Wax On, Wax Off

Yesterday morning hubby and the two older boys went fishing with close friends of ours and their boys. The charter boat from Captree went out for fluke, but our family caught five sea bass instead (which we will eat tonight). Hubby was wiped out upon their return, which I attributed to the sun, lack of sleep, and rough conditions. This was more than merely that, though. After about an hour nap, he went in to shower, and then he went back to sleep. From 3:30PM until 6AM this morning. At that point he got up, said he still felt lousy, went over to the job site to give the keys to the crew, and came home to lie down again. Symptoms: fatigue, sweats and chills, ear pain, and stuffiness.

He was able to get in this morning to see our ENT (otorhinolaryngologist, if you like fancy words). It turns out that there was a lot of ear wax buried deep in the canal. Took two different methods (including suction) for the doctor to extract it all. There might be a bit of sinus activity that's causing the congestion, but the doc said that the wax could've caused the rest of the problems. Hubby asked whether overzealous cleaning could have pushed the wax into the canal -- doc said definitely.

I'm glad it's not the swine flu or anything, but I'm definitely going to be gentler now when using the cotton swabs. Yeesh. My friend L told me this morning that her daughter has an ear wax build up that causes trouble for her, and they go to their doctor every three months for cleaning. Funny, whenever I used to think of ear wax, it was because of Dumbledore's amusing comment towards the end of the first Harry Potter movie (about Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans). Nothing amusing about this, though...