Roaches (a rant and plea for help)

[msop04]

Are they going to crawl into my ears while I am sleeping? I saw a medical mystery show once where a roach went into a man's ear and the pain was so intense he stopped speaking. I don't know how long it took the ER docs to diagnose him but that episode just confirmed one of my worst fears.

I am a pharmacist in an urgent care clinic, so you can imagine the things we get to see... two weeks ago a lady came in with her head tilted and eyes squinted, clearly in a lot of pain. She said the she thought a bug was in her ear, because it hurt a lot, she was experiencing vertigo, and she could hear a loud, scratching sound!!!! She said it had been almost 3 days since her symptoms started. OMG. I about lost it right then and there when all of a sudden ---

SOMETHING FLEW OUT OF HER EAR!!! I kid you not, I witnessed this with my own eyes! She let out a breathy, "OH MY GOD!" and said she thought it just came out! We looked EVERYWHERE for that bug, but couldn't find it to save our lives! It was the weirdest thing ever. The lady scurried out quickly after, probably due to some mixture of embarrassment and relief. We really wish she'd stayed because the doc would've let us take a look into her ear while he assessed the damage.

True story.

 

[canuk-gal]

Are they going to crawl into my ears while I am sleeping? I saw a medical mystery show once where a roach went into a man's ear and the pain was so intense he stopped speaking. I don't know how long it took the ER docs to diagnose him but that episode just confirmed one of my worst fears.

I am a pharmacist in an urgent care clinic, so you can imagine the things we get to see... two weeks ago a lady came in with her head tilted and eyes squinted, clearly in a lot of pain. She said the she thought a bug was in her ear, because it hurt a lot, she was experiencing vertigo, and she could hear a loud, scratching sound!!!! She said it had been almost 3 days since her symptoms started. OMG. I about lost it right then and there when all of a sudden ---

SOMETHING FLEW OUT OF HER EAR!!! I kid you not, I witnessed this with my own eyes! She let out a breathy, "OH MY GOD!" and said she thought it just came out! We looked EVERYWHERE for that bug, but couldn't find it to save our lives! It was the weirdest thing ever. The lady scurried out quickly after, probably due to some mixture of embarrassment and relief. We really wish she'd stayed because the doc would've let us take a look into her ear while he assessed the damage.

True story.

It is probably the only time I watched TV--never mind a reality TV show--and I cannot forget my horror in seeing the outcome...and I had nothing like the patient's excuse!