Been under the weather quite a bit lately. The original illness that overtook me at the end of December still has not been diagnosed nor have I received medication for it as they haven’t been able to figure out exactly what is causing the problem. That’s almost 6 months and a host of specialist visits and tests later.

Now, I have another problem that’s been bugging me. I went to my regular provider for a check-up, and he saw a mass of dried wax in my ear that had to be removed. His nurse had a little squirt gun and some warm water which they used to try to get it out but wound up impacting it. I was told to go home and use Debrox and a little bulb to squirt warm water in there to remove it.

My ear hurt like hell. I couldn’t hear a thing out of it. My follow up was scheduled for four weeks away. I called to talk to the doctor in the early morning and was told he would call back but he never did. I called and demanded a specialist as they are the only ones who have the little vacuum to use on your ears. Meanwhile, it seemed the pain was getting worse. I could feel it sliding down the side of my face to a spot at the back of my jaw. Infection was spreading.

After two weeks of intense and agonizing pain, I finally got to see a specialist. He removed most of the impacted wax but couldn’t get it all. I’m still in some pain but not as much. He also confirmed that I had an infection. I am going to put a special antibiotic loaded preparation in my ear for a week then he will take another shot at it. The co-pay on this weeks’ worth of medicine is $75. I was told there was only the brand name and that the insurance company had paid over half of the cost.

So, what does it tell us when it takes six months to see all the doctors one needs to see to figure out what’s wrong with them? What does it tell us when one has to live in excruciating pain for two whole weeks before they can get seen for this painful problem?

Maybe next time I should not figure out which doctor to go see, but see the witch doctor instead.