Posted on 05/04/2018 6:55:55 PM PDT by EdnaMode
Last year, my husband and I purchased our first house. Lucky for us new homeowners, the house needed minimal work.
[snip]
Last month, in the middle of the night, I woke up startled. It felt like someone had placed a chip of ice in my left earhole—but it was something way worse.
I shot up out of bed, disoriented, and stumbled to the bathroom. I could feel that my ear was not right. I grabbed a cotton swab and gently inserted it into my ear to see what was up and I felt something move.
When I pulled the cotton swab out, there were two dark brown, skinny pieces stuck to the tip. Moments later, I came to the realization that they were legs. LEGS. Legs that could only belong to an adventurous palmetto bug exploring my ear canal.
I started to hyperventilate, and my husband searched furiously for his glasses and joined me in the bathroom. He looked into my ear and confirmed that there was a roach trying to burrow its way to my brain. (OK, I know the ear canal isn’t a hop, skip, and a jump away from the brain, but that’s immediately where my mind went.)
In that moment, my husband was my only hope. He grabbed a pair of tweezers, located the thickest part of the roach that was visible (I KNOW) and tried to very delicately extract it. (For what it’s worth, my husband is a professional percussionist, and all of his hand movements are very precise.)
Unfortunately, he only managed to pull two of its spiky legs off. At that point, it was clear I needed to go to the ER.
(Excerpt) Read more at self.com ...
“Am I the only one who is wondering why clickbait is being posted on FreeRepublic?”
Yes. This article was hysterically funny.
Our family doc told me a story about when his brother was a toddler. They were at their lake cabin and his brother kept getting out of bed, crying. Finally their dad gave him a swat on the rear and a bat flew out of his diaper.
Our creepy crawlies are just bigger.
In your ear?
I mean, I know they just legalized marijuana, but, even though I've never tried it, even *I* feel confident enough to tell you you're doing it wrong.
That’s the best story I have ever read in SELF magazine.
Okay, it’s the only one, but It was good.
Scew Hugh Jackman, I want to ind out what Montalban's workout regimen was!
One word: nostrils. Sweet dreams.
My dad used to use vaseline. When the tick came off, we used to put it into an ashtray with 91% rubbing alcohol and roast it.
Well, we did, until the dog discovered it loved the taste of freshly removed ticks...same dog that chewed up a flashlight battery while it was teething.
<GRIN> So I noticed -- when I followed the link... <blush...>
Funny?? I was following a tragedy. Plus look at all the contingency plans. I thought of another way to pull the bug out. Have someone blow pot smoke in your ear and lure it out with a Cheetos then hit it with a bong.
I just HAD to check FR right before bedtime.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news...my sister up in Northern Iowa woke up one morning with a similar problem. A bug (I think it was a boxelder bug) had crawled into her ear...yuck!
What a horrid story. I believe I’ll have nightmares tonight over that one.
I was thinking of that particular NIGHT GALLERY episode when I read this!
Lawrence Harvey was excellent in that.
According to the link, he was fighting Stomach Cancer at the time (he died the next year), and he stopped taking his Pain Meds for the scenes where he was writhing in pain more realistic. THAT was a Man dedicated to his Craft.
Anyone who didn’t wince watching that Episode and then checking their Pillow before going to Bed is tougher than me. LOL
The stupidity of this post is amazing.
Yes insect on rare occasions crawl into the ear canal. The solution is very simple. Flood the ear canal with olive oil or the kitchen oil of your choice. The insect will die quickly. Pick the insect out with tweezers and then flush the ear canal. Olive oil or other oil is free as you have it in your kitchen, tweezers free if you have them about two bucks in the store. An ear wash bulb if necessary about three bucks. Flush the ear with saline which is also free, just put a bit of salt in water and use that. If you are really picky buy saline wash for about 3 bucks at the drug store. Total cost less than 7 dollars.
Cost to go to the ER about 500 dollars.
I went through similar this week except it was a bug that flew in my ear last Sunday while I was riding my bicycle at night. The buzzing of its wings nearly drove me insane with panic trying to get it out, very nearly causing me to wreck my bike.. A passing rider stopped to help and blew cigarette smoke in my ear claiming it would make the bug fly out. It worked as the buzzing stopped and I continued my ride happy that the bug vacated my ear.
Happy until I woke up during the night with more buzzing. My poor husband was abruptly woken up with panic due to a bug in my ear. He left for Walmart in the middle of the night to return with an ear syringe, H2O2, ear cleaning kit, and minced garlic as Walmart did not carry garlic oil as I requested.
He flushed my ear with the H2O2 that stopped the buzzing, but nothing came out. He then flushed and flushed, still nothing. Ear cleaning kit yielded nothing. With all the flushing and digging, we decided that the bug went down the drain and we just didn’t see it. We smashed and strained the minced garlic to get some oil, put it my ear and sealed it with a cotton ball to prevent infection and went back to bed; although I had a nightmare about driving off a cliff and falling to the bottom of a lake and my seatbelt would not come undone causing me to drown due to the plugged ear. Fun night.
Today I went to the doc with a terrible earache. Yep. Dead bug inside ear along with infection. Doc got it out and now on antibiotic drops. No insurance thanks to King Zero, causing me to spend a pretty penny over a bug.
I understand the panic and ;horror the woman went through except I probably would have had a heart attack if it had been a roach. Mine was only a little “love bug” according to my doc.
Lesson learned. Ear buds for me while on my bicycle. Keep REAL garlic oil on hand for emergencies. Not the crap in the minced garlic jar.
Like our crazy Siamese that ate all the rubber doorstops tips off in a fair sized house.
And ate the mouthpieces on our scuba regulators, which we found out about almost too late when going diving. Crazy cat loved to chew rubber.
Who was grateful, the rascal? :-)
The black guy always dies.
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