I am Lamb, a content curator for Dr. Lilac.
I am most proud of my 5.2 vision and excellent hearing.
It can accurately locate a bus stop 20 meters away in the night without street lights, and it can also hear the snoring sound of the next door through the 24cm thick load-bearing wall in the silent night.
It never occurred to me that one day I would be “inaudible”.
It all started on a Friday night.
About the ear shop didn’t bother me
More than two hundred bucks
Friday nights are always a good time to kick off some unusual activities.
For example, picking ears.
Although ear picking has a series of risks, for example, it is easy to puncture, it is easy to become “little deaf”, and it is easy to be infected…
But it’s like “Happy Fat House Water”, which makes you “know that there are tigers in the mountains, but prefer to walk in the mountains.”
After get off work, I walked into an ear-picking shop in a happy mood, wanting to spend my Friday nights in the crisp.
Fleece brushed the bridge of my nose, twirling around my temples, and the small vibrations from the metal vibrations stirred up every single hair. Listening to the sound of the metal flipping the foreign body in the ear canal, I feel that the soul has been sublimated.
Around the time, when I was drowsy, Master Ear Picker said gently in my ear:
“Beauty, your ear is inflamed.”
“We have a homemade ointment that works well. Would you like to use it?”
My brain raised the alarm and woke up in an instant, not because of her “beauty”, but my remaining consciousness reminding me-“This is another price !”
“How much?”
“We developed it ourselves, 258 times, very effective.”
“Homemade ointment”… It doesn’t look very reliable at first listen, maybe it is erythromycin ointment + VE milk blended in a non-sterile environment.
Looking around and seeing the desolate appearance of this family, the “self-developed ointment” has most likely been exposed to the air and idle for a long time.
The most important thing is that, as poor as I am, of course I refuse.
Image credit: drawn by sam
After you came and went, Master Ear Picker carefully and gently picked the inflamed ear for me.
When I arrived at Zhong, Master Cai Er watched me leave with a little regret.
After leaving the ear shop, I quickly made an appointment with the ENT department of a public tertiary hospital on my mobile phone, and felt good about my “wit” in my heart.
The next day, in a public hospital, the doctor checked with an otoscope, tried a simple cleaning with tweezers and a small vacuum cleaner, and said to me:
“There is a fungal infection in the ear, and the earwax is sticking to the eardrum, and it is still a little hard. Go back and soak it first.”
My ears, actually, ! mold! !
The doctor gave me a small bottle of medicine, told me to lie on my side every day and put it in my ear for a while, then tilted my head and poured it out, and told me to have a review next week< /strong>.
At checkout, check + potion is only 25 yuan, and I solved the problem of 258 yuan with 25 yuan, how smart I am!
Photo source: Taken by myself
Earwax miners, not afraid of difficulties
I have never put eye drops a few times, so I need to put drops on my ears, which is a technical job.
There is fungus in the ear canal. If you put the mouth of the bottle directly on the mouth of the ear canal, you will feel that the fungus will climb along the mouth of the bottle into the potion and stain it, no no no.
Finally aiming in the air, it overflowed without two drops. It turned out that the ear canal was too narrow, and the potion sealed it. So I had to drop a drop, press the small ear bone, and put the ear canal.The air inside is squeezed out, and then drips again, and so on.
Every night before going to bed, I drip the potion into my ear, and even if I sometimes desperately want to get something, I try to freeze my neck and move over to prevent the potion from pouring out. First, I am afraid that it has not taken effect yet, and second, I am afraid that it will be spilled everywhere.
Every morning, I wake up on the first alarm clock, groping to drip the medicine into my ear, and when the second alarm clock rings, I pull out a tissue, rub it, and plug the hole in my ear. , fill the pinna, turn over, and let the potion flow out.
Every day, a transparent and colorless potion drips in, and a yellow “filth” flows out.
Image source: giphy
As you may have seen, I am very obedient to the doctor.
But actually, I only heard half of it.
I thought that the problem of ear inflammation could be solved as long as I dropped the medicine, so I didn’t take the doctor’s appointment next week to my heart. Coupled with various reasons, I did not attend the appointment as scheduled.
During the weeks of no appointments, my ears gradually became “inaudible.”
After soaking and rinsing with the potion, my ear canal is always clean, and I can’t find anything with an ear scoop.
But at the same time, I am also very confused. Obviously, my eardrum seems to be stuck, like…the earwax softens and then sticks to the eardrum, and the sound of others speaking enters my ear. Afterwards, it became deep, thick and inaudible.
During that time, my work status was like this.
Image source: Screenshot of my enterprise WeChat
I consider myself a very hands-on person, so I started deep mining my ears.
Daily late at night, diligently, but nothing.
Finally, during a deep dive, something seemed to slip in my ear canal.
As if the hound got the signal, I was like a gold miner possessed, I pulled the auricle with my left hand, trying to straighten the ear canal, and rotated the angle of the ear scoop with my right hand, trying to straighten the auricle. The metal spoon crossed the winding ups and downs, reached the depths of the ear canal, and pried the “dirty” up.
Image source: giphy
However, because of the inflammation, the lining of my ear canal is extremely sensitive and painful to touch. In the state of continuous high lift, the right arm seemed to be hanging with a heavy weight, the fingertips holding the spoon began to shake, and the tip of the spoon hit the inflamed ear canal from time to time. The left hand that went around the head and pulled the auricle from the left side also began to feel sore, and when it loosened a little, the ear canal retracted and bent, squeezing and touching the metal spoon handle lying inside.
As I owed money for several days, I was carried away by the signal of victory. Instead of flinching, the soreness and pain aroused a stronger desire for victory and defeat. The messy den” was eliminated in one fell swoop.
Image credit: drawn by sam
Finally, I pulled out a small black lump from the depths of my ear, and my ears seemed to be “bright”.
Things don’t end here.
Because there is still a lot of potion, in line with the principle of not wasting, I still drip, soak and pour the medicine every day…
Until the potion ran out, I finally entered the ear clinic again to make sure my ears were okay.
My ears are getting hairy
During the interval between looking at my medical records, the doctor frowned and glanced at me. Although it was only for a brief moment, I could see from the doctor’s eyes-Something was bad. .
“Why didn’t you come after so long?”
She held the otoscope deep into my ear and was silent for a while.
“The fungus in your ear is getting hairy.”
She took a pair of tweezers with long, pointed tips and stuck them into my ears. I felt a warm mass moving slowly from the back of my ear.
It was a wet, dark, hairy concoction.
That is, the moldy earwax with fungus is softened by the potion and then lumped together. Under the constant temperature environment of body temperature, this moldy earwax ball is still hairy!
Image credit: drawn by sam
It turns out that what I took out last time was just the tip of the iceberg.
The thought of my ears becoming a petri dish for earwax fungus for weeks… Forget it, forget it.
The doctor calmly threw the “briquettes” into the trash and said to me “you should come in the next week”.
The doctor then performed a deep cleaning of my ears, prescribed another bottle of medicine, and told me to “be sure to come next week.”
A week later, I was sitting in front of the number calling machine in the outpatient clinic of the hospital as scheduled. Next to the calling machine, there was a big “Ear Department” written on it.
This week I used a lot of self-control to suppress my hands and didn’t dig my ears. While waiting for the number to be called, I had a little anticipation in my heart, expecting that the doctor would help me clean up with small tweezers and a small vacuum cleaner later.
However, this time the doctor just did a quick check, gave me a new medicine, and told me to go home and have an ear bath.
It turns out that not every time I come, the doctor will help “ear picking”.
Disappointed, I turned away.
I am not only “deaf” but also “autistic”
The story ends here, but in reality, I’m still stuck in the tug-of-war of “preventing new hair from growing on my ears”.
Remembering the sticky “earwax fungus hairballs” with each medication.
Although the doctor doesn’t allow it, I occasionally can’t suppress the desire to explore. I use the ear scoop to mine deeply in a difficult posture, and I don’t miss any pellets that can form a group. crumbs.
My ears still occasionally get stuck or plugged due to the continuous daily instillation. Not only did this affect my hearing, it made me increasingly lonely.
My workstation was near the aisle, which was on the edge of the crowd. Because of my hearing loss, when everyone was laughing and discussing at the workstation, I could only look up at them blankly.
When the sound reaches my ears through the air or the tabletop, I often miss the key point of laughter. Everyone is immersed in laughter and laughter, and they do not receive my eyes that ask for knowledge.
Gradually, I became less talkative.
Gradually, I seem to be not only “deaf” and “dumb”, but also “autistic”.
Image credit: drawn by sam
Later, due to work needs, we adjusted the workstation and I was moved from the aisle to a slightly middle position.
Later, the doctor replaced the medicine with ointment, and although the medicine continued, the ear sticking no longer occurred.
Afterwards, I was able to capture everyone’s laughs more sensitively.
Later, I thought about it.
To this day, I just want to say:
Ears are so important!
Don’t dig your ears!
Choosing ears really don’t go casually!
A few more truths about otitis externa:
About treatment
Inflammation of the external auditory canal is difficult to cure. Most of the commonly used treatment methods are to keep soaking in water and cleaning, and generally require at least 3 weeks of treatment.
About prevention
No hard objects should be used to dig ears, and no fingers, towels, cotton swabs or other hard objects should be used to clean ears;
Ear picking is one of the causes of fungal otitis externa infection;
Those who swim frequently should shake and dry their ears with a hair dryer after water enters their external auditory canal. Do not use cotton swabs;
Persons engaging in water sports should use earplugs;
Do not wear hearing aids, headphones, earplugs, etc. for extended periods of time, and clean them regularly;
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People with suppurative otitis media should promptly treat otitis media and keep the external auditory canal clean;
Shampoo, conditioner, cosmetics, etc., should avoid entering the external auditory canal as much as possible.
Finally, a thousand words come together into one sentence:
Be sure to listen to your doctor! ! !
This article reviewer
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Planning: Vic Sheep | Producer: Feidi
Illustrator: sam | Source of cover image: sam