eeewww!

So, I woke up on Tuesday morning with ear pain. Sounds weird, but the pain was worse when I yawned and since I'd also had a nightmare the night before, I was particularly sleepy, so I was yawning a lot. Anyway, I yawned all day and kept feeling this sharp pain in my ear. It was also making this weird squishy noise when I would touch it, kind of like water in your ear, but not exactly. One of the best parts of working in the hospital is Employee Health. Coming from someone who averages one sinus infection a month, it's really a perk to be able to run over and see a PA for free and get some meds. I had just been there last week, so I was a little embarrassed, but I headed that way fearing an infection.
The PA who saw me said everything looked really good, something was appropriately shiny, but he did say, I bet you have a black dog, don't you? No, I said, but my boyfriend's roommate has one. Why? Well, he said, because there is a black hair in your ear. (GROSS!) He was encouraged that it wasn't on my eardrum, but was perhaps rubbing up against it when I yawned or pressed on my ear, so we would need to remove it (yes, please!) So, the PA proceeded to wet a q-tip and shove it very deep into my ear (in my head I'm hearing my allergist who was very firm when she told me I should not stick anything larger than my elbow in my ear-of course something that size wouldn't help at all-but I have been trying to be careful). It took everything I had not to elbow him in the gut as he probed deep into my ear a few times unable to remove the pesky hair. Finally, he got it out enough to get the forceps and remove it fully and sure enough there was a hair just like the thousands that cover Gus the big black dog's body. My ear is still a little sore from the probing, but the yawning problem is gone. He told me about one man who had a cough for three months until they removed a hair from his ear. Can you say, eeewwww!