns out the ringing.

It's been going on for about a week now. Maybe it's a little better, but not much. I was using these ear drops but then I noticed they were just for cleaning the wax out of your ears, not treating an earache. So I've been wasting my time all along. Well, maybe not the first couple of days. Let me tell you, my ears are squeaky clean now. The left one's still clogged up & ringing, & I can't hear out of it, but there isn't any wax buildup.

I looked up earache remedies on-line. A couple of places said to put olive oil in my ear, but we don't have any. I'm shocked Keith let me down like that. On the bright side, they also said to use garlic, so for a couple of days I walked around with a clove of garlic sticking out of my ear. Not exactly sure if that's what they had in mind. Never seemed to improve anything, so I quit that shit.

From what I saw on-line, it looks like my ear is backed up because my Eustachian tube is clogged, so when I was out today I stopped & got a box of allergy medicine that's supposed to reduce swelling & drain my sinuses. Hopefully that'll open up my Eustachian tube, too.

I've had extra liquid in there before. Sometimes I'll wake up & it feels like my left ear is full of fluid, then when I turn my head I can feel it drain but nothing ever comes out of my ear, & if I swab it with a Q-tip there's nothing there. If, before I get up, I move my head back the way it was I can feel it slosh back over my eardrum. This is the first time it's been a permanent thing. I asked my doctor about it once & he said it wasn't any big deal. Just a little extra goop in my ear.

Since there isn't any pain, I figure there isn't too much pressure, so I'm not too worried about it. If I had insurance I'd go see the doctor just in case, but since I'm not going to be officially hired until next month sometime I won't have insurance until next month sometime. Unless there's a waiting period for the insurance, then I won't have insurance for another couple of months.

Which is probably what's going to happen.

So in the mean time I'm going to take the allergy pills & hope for the best.

If you see somebody walking around with a garlic clove sticking out of her ear you'll know I don't have insurance yet.