I Have What??? The Most Embarrassing Dr.'s Visit EVER.

So I have felt like I have had water clogged in my ears for about two weeks now. My ears did not hurt, I just couldn't ear anything out of one ear. Friday night my ear started hurting and with our anniversary being next week I wanted to make sure I got it checked out so I didn't have an ear infection while we were on vacation. We decided to go to the urgent care center, figuring no one would be there because of the Derby and we were right.

The nurses and the doctor were really nice. I made John Mark go back with me because I hate going to the doctor alone (I am not sure why, but my mom used to always go in with me when I was a kid). It turned out it was a good thing that he went in with me because we were there for about an hour.

The doctor takes one look at my ears and says, "Mrs. Ear Wax" and "Q-Tip" user. WHAT? Well that is what I was thinking. I religiously clean my ears out daily (or so I thought) with Q-Tips. It turns out that doing what your mother told you was not a good thing in this case. What the Q-Tip does is push wax back into your ear and if you have been doing it for several years it can be a good way to get water behind it and give you an infection (which is why I wasn't able to get the water out by myself). I was so embarassed and John Mark was in hysterics.

What happened next was even better. They had to clean my ears out first before they could really see what was wrong with my ear. They put this little plastic spicket thing in your ear and through a long tube gush water into your ear so it will get behind the wax and flush it out. Trust me folks, this is not my idea of fun. It was extremely uncomfortable and painful. I went ahead and had them do both ears since I was paying for it (well Humana actually was because I have already met my deductible for the year). It turns out I have swimmer's ear and I don't even swim anymore!!

The doctor said I should use, get this, either olive, vegetable or baby oil once ever 7-10 days in my ear. I would stop it up with a cotton ball overnight and then the oil would absorb the wax and move the wax out when you get water or soap in your ear. She also told me I should throw away my Q-Tips.

So we went to Walgreens that night to get my ear drops and crisis number two happens. John Mark spills the $130.00 ear drops all over the floor. I was in panic mode, knowing Humana wouldn't pay for another bottle unless a certain amount of time past. He felt terrible. We called Walgreens and they suggested having the doctor write a different prescription for a different kind of drops...which is exactly what happened (though the new drops were only 30 something dollars and I have to use them twice as much for longer, but it's better than nothing).