eh?

I have not been able to hear in my left ear for 5 days now.

As you know, I have been battling allergies for awhile and I blow my nose constantly. I guess my ear had just about enough of it and one day in mid-nose-blow, it closed up.

Dangnabbit.

I thought it would open up the next day, but it didn't. I started taking sudafed and ibuprofen to see if that would help. I would wear a warm washcloth on my ear to hopefully open it with steam. Nothing was working.

In the meantime, I've been having to ask everybody what they're saying. I'm like George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life. ("Could you speak into my good ear? It sounded like you said, 'No charge'.")

"Hey Sarah! How are ya doing?"

"Eh?" -me

"Hey Sarah, do we have college group this week?"

"Eh?"

"Sarah, how are those allergies treatin' you?"

"Eh?"

I finally couldn't take it anymore and went into the doctor's yesterday. I wanted to make sure it wasn't an ear infection. My doctor was booked, but they placed me with a new guy. He was a short, balding, grey mustached man probably in his late 50's. He looked in my ear and said, "Ahhh, let me tell you what's going on."

The eustachian tube (behind my ear drum, it connects the middle ear to the throat) is closed. Probably the pressure of so much nose blowing did it. So, to help open it up again, the doctor prescribed:

1) suck on hard candies and chew gum
2) drink hot liquids
3) keep taking sudafed
4) continue using my nasal spray
5) lie on a pillow, with my left ear UP

"Now Sarah, you're probably thinking you'd want to lay on your side with your left ear down, so fluid can drain out of the the ear. But I actually want you to lay on your side with your left ear UP, so it drains down through the eustachian tube and into the throat. I know it sounds ass-backwards."

"Eh?"

Are doctors allowed to cuss with new patients?