I think the above is pretty self-explanatory about my morning.

1. I was teaching a class online, and the earpiece of my phone kept falling out. I was focused, so I kept pushing it back in, each time a little more assertively. When the class was over, I looked at my earpiece. It was broken! When did it break? THAT’s why it kept falling out of my ear! After playing with it a bit, I realized the rubber cap that covers the hard plastic earbud was missing. Where had it gone?
2. After looking around my desk and on the floor, I realized that it was in my ear. I could feel something, very faintly, in there. It didn’t hurt, but I could feel it. I asked Greg to take a look. He didn’t see anything. Had to get a small flashlight. When he was finally able to see it, he said it was jammed pretty far into my ear canal. Oops! Klutz strikes again! I definitely felt like a toddler who’d shoved something up her nose, though in this case it was my ear.
3. Greg lovingly got out the tweezers and agreed to try to pull it out. Each time he’d get hold of it, the little rubber thingamajig would push against my ear drum or something inside there, and it hurt like the dickens. It began to feel like I had an ELEPHANT stuck in my ear! After a few more tries at getting the rubber piece out, I was near tears it hurt so bad. What to do?

Our doctor wasn’t in yet; this happened prior to his office hours. A trip to the emergency room would be costly, and rather silly. I felt like a three year old, with a toy stuck in my ear. It was embarrassing. And I kept giggling; this all felt so silly.

What about Dr. Simi, the doctor in the pharmacy? Yes! We took a drive down the street and, through the beauty of medicine here in Mexico, we waited ten minutes while the doctor helped two people ahead of us in line.

I embarrassedly told the doctor what had happened. She took a look with her little lighted scope. She closed her eyes to think. She had me lie on my side and filled my ear with oxegenated water, hoping the rubber would float to the top, closer to the exit of my ear canal. No such luck; the darned thing was wedged in there. The water did soothe the pain a bit though. And we sure did have fun laughing about it all.

Finally, she took a long hook-like tool, and turned the rubber thingy around in my ear canal to get a better grasp. She was very, very gentle, but MAN did that hurt! Darned elephant! She grabbed the ear bud cap with a long tweezer-like tool, I winced audibly, and then she stopped. She didn’t want to hurt me. She wasn’t sure what to do. I begged her to yank it out, she obliged, and oilá. I was free! The elephant was out of my ear canal!

The whole operation cost 40 pesos. It took all of 25 minutes round trip from home to the doctor and back.

God bless Mexico. One more reason I love it here. No paperwork. Not even a signature. The doctor gave me a prescription for some ear drops, as she said it was a bit swollen in there.

You bet I’ll be more careful with those ear buds from now on! Please do the same. 😉