The first day of this year will remain an unforgettable experience for me about ear problem. I never knew that I would have anything to do with the ENT doctors on a new year's day. I had planned on celebrating the big day in my home with a variety of activities until the issue arose unexpectedly. If there is a sense organ most people take for granted, it's the ear.
Each of the five sense organs of the human body is vital and performs different functions. When any of the organs are affected, it poses discomfort to the general body, so there is a need to take precautionary measures instead of allowing things to go wrong at first. Let's talk about my experience with the sense organ of hearing, the ear.
The most common practice for both children and adults when we experience discomfort in the ear is to use any available sharp objects to clean the ear and get relieved of the discomfort. Most times, we even introduce microorganisms in the process, aside from the fact that putting a sharp object inside the ear is medically wrong. My uncle, a medical doctor, recently told me how many people have lost their sense of hearing due to some of these careless practices capable of affecting the eardrum.
I thought since I don't use a key, a stick, or even a broom, and what have you to toil with my ear but only a cotton bud, then I am getting things right. Have you ever heard that the use of a cotton bud inside the ear is medically wrong? I think I am outdated on this knowledge and the reason why packs of cotton buds don't go missing in my home. I ensure to buy the biggest pack at the supermarket, encouraging my kids and hubby to always use cotton bud to clean their ears instead of sharp objects, not knowing that the so-called cotton bud is actually wrong until the first day of this year.
My husband is always cleaning his ears with this cotton bud, almost every day, removing thick wax alongside. You know the brown dirt that comes out whenever you clean your ear with a cotton bud? It is called wax and was actually made by God to protect the ear from harmful microorganisms, but ignorantly, we clean it off regularly, thinking that we should clean dirts. As much as everyone practices ear cleaning using cotton buds in my home, my husband does that 💯 far more than everyone. I think it got to a point where he cleaned up the whole wax in his ear and then made the ear so vulnerable for infection that it hit him badly on a new year.
We were at the cross over night when he suddenly started feeling severe pain in the ear; it was as if he was going crazy. Even as the man he is, he couldn't bear the pain; he was crying like a baby, screaming on top of his voice. I was totally confused. I could feel his pain. We left the church immediately to go home at that midnight, and around 3 a.m., he said he couldn't wait till morning. The pain became unbearable. I tried viewing the ear, and what I saw were heaped white patches inside his ear. The whole thing blocked his ear, and he stopped hearing.
Somehow, we found our way to the Lagos State General Hospital, where an ENT doctor examined him and explained the situation to us. That was the day I knew that using a cotton bud to clean the ear was actually wrong, as it cleaned off the wax meant to prevent infection of the ear. They washed the ear several times using some mixtures I don't know, haha, and placed him on antibiotics and some ear drops, including injections. After some hours, he got relieved, and we went home.
Ever since that encounter, I have stopped buying cotton buds for the ear, not to mention cleaning my ears with them, no matter how uncomfortable I feel with my ear. The thing is that we may not understand how terrible an ear problem can be until we experience it firsthand, so why not observe preventive measures instead observing pain?
This is all about my experience with this particular sense organ. Let me know your own experience or thoughts in the comment section.
Thanks for reading♥️♥️♥️.