August 11, 2006

Where's My Icepick?

Friends, you may have to speak up a little. I'm having trouble with one of my ears (again).

While I was growing up, my mother would sometimes amuse us by imitating the doctor who told her, while he was trying to examine her ear canal, "Mrs. K, you have very torturous ear canals!"

Now, in the light of retrospect, not so funny.

'Cause apparently I inherited said canal structure, and now one or the other of my ears periodically gets so gunked up that my hearing is actually impaired.

The good news? This time it's not my phone ear. (T heard this and said, "You have a phone ear?" "Ye-eess," I said, thinking, duh. "You mean you use the same ear all the time when you're talking on the phone?" she marveled. "You mean you DON'T?" was the only thing I could say. Takes all kinds.)

Anyway, I've tried all the over-the-counter stuff, and, not surprisingly, none of it seems to do the trick. My primary care physician does a great job of addressing the problem, but she's on vacation and booked solid on Monday, her first day back, which means I'm going to be asking people to repeat themselves and just generally feeling crabby all the way until Tuesday.

I'm trying to think of it as an opportunity to reflect on how temporary our able-bodied status is. But mostly what I want is to jam an ice pick in my ear!

4 comments:

JAXTER said...

Keep the icepicks out!!! And know that you can now conveniently ignore anything you don't really want to hear - at least until the doctor gets to the ear.

Stacy said...

Ummmmm, I would like to add my voice to the chorus suggesting that the icepick is a bad idea.

Shelley said...

Thanks, friends. [carefully sets icepick down on countertop while backing away slowly]

Anonymous said...

Of course there's a "phone ear"! I married someone who has the _wrong_ phone ear, and I'm sure we're competing to train our sons to use the correct ear... which is the LEFT. ^^^ In-joke: Shelley, remember when I directed that play and I had to remind Claire to put the phone to her upstage -- LEFT -- ear? The routine of the phone ear is hard to overcome. ^^^ Hope your own ear is feeling better.