Do You Hear What I Hear?

Things have been busy lately, as I'm sure they have for all of us. Instead of writing distinct posts, I'm going to bullet-list it tonight.

kids-ent.com

•  The Horror Story of My Ear

Yesterday I stuck a Q-Tip in my ear and experienced excruciating pain, but noticed no damage. I could still hear, there was no blood, and there was no pain. That evening, however, I noticed dried blood on my earlobe and followed the trail back into my ear. Suffice to say I was freaked out. I woke my husband from a dead sleep because THERE WAS BLOOD COMING FROM MY EAR. He was not amused. Following is an abridged transcript from the doctor's office:

Receptionist: "Hi! Are you Nichole?"
Me: "Yep, I have an appointment at two."
Receptionist: "Okay...I'm sorry I laughed at you on the phone."
Me: "It's okay, I'm laughing right now."

Doctor (looking in my ear): "Well....there's definitely blood. Oh! A lot of blood. I think you ruptured your ear drum."

After this, she sticks a strange ear-machine into my ear that hums, vibrates, and tells her important things about the pressure in my ear. Apparently the machine tells her my ear drum is not ruptured.

Me: "Well...where is the bleeding coming from?"
Doctor: "I don't know. Let's treat you like you have a lot of ear wax and rinse your ears out." 

Thus followed a strange experience in which a virtual stranger shot pressurized streams of water into my ear, sucked it back out (simultaneously! A miracle of technology.), and laughed while I attempted to maintain my equilibrium. Once cleared of blood, it was clear I had just scratched myself. !!!!!

• Apparently Tinnitus (Ringing in the Ears) Can Be Linked to Hypothyroidism

This is important to me because I have had ringing in my ears for awhile. Not debilitating ringing, just a kind of high pitched sound I only notice when it's very quiet. This article from the New York Times was posted by a Facebook friend; it just talks about tinnitus generally. Another article is just plain called "Your Thyroid Can Make Your Ears Ring!" and says: "Tinnitus is actually a common effect of thyroid dysfunction. A lot of people with this condition get a ringing in their ears." This was news to me.

• Men's Health Recently Wrote A Worm Article!

Remember when I had worms? Turns out I should have kept them. The blastocyst parasite was bad, but lots of people are thinking worms are GOOD! Something about having a colony of worms in your gut (no joke) can help people with autoimmune conditions. Read it here. Some remain unconvinced, but "the chief benefit, the proponents of helminthic therapy claim, is an optimized immune system—one that parasitic worms help train, exercise, and prevent from going haywire by way of a variety of dampening mechanisms and secreted compounds that researchers are just beginning to identify."

Ears, ringing, and worms, oh, my!