Saturday, July 31, 2010

Dealing with an Ear Infection at 39 years old.

It really boggles my mind that me, an adult, battles every few years with ear infections.  I have no clue as to why or how I keep getting them.  I have even taken precautions so I don't get them and yet here I am dealing and battling with one. 
I have has this stupid infection since Tuesday.  I have drugged myself silly with alternating between Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen to battle both the pain and the swelling.  My poor hubby has been nursing me with occasional pouring of the hydrogen peroxide to kill any infection inside the ear and has been wiping out the disgusting ooze that has been leaking for the last few days.  He even took my place on Wednesday and cleaned for me at the condo association. 
I think I may need to go to the hospital tomorrow though.  I know I need antibiotics to get rid of it but to tell you the truth it really isn't all that pain full anymore and the swelling has gone down significantly but the ooze is driving me nuts and well the only way it is really going to go away is with antibiotics.  I don't have health insurance so the ER is the only route for me at this moment.  Hopefully I won't be there for hours upon hours.  It's the only reason why I hesitated in the first place.  Believe me though if my kids or Chris were in my situation, my ass would be kicking their butts to the car to drive them right off the bat, but when it's me, I could really care less. 
The last time I personally went to the ER was when they admitted me for the Quasimodo sized lump in my throat.  I didn't have to wait that long, in fact I don't think I even waited five minutes to be rushed to the actual waiting area. Katie was with me because there was no one available to take her right away so she got to see them hooking me up to all the monitors and inserting the IV. She was so interested in all that they were doing and asking questions and they were so polite and told her the whys and hows of everything that they were doing.  By the time my parents showed up, she was the one that told them what they were going to do to me next.  Smart Cookie that one!   I remember for awhile after my family left some dumbass doctor was looking all over the ER for his cell phone.  He kept insisting that he knew he had brought it with him and how he had just bought the damn thing and the nurses were teasing him about maybe dropping it while in the bathroom and did he have insurance on it and he just got very frustrated and testy and told them that he didn't get the iphone warranty because he has never had the need for it before and was very careful with his things.  I thought for sure I would be hearing about how they found it in the toilet or a wash basin (which would have made me laugh because he was just driving me crazy with his frantic searching) turns out that he left it home because his wife came in with it with a HUGE smirk on her face.  And that is when  the real teasing began for him.  Apparently the nurses and some of the doctors to that to him a lot because it affects him the most.  I was glad that he wasn't my doctor that day.  I probably would have been sent home with the diagnosis of having the Mumps.

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