Bug in the ear saga: Day 36

This isn't my ear, but the beetle in this video is very similar in size and type of what crawled into my ear 36 days ago.  This beetle wasn't too hard to get out, mine was.

Over five weeks ago, I went to the hospital emergency department and told them a bug had crawled into my ear in the night before.  It was a five hour visit, the doctor got called away to more urgent calls, which is understandable.  He used a big plastic tube with a beveled edge to try and get the bug out.  It was dead.  When the thing crawled into my ear, and I realized it didn't plan on coming out, I poured some peroxide in my ear.  The thing went berserk, and it felt like I had a tiny Tasmanian devil like the cartoon one) in there.  The little guy (or gal) got its little legs going, bounced around, then tried to dig into my ear drum.  I grabbed a bottle of water, and filled my ear up two or three times, and the little bugger finally stopped moving.

So the doctor, five weeks ago, tried to flush and core it out, and managed to scrape or gouge the inside of my ear canal in the process.  I left thinking the bug was gone, and the prescription for antibiotics would take care of the infection.  After a few days, my ear canal felt totally inflamed and sore, so I went back.  While the antibiotics were working on the main infection, the scrape inside my ear canal got a second, bacterial infection.  It's called Swimmer's Ear, which is a horrible name, since it feels nothing like just having a bit of water in your ear, as the name implies.  They gave me some ear drops, and that started working on the ear canal infection.

This whole time, I was about 90% deaf in my left ear, which is a drag, as you would imagine.  I took the full course of antibiotics, and that took care if the infection in my head.  I kept using the ear drops for several more days, and that killed off the swimmer's ear infection, which basically filled my ear with goop, which then dried into a yellowish crust.  Then I started cleaning my ear out, bit by bit, day by day, getting the scab and dried goop out.

I figured  that once I got my ear canal all cleaned out, my hearing would come back.  Instead, I found that the bug, or at least a good chunk of it, was still lodged up against my ear drum.  So I cleaned it out with peroxide and a straightened out paper clip, very carefully.  A couple small pieces of the bug's shell came out, but the big chunk was still stuck.  I couldn't get it to budge.

In the meantime, I got a bill for over $500 for the ED trip that didn't even get the whole bug out.  Yesterday, I went to another emergency department, and some very dedicated nurses and a doctor spent a couple hours trying everything they could think of to get the last half of the beetle out.  They were about to give up, when it finally flushed out.  It was a freaky experience all around, and I don't recommend trying it.  To be on the safe side, the doctor prescribed more ear drops.  I thanked the team, and was stoked that my hearing finally started to return.

I went to my mom's pharmacy to get the ear drops, only to find they cost over $200 since I don't have insurance.  The pharmacist was able to find an alternative, got it OK'd by the ED doctor, and I'm finally healing from the trouble one little beetle managed to cause me.  I wanted to keep the bug, but didn't get the chance since it came out in tiny pieces.

So... that was interesting...