I spent the last 4 days deaf in my right ear and limited hearing in my left. Scared the living begeejus out of me. I mean, I've always had super human hearing. Years ago when I'd go in for my aviation physical, the doctor would joke that he loved to see me come in because I calibrated his machine, hearing tones that very few could. Of course, age has taken it's toll, but still, I have pretty darn good hearing for a 60 y/o, even with a case of tinitis.
I had noticed that my hearing was not as good lately and I hadn't cleaned my ears in a bit, so, I dropped a few drops of mineral oil into my ear. Wham, no hearing. Okay, okay, that was what a doctor had told me to do, what the heck just happened?! Maybe there was a bug in there and it just ran up into the canal and blocked it?? Yeah, doesn't explain the other ear.
So, long story short, called RN friend. I have been doing a lot of listening to audio books of late and I prefer what are called IEM's, they're the ear buds that go into the canal and seal. Turns out they heat the canal, causing the ear wax to melt and then the ear buds block the canal so the ear wax can't get out. When I put the mineral oil in, it did what it should, softened the wax, but because there was so much of it, the wax just sealed off the canal. No hearing in one ear and limited in the other.
RN friend tells me to not panic, put mineral oil in canal twice a day to soften wax for 5 days, then flush ear canal with body temp water, should take care of it. 5 days with no hearing, this is going to drive me nuts. Today was day three, had to try the water flush. OMG, you would not believe how much wax came out! Any way, I can hear out of the right ear now and I'll start on the left tomorrow. No way I was doing the left until I knew for sure it would work.
Switching to head phones from here on, nothing going inside my ears!!
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