Cotton swab is the official name for Q-Tip, right? (Q-Tip facts here). As everyone knows, you don’t use Q-Tips for cleaning ears. I was reminded of this when I was cleaning my ears with Q-Tips, or cotton swabs for those of you from foreign countries, this morning.
Or is a cotton swab another name for cotton ball? I’ve lived abroad for so long my English is getting screwy. I was getting tired of wax falling out of my ears at bad times, like you’re talking to someone and feel the little chunk of wax rolling out your ear and have trouble concentrating on what they’re saying because you’re wondering if it’s still in the ear canal somewhere or if it’s dropped out onto your shoulder or something, and so I decided to clean my ears. It went well at first, I got quite a bit out with the first Q-Tip, so I stuck the second one in a little bit further – very carefully! – and suddenly there was this odd, unpleasant indescribable sensation, sort of BOOM and OUCH at the same time. There was wax on the Q-Tip when I pulled it out, but also what looked a whole lot like a little strip of tissue, more white than yellow, which on closer examination appeared to be a tough little strip of tissue, like a quarter-to-half-inch-long strip of a drumhead. This freaked me out somewhat, since a lot of frustrating things have been happening to me lately – I’ve pissed off people I like, totally my fault, experiencing Internet problems, only partially my fault, and household items have been going haywire like the furnace or dishwasher etc so it’s totally possible this was just the next thing in a series. So I was all like, great, now I pierce my eardrum. Except, I was (as a child) at the eye-ear-nose-throat doctor with my father when *he* got *his* eardrum lanced (some ear infection) and he fucking passed out because it hurt so much; this thought cheered me somewhat, because this was only slightly unpleasant in comparison, so I’m thinking I didn’t actually poke through the eardrum. Plus, I was trying to test my hearing, plugging first one ear then the other, and there didn’t seem to be any difference, shitty hearing in both ears as always. So I don’t know what it was. Semi-hypochondriac that I am, I’m imagining that I tore off a thin strip of the drum, leaving just the thinnest of membranes over part of the drum, ready to burst at the first loud noise. I hope it was just some funny bit of stuff that fell into my ear somehow, or a skin left there by a molting earwig or something.
that was a strip of your own tissue – the lining of your outer (meaning: the parts you can see when you look in) ear sloughing off. sometimes you can get out a Hollywood makeup department-looking negative impression of the whole ear shape.
It sometimes hapens after an ear infection – is your hearing any better since it came out?
that was a strip of your own tissue – the lining of your outer (meaning: the parts you can see when you look in) ear sloughing off. sometimes you can get out a Hollywood makeup department-looking negative impression of the whole ear shape.
It sometimes hapens after an ear infection – is your hearing any better since it came out?
yes, but now everything echoes.
You are hereby on cotton swab restriction, young man.
You should use warm water or those OTC special ear wax remover liquids for cleaning your ear canal, not pokey things. Asian Bastard has a (really gruesome) story about finally using one of them there drugstore earwax dealies and how his hearing went from about 3 to 10 after using it. Which could be disturbing, like getting new contact lenses and being able to see all the grime all of a sudden.
But still. No poking.
Yes, I thought of AB at the time – I read that story a while back, and skipped lunch that day.
We have one of those drugstore earwax dealies at home, just look in the medicine cabinet honeybunch.
gah.
ear-stuff. ick.
but cotton swabs? at our house they are known by only ONE name: ear cleaners