It’s lunacy. Although I’m not a physician, I used to have an otoscope and could easily identify all the structures of the middle ear with no training. It would be God damn hard to miss a cotton bud end in there.
I had a mis-diagnosis by a physician, who said “your eardrum’s completely GONE.” A referral to a ENT specialist had him shaking his head and saying “What the deuce? There’s nothing wrong with your eardrum at all.” :rolleyes:
(I have burst both eardrums due to infections at some point, and recovered fully)
Actually, I am deaf in one ear. A Q-tip is not the problem, but I’m very cynical about the quality of the various ear doctors I’ve seen here in the US. They all have been dumbasses of one stripe or another.
And for several years I was able to get no health insurance, so I didn’t have access to any ear care, however crummy. That’s capitalist medicine for you. No money, no health.
“Yes, Mr… silenus? We got your results back, and it does show that your head appears to be lodged deeply in your rectum. The good news is we caught it early.”
I suck a carrot slice up my nose when I was little. Parents saw me and yelled at me to get it out, I couldn’t. Went to a doctor who examined and declared that it would have just been swallowed, nothing to worry about. A week later at the pool I get out and blow my nose into a kleenex supplied by my mother; low and behold, carrot slice.
Anybody remember the song that went, “My mommy said not to put beans in our ears, beans in our ears, beans in our ears”? It wasn’t on the radio long before the big hubbub from doctors and parents. :smack:
kambuckta’stale jibes with my info - my cousin is deaf in one ear, and my aunt tells us it is serious. He even gets a sign in the neighborhood so cars coming from his bad side don’t run him down. Evidently he is extremely lucky that it has not affected his learning much - the docs say that most kids with his condition are noticeably impaired at school. Maybe it’s different (easier) if you’re an adult, then lose hearing in one ear?
Hell, my hearing is perfect, yet I often can’t understand what people say to me when I’m not wearing my glasses!
(I have to admit, reading your post I was flashing on the scene in Futurama where the blind orphan is teasing Leela: “One-eye, One-eye, hahahahaha!”)
