Catch my disease
18/01/2006
I can hear again!
Crystal clear hearing. I now hear stuff I have long forgotten, and will in time forget again as my brain rapidly filters all the unnecessary stuff in the background. But first, a detailed description of my very own cathartic experience.
So after 5 days or so of antibiotics, glycerine ear drops and decongestants, I went back to Raffles Medical to get my ear fixed. They couldn’t do it the previous visit because my ear was filled with fluid, most of which was me trying in vain to flush my ear myself.
This time, the doctor gave me a wry smile and said, Yes today we flush your ear. Ahhh music to my ears.
This doctor was another thing altogether. The one from the previous visit was probably my age, or slightly older. He was chirpy and a little chatty, which is unnerving since the doctors I’ve visited all my life were sullen old folk who made me take yukky green medication. The doctor dude was especially amused when I detailed how I tried to research my condition and find ways to fix it from Wikipedia.
The doctor who flushed my ear looked nothing like a doctor. He was middle aged, his hair thin and grey, and he had an old, worn smile. He looked more like one of those guys who man one of those stationery stores at Bras Basah Complex. It was hard to reconcile his very colloquial tone with what he asked and said to me. I kept imagining myself trying to buy a jotterbook and the uncle at the store was asking me how I felt.
Anyway, after a quick check of my ears he sent me out to wait while he gave instructions to this male nurse or technician dude. The dude was practically a kid, he must’ve been 20 or so. He brought me to one of the rooms at the A&E department, and dropped olive oil in my blocked ear. A minute or so later, the doctor came in, and the kid comes back with a large pan of warm water. The doctor holds up a large metal syringe – the size of which I’ve only seen one other time in my life, at the primary school dentist – and warns me that it could get messy. The kid clumsily tries to wrap a towel around my shoulders, and then holds another pan below and ear. And here we go.
First, warm water surrounds my outer ear. It’s somewhat comforting, it’s just the right temperature. It’s not hot, and it’s not cold. Then I hear something – the jet of water angrily hitting the back of my ear, it was loud, and it came crashing in. At first it sounded a little muffled, and then, suddenly, the sound got crisp again.
I hear the doctor’s voice in my right ear. Crisp, echo-ey and loud. Wah, quite a lot of dirt you had there. You see?
And he shoves the green pan the kid was holding in front of me. He was right. It was a lot of gunk floating in the water, and at the bottom of the pan lay the lump of dark hardened wax which made me feel so incapacitated for almost two weeks. It was gross to look at, yet all I felt was relief. I could hear again, and though there was nothing, I could still hear water running.
The doctor repeated the procedure in my left ear, and it wasn’t as dramatic. A piece of flat dry wax was flushed out, but that was mostly it.
And I could still hear the water running. I heard the water running for a good ten minutes, as I sat outside waiting to settle the bill. I could hear the reception ladies gossiping ten metres away. I could hear the women sitting near the reception ladies crumple her stupid plastic bag – it was so loud I wanted to go over and take it from her.
More importantly, I could hear the cashier call me. The last time I was there, she had to yell my name a couple of times before I heard her.
In any case, to celebrate getting my hearing back 100% I downloaded a new song off iTunes. 
it’s happy, and cute, and apt. Sorta.
