May 18, 2007

Cotton swab dilemma solved!

After you´re done with this blog, check out the short one below it with pics of mangos.

I sent an email a few weeks back to family members while Luke and I were in Tegus (apparently it´s spelled with an ¨s¨instead of ¨c¨which it´s shortened from Tegucigalpa of which I was unaware until this week) because of his dengue/bacterial infection. Anyway, I mentioned that I had used a Honduran cotton swab (commonly referred to in English as ¨Q-tips¨ but that´s actually a brand and believe me, this was no ¨Q-tip¨) and when I pulled the swab from my right ear, I realized that the cotton was no longer on the end. In situations like this, as my husband will attest, I usually overreact completely and panic...and this is what I did when I couldn´t see the cotton in my ear or on the floor anywhere. My ear felt a little funny but nothing painful and it wasn´t affecting my hearing so I decided I would wait until Monday (this happened Friday night) when Luke had an appointment to see if a PC doc could look in my ear.

Monday rolls around, the PC doc looks in my ear and tells me she sees nothing! Yeah! I´m in the clear (so I thought). We came to Danli the next day and a week later (just this past Monday night) I was showering and water got into my ears. Usually not a big deal but my right ear didn´t clear up after shaking it a bit. I kind of freaked out (my usual reaction). I couldn´t hear a thing out of that ear and it felt really heavy and plugged. I slept on that side all night hoping it would clear up but in the morning there hadn´t been any change.

I knew I´d have to go to the Honduran docotor here in Danli (PC docs won´t see you until you´ve seen the doctor in your site or unless it´s an emergency). So I went, told him the situation and mentioned the mysterious disapperance of the cotton swab that the PC doctor didn´t see. He looked in my ear for awhile then walked over to his desk drawer where he rummaged around for a good few minutes. He found what he was looking for and walked back over to me with a 5-inch long metal utensil. He made me lie on my good ear and told me not to move. I was sure I was going to loose my hearing in that ear! I laid there a few seconds, it hurt a little bit, and then he showed me what he´d fished out of my ear. Yes, the end of the cotton swab, completely intact. I wanted to give the man a hug (more for not damaging my ear drum in the process than taking out the cotton but whatever).

Mystery solved. Lesson learned: Honduran cotton swabs are definitely NOT to be used for inner-ear cleaning.

1 comment:

Kate Suchomel said...

ack!
dude, scary!! im glad the honduran doctors were able to come to your rescue and fish that sucker out. seriously. the perils of life as a pcv.
:)
miss you guys. :(