Ear Update

For those who didn't know, I ruptured my right ear drum (on July 3rd) from using my head to skip across the water after I flipped off of a tube while boating. . . . . It hurt really bad, but, I climbed back on the tube until I finally got bucked off again. And then, we headed for home. So, i had driven my Mustang to the reservoir, so I had to drive back. Everyone was wondering why I was so quiet . . . they thought it was because i was still shaken up about how scary my tubing experience had been, which it was, I screamed the entire time while on the tube, but, we wont mention that little fact to anyone: but, it was because of the pain. So, when we got home, I finally turned to my room mate and told her that something was seriously wrong with my ear, so, I walked over to my FHE Bro's house, rounded up the troops to give me a blessing, then my awesome room mate drove me to the community care clinic. the Physician looked in my LEFT ear, said "looks good" looked in the right ear and said 

"whoo! Big hole . . . big Hole! Yep, its definitely ruptured, here is your antibiotic prescription, take some ibuprofen, and come back in 10 days for a check up" and then I was outta there.

                                    

 I slept really well that night, got up @ 6 in the morning half deaf, put my uniform on, and worked a 14 hour shift in Idaho Falls. You would think on 4th of July you would get some pretty exciting stuff . . . Nope, 3 patients, one little new born that I wasn't even allowed to touch cause all we did was pick up a team of nurses to go get the baby. Then a fall, and I don't even remember the other one, that's how exciting it was. But, I got some pretty good barbecued from the fire station! But, no pain in the ear, Just deafness. Until, I went to vegas 9 days later. plane ride. Then, swimming in the pool . . . Big mistake . . . I forgot about my ear, and then it filled with yucky pool water and hurt for the rest of the time. Which, I had to work on the ambulance later that day, luckily, it was my last shift in Vegas. But, walking up and down the strip . . . Whoo! Ouchey! 

I don't think I wrote about Vegas . . . 

Our entire Medic class with two of our professors took a trip down to Vegas for a week; the week before school got out too, with 36 more tests to go until the semester ended. Wow! Talk about sprint to the finish when we got home! Anyway, We each took two 12-hour shifts and had completely different experiences. Most of us got positions lined up for our internships there for next year! It was a blast! I had 14 patients within the 24 hours of me running. 5 of which were clinically diagnosed with dementia! It was a pretty grand time . . . you should ask me about Mr. 'broken chain saw to the leg' man! He was CrAzY! Anyway, that's Vegas in a nutshell. It was so worth going!!! 

Okay, so, my right ear drum had been in the healing process for about 1 month before we went to Australia. On one of our dives (if you scroll down to Australia post you can see the entire story) I ruptured my left Ear Drum!!!! (on August 10th) And fluid rushed into it! I got vertigo, the same intense pain . . . blah, blah, ouch! Went to a doctor, he looked in my right one, said it was full of blood behind the tympanic membrane, looked in my left one . . . Big hole. So, that's how it went.

So, to give the status on my ears right now. 

• I have great hearing in both ears. 
• Zero pain when I stay at the same elevation. 
• Crackle when swallow for the past four years, and still crackle.
• Still have a tiny hole in my left one . . . air still passes out of it a bit when I equalize my ears, but, It doesn't squeal for everyone to hear like it used to. It is probably no bigger then the end of a pin right now.

But,  A couple more days, and it will be closed up for good, and then I can swim again, with my head under the water at least. I still go swimming though, don't tell my doctor, I just am an expert at keepin my ear dry in showers, rivers, and pools now. (As long as Amber isn't swimming with me and splashing me to death) I think I have done rather well.