Evil Q-Tips

I posted this on my Sorority Webpage and they said I should add this to my blog to remember:


Beware of the evil Q-tip overusage. I have had a weekend that was pure hell all because of my overusage of Q-tips. First, I've had 6 ear infections in the 6 months that I have been pregnant. My Ob told me I had to see and ENT to see what was going on. So last week, my 6th ear infection reared its ugly head and I got in to see the ENT on Thursday. He said that the ear drum was ok but the middle ear canal was really inflammed in both ears (basically it was swimmers' ear) and gave me some drops to put in. Great, no biggie, I can deal with drops. Friday morning, Brooks puts the drops in my left ear only. Friday afternoon the left side of my face near the ear went numb. Hmm.. By that night I was in tears with the shooting pain going on in my ear. I called the ENT on call at 1 a.m. crying and he said that there was nothing he could do because I had the ear drops and I had pain meds. Great. So at 6 a.m. I got up and couldn't take the pain and made my mom take me to the ER. (Brooks had been up all night with me and he needed to sleep). Off we go. I must say that it is nice being pregnant and going to the ER. It seems like the wait time is nothing compared to being not pregnant. Anywho, by this time I am in a full blown boo-hoo session and the poor ER doc has no clue what to do because my ear canal is closing up. He called the ENT on call and the same doc must have answered cause he told him there was nothing he could do for me. So the ER doc gave me a shot in the butt for pain and sent me on my merry little way. Not even an hour later, something popped in my ear and then blood started dripping out of my ear. I am totally freaking out. Again, my mom called the ENT on call and he said to just let it drain out. I am just pissed at this point. Thank God they gave me some meds to make me sleep. When I woke up, my ear canal was completely closed. My mom was so sweet and tried to help me but nothing made me feel better. So I am up and down all night just praying God would take me or something cause I really thought i was going to die from the pain. So Sunday afternoon, I told my mom to take me to Madison Urgent Care because I couldn't take it. We go and when I get there I had to go potty and looked down and there was a faint red tint to the toilet paper. I told the registration lady that I wanted Hayden to be checked out. The nurse came out and told me that I needed to go over to Women's and Children's hospital because they had nothing to check the baby and she thought it was wise to go. So we met Brooks and off we went to the hospital. I got naseauous on the way and was in a clammy sweat. They took me back and did a urine test and I had a really bad UTI infection. The nurse came into start my IV and I was really dehydrated. It took her 3 sticks to get a vain. Then she looked at my ear and about puked. Its bad when a nurse or a doctor bring in their collegues to look at your ear cause no one's seen anything like that before. I stayed for the 23 hr observation and they kept me in the labor/delivery room until morning watching for contractions. Which didn't happen. Then they took me to the antepartum rooms. The best part is that my OB could not get a hold of the ENT on call and get them to come over and do a consult. Evidentally, they need special tools and they only had the tools to look at my ear in their office. So, I had to check myself out for a few hours and have my husband wheel my a** over to their office for a consult. Once we got there, I'm a nervous wreck because I know he is gonna hurt me. He had to put a little vaccum in my ear to even have hole to look through in the ear canal then he put a wick in my ear to hold the canal open so the drops would go down. The right ear hurts but it is nothing like the left ear. Brooks being the inquisitive one, asks what caused it and he said the overusage of Q-Tips. I was a habitual user of Q-tips. I cleaned my ears out every time I went potty at home. It was just a weird habit. He said that Q-Tips remove the oil from the ear canal and cause it to be inflammed. So, since Saturday, I have not been able to hear out of my left ear at all. I will never take hearing for granted ever again. I had to go this morning to get the wick taken out (otherwise, I would have gone into toxic shock like with the tampons, per the doctor) and I still can't hear. There is still fresh blood in my ear but we won't know anything more for 10 days. Oh, the best part, I know have thrush in my mouth from the anti-biotics. Yeah. Lucky me. The worst part was I could not eat from Saturday til Tuesday because everything was swollen. Hayden did not like that at all. I was really worried about him but he is doing fine. I'm measuring 28 wks but I am really 25wks on Friday. Not sure what that means. The moral of the story, don't use Q-tips. Thank God for Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal insurance or I would be screwed. I am curious if they will put overusage of Q-tips as my diagnosis and turn it into the insurance. That would be priceless.