Remember the old saying, “Don’t put anything in your ear except your elbow”? You can’t do it! In other words, don’t stick stuff in there – technically not even Q-tips. Although if you are really careful and don’t go in very far, they are usually OK.
Anyway, I had a guy who was using a Q-tip like that – but I guess was a little too enthusiastic about it. The cotton swab tip broke off and got stuck in his external ear canal. This is not the end of the world but he decided on an aggressive approach for its retrieval. He straightened out the a paper clip and JAMMED IT IN THERE to try and snare the cotton. You can see a bad ending here…..
Well, guess what? Laceration of ear canal and perforation of his tympanic membrane. Dude, follow what your momma told ya!!!!!!
My mother-in-law did the same thing & got lucky! She was so proud of herself as she told me the story of the q-tip breaking off and how she stuck crap in her ear to get it out. I reminded her of the whole “nothing in the ear” rule. Yeah…she’ll do it again.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly…
So are those injuries permanent, or can the damage be repaired? Just curious.
My ears are burning
We weren’t talking about you…
No, my ears are really burning. I lit a q-tip to see inside!
Yuk yuk yuk….