hearing hurts
I was desperate.
I had to fix this.
Upon entering the Urgent Care center, I was anxious to get through this not knowing how long my wait would be. No one was waiting in the waiting room. It made sense after my visit ended.
After the routine check on my vital stats, I waited for about four minutes before a large, leathery doctor entered the room. Not one crack on his face showed his desire to help me. As cold as ice, this man shortly inquired about my condition. Two views into both of my ears indicated that he saw ear wax.
I followed him into another room where his nurse prepared to hold water below my ear. He mumbled for me to turn 90 degrees away from him with my right ear facing him. A nurse held a plastic box full of water below my ear. Then, as I watched his finish connecting the water pik, he slowly thrusts a cold, metal tube pretty deep into my ear.
WOOSH.
OW!!
I felt a very high pressure of water threatening to burst through my ear drum into my middle ear. The pain of such high water pressure in my ear made me cringe. Not only did it hurt, but it started messing with my other senses. I sat there, eyes shut tightly, teeth gritting, body tense. This pain was unbearable.
“Turn around,” he said.
Rinse and Repeat.
Unbearable pain, intense pressure, extreme loudness. This time, however, I looked into the water to see several pieces of ear wax, one as large as two peas. It was unbelievable that this was causing me so much discomfort.
He did this a couple of times to both my ears before we went back to the other room and verify my ears were unclogged.
“You may go,” he mumbled in a low, monotone voice.
As I walked to the waiting room, I noticed my center of balance was off. Whatever pressure was exerted to my ears had caused me to lose some balance. It was slightly simliar to being intoxicated, but luckily lasted only a couple of minutes.
This better be the first and last time I ever have to go through that. I’m now a little concerned that my ears are worse than they were before.
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Interesting . . . I had the same thing done at SMU, I understand the pain and the loudness, and over the years different physicians have commented about the wax buildup in my ears.
Me too! I have had my right ear flushed something like 3 times in the last 5 years. The last time was just 2 weeks ago, and I felt a bit dizzy several times in the following days. Ugh, sorry you had to go through that. Though it is pretty fascinating/disgusting to see what can lurk in your ear!
Hmm… I’m guessing that this runs in my family then. We’re all a bunch of deaf fools who create earwax like its water from a fountain. Oh well, at least I know now.
Ouch. What strikes me the most though is the total insensitivity of the doctor. The American medical system at work :)
When I cut my finger and got a digital block in the US, the doctors said nothing to me at all while doing the procedure and it was the most horrible pain I had felt to date.
I came here and had to have a fingernail removed. So the doctor said I needed a digital block again. He could see by my face that I didn’t want that at all. So he chatted with me about everything BUT that for 15 minutes and eventually I was calm enough and convinced enough to go through with it. Once we got to the operating room, he told his nurse he wanted the smallest needle they had. She said they didn’t have any. He said, that’s the one I want so go to the pharmacy and buy one :) And his empathy made it actually hurt a LOT less than the previous one.
But in these days when doctors are paid per patient, there’s no time for empathy.
I’ll tell you what, though, this doctor that saw me was anything but American. His accent sounded like something out of the opposite side of the world and he was probably in his 50s or so. So I’m not sure if it was just a bad day for him, whether he’s just a generally unpleasant guy or a cultural attitude.
Most family practices or similar type clinics such as the Urgent Care that I went to have decent, friendly doctors. I don’t think there’s a majority of unpleasant doctors since I’ve worked at a clinic for a long time and met quite a few. Occasionally, you just run into a few who aren’t happy.
I wish our medical system had more incentive for unpleasant doctors than money. I’m thankful for the ones who are actually out there to enjoy doing their job and make a difference.