My ears have regressed to childhood

Sitrep: 1x Arms, 1x Cardio

My ears are hurting. Again. What am I, a little kid? Do I need tubes in my ears or what? Sigh. I probably should have gone back to the doc after finishing that last round of antibiotics, but was feeling fine. Could finally hear again, no pain, no pressure. Well, except for that day last week when I, uh, tried to use the Neil Med Sinus Rinse recommended to me by Cranky Otter.

Ideally, I can see how this would provide benefits. I read the instructions a few times; it's not that complicated. Had to wait for the boiled water to cool enough so I wouldn't scald the insides of my face. (Gee, there's a lovely thought!) I wasn't so thrilled about shooting a water/medicated solution up one nostril for it to come out the other, but okay, I was willing to give it a try. It's helped so many others...

Warning: The following might be TMI, so beware! :)

I neglected to think about one thing: coordination. I'm, uh, not exactly the most coordinated person. There's a reason I've been laughingly called "Grace". I can twist my ankle standing still, and am so used to bumping into walls, etc, that without the various bruises/scrapes to remind me, I'd never know it happened. The one time I tried water-skiing, I ended up with rope burns on top of bruises on the insides of my thighs.

Using the sinus rinse requires doing the following at the same time:

1) keep your mouth open
2) breathe
3) squeeze solution into your nostril
4) lean over sink
5) pay attention to how much you've squeezed into your nose

And, oh, yeah, don't swallow the solution.

Who'd've thought it'd be that difficult to do? I swear - cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye - that I snorted and hacked and made so many weird noises because I kept forgetting to breathe and then when I did breathe I'd start to swallow the stuff and then try to not swallow it, that the dog hid under the bed. And I mean under the bed in the middle where you can't reach her. (Normally her tail sticks out but not this time.) It was a half hour after I'd left the bathroom before she came back out to the living room. I'm not sure if she was scared of the noises, or just making sure I couldn't make her go next.

And then there was the unfortunate fact that I have a partially deviated septum. Meaning, at some point in time my nose was broken, per the ENT I saw in Florida. (Quack). I've never had a broken nose, so I musta been born with it. So the left side is smaller than the right. And my Eustachian tubes are small, so...I have ear problems. Well, I guess my E. tubes are just too small, or the one to the left ear (the one that had the worst of the ear infection) wasn't quite healed up yet. Because when I squeezed the solution up the left nostril, nothing came out the right. So I squeezed the bottle harder, thinking (can you believe I actually have a college degree?) that maybe nothing was getting into my nose. Riiiiight.

That's when I started to feel it pooling in my ear. For those of you that have never had fluid build up in your ears, let me just say it's not the most pleasant feeling. Not the worst, but not the best, either. And when it's all swooshing in there all at once...it's the freakiest sensation. It also feels a bit like what my BIL calls the "Oh-no" second. You've been there. It's like that second when the front door clicks shut behind you, right as you realize the keys are in the house. I looked at myself in the mirror, called myself a few choice names, and that was that for the Sinus Rinse. I took a double dose of Sudafed to get my ear to drain. I thought it had. Didn't bother me after a day or so.

But Wednesday of this week my right ear started hurting again. Just a little bit, just enough to wake me up at night and reach for the heating pad. (There's a reason the thing is always plugged in and hanging on the headboard.) It was fine when I got up. Same thing happened yesterday morning. I brushed it off to the change in the weather. I can usually feel when a front is moving through. Except now it's been hurting constantly since yesterday evening. And I've scheduled another visit to the doctor. Why does this only happen after they change health insurance plans and I now have a $500 deductible? It's gotta be one of Murphy's laws...

So this afternoon I'm off to the doctor. Yay. :( There goes another $80 down the drain. But at least I get to leave work a few hours early!