15 minutes later.

So I've been having some small problems with the hearing from my right ear these past couple of weeks. It kind of feels stuffed up like it does when you come off a long flight. Everything is a bit muted and my voice echoes in my head a little.

I don't think it's an infection because there's no real pain and no funky fluids come leaking out. EWWW. I think it's possible I just used a Q-tip to aggressively and maybe pushed some ear wax inside. EWWWW.

So yesterday I go see an ear doctor. Boy what an experience. I kidd you not, I was there for about TWO hours. Yet during this time I maybe only had face time with the doctor for no more then 30 seconds. Here's roughly how it went...

9:45 am.
I reach my appointment right on time. Stood behind a retired elderly woman who apparently felt like she had to fill in all her forms at the front desk. I manage to eventually get around her
to grab the forms, fill in all my paperwork, and sit down to start my wait.

15 minutes later...
I get my name called. I walk into a hallway that felt like I was going back in time. I SWEAR nothing has been touched in this office since the early 1980's. I saw chairs that my parents used to use when I was in elementary school. I saw an old Okidata dot matrix printer on the side (similar to the first printer I ever owned on my 1st PC)! I get invited to sit in a room surrounded by formica floors and walls straight out of a bad episode of the Brady Bunch.

15 minutes later...
Doctor comes in. I never met him before. He quicky shakes my hand and says, "Oh I heard you are full of it...." I assume he's referring to ear wax. EWWWW. How do you answer something like that. I figure the safest way to just prevent a long discussion about my personal hygiene would be to just mutter a brief "uh...yeah!" He looks in both ears.... and then walks back out. The whole thing took no more then 10 seconds....

15 minutes later....
Nurse comes in. Shovels something like a fireman's hose into my head to "irrigate" my ear canal. As if my head isn't filled with enough water already? Then... later she puts this tiny thing that's kind of like a vaccuum....I suppose it's used to suck up what little remains of my brain matter. She leaves.... tells me to wait for the doctor.

15 minutes later...
Doctor comes in. Asks me how I was doing. "Oh, ok...but it still feels a little weird doc". He looks at my ears. Tells me maybe we should take a hearing test... 10 seconds. He directs me into another retro room where the window drapes looks like they may have adorned the walls of Elvis's den.

15 minutes later...
I get a hearing test. Of course I can't hear half of anything after having just had a head full of water and a giant air vacuum sucking up all my ear cilia. I get taken back to the first room.

15 minutes later...
Doctor comes in....looks at my chart and says "Oh, so there's some high-pitched hearing loss... bye" Uhh.............................................. so.................... WTF!? On the way out he tells me not to use Qtips anymore.

I really don't know what I got out of that whole experience except that I don't need to buy Qtips anymore. My ear is still a little stuffed up today. I'm hoping it will eventually just pop out ok after a couple more days. /sigh.