Don't Put Screwdrivers In Your Ear!

 Don't Put Screwdrivers In Your Ear!

This may seem obvious to most people. 
A few times with my bad students I was tempted to get a screwdriver and try it.

Anyways...

You know that saying you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Perhaps, I should rephrase it to “Dumb people are dumb”. In this case it applies to me (most of my stories should be called this).

I started to enjoying cleaning out my ears in Japan. Although I’ve always enjoyed cleaning out my ears with kleenex in Canada, I’ve never been a fan of cotton swabs aka Q-tips. Doesn’t get deep enough and I find myself scratching till the white end is a mix of wax and blood.That’s attractive.
Kleenex on the other hand is delightful. First off, you can roll it into a little round point and probe deep into your skull or to be exact, deep inside your ear in this case. I think that’s a play on words, skull deep as in ear in your skull, plus I used the word case in a different meaning, which could also be a skull. I should be a poet. OK, moving on....

I love the feeling of that soft pillowy freshness going in and cleaning the wax out to my heart’s content.

Oh yes, that kleenex feels good. I would suggest trying it but finish the blog story first.

While living in Japan as a student, I lived with a host family. They found it quite funny that I was into the dollar store (Daiso in Japan) so much. I think due to that, they may have bought me dollar store kleenex. Either that, or it was some crappy Japanese brand, which fell apart as it was being rubbed. At first I was using a Japanese ear cleaner, a hard wooden scraper, but I was tempted to push it in so deep and scratch so much my ears were bleeding inside.

Try that in your ear and see how it feels. I never tried the fluffy end, that seemed "weird" to me. Kleenex is better.

As I was using the Japanese kleenex rolled up into a round shape I felt half of it rip off.
UH OH!
I couldn’t reach it with my fingertips and I couldn’t seem to get it out.
I hoped it might come out if I tilted my head to one side. I banged my head with the other hand as if it was a liquid to get some movement but no dice, just a little brain damage.
It occurred to me that I was an idiot for losing a rolled up piece of kleenex in my ear. To top it off this was not the first time I had lost something in my ear.
I could hear the kleenex pushing deeper inside my ear canal as I tried to reach it. It felt like it was pushing against my eardrum. That’s nice, it was like someone was rolling up a piece of paper inside my eardrum. Then pushing against my eardrum with a pencil, oh fun.
Being the cheap person I am, I didn’t want to go to the doctor. The doctor is very expensive in Japan and I thought it might come out naturally, big mistake there. I just came across an article on the internet when I was looking for a picture for this blogpost and it said “Sometimes little children put things in their ears, bugs, pebbles, dirt. It’s important to have any foreign object removed immediately”.
I informed my host mother I had lost something inside my ear and that I wasn’t going to the doctor. She was not impressed.
My next genius idea was to spray as much water in it as I could. I thought in theory, this should make it all soft and then it was flush out. That didn’t work. As it dried and perhaps started to become harder like papermache, I could hear it drying inside my ear. The sound was magnified x 100.
If I slept on my side I could hear the ocean as the water sloshed back and forth on the kleenex which at that point must have started to be covered in wax.
A week went by. My Japanese listening test scores started to drop. The Japanese teacher asked why. I told her it felt like my one ear was oozing with sweat every time I put the headphones on and I couldn’t hear well. She told me I should go to the doctor. I let her know that I had no intention of going to the doctor regardless of how painful or irritating it got, I had money to save.
I’m good with my money as you can tell, regardless of long term health damage ;-)  .
She told me that she believed a doctor was coming in two more weeks that usually sees students who have monetary issues and there was no charge. I told her that sounded good and got myself signed up. I tried to explain the problem in Japanese. Does it hurt they asked? Well, feels like something is pushing on my eardrum so yes, on top of that I hear weird sounds of the kleenex changing shape and sometimes I can’t hear regular sounds well.
They again suggested I go immediately to the doctor, but I declined.

I waited two weeks. I received a phone call during a Japanese history test to come see the on-site doctor. I informed the teacher I needed to do something and I didn’t know when I’d be back. He said OK.
I went to the Universities head office. I had never been there before. A female doctor asked me what ear. I pointed. She pulled out a huge long metal tong and slowly put it in my ear. I felt some relief as something was plucked from inside my ear. She had heard the story from the staff that I had waited 3 weeks. I assume she thought I was a total idiot because she told me she would give it to me. Most people would just throw it out I thought.
She showed it to me and it was amazing! It was essential an earwax candle. There was a wick in the middle made of hard kleenex / papermache and then on top of that my body had repeatedly created wax to protect me from it. I thought it was pretty cool.
I went back to class during the test carrying it. One of the Hawaiian guys asked how it went.
“Good dude, I have an earwax candle, wanna see?”. I showed it to him and a few other students looked up, they were horrified. “GROSS! THROW IT OUT!”, they yelled. I wish I had kept it, but I threw it out. Perhaps I could have marketed the thing as 100% natural wax.  
Sadly, that wasn’t the first time I had lost something in my ear.
While clubbing in Canada I had put some massive pink earplugs in to save my ears from the loud music. My friends told me it wasn’t cool so the next time I put these round wax skin colour balls in my ears. My friends said it was still visible so I ripped off more and more wax till it just so tiny it just covered my ear hole. Unfortunately it was so small, one of them went inside my ear canal and I couldn’t get it out. My friend suggested I just drink it off.
It didn’t work. The next day as I lay hungover my mother tried to get the ball out with a needle. I hoped she wouldn’t pierce my ear drum.
After a few days I went to the doctor. Medical is free in Canada, oh ya! Even for stupid people.
The doctor used a high pressure water gun to blast it out of my ear. It felt kind of nice, like cleaning the inside out with a kleenex, I contemplated asking for another go with it.
I finally got it out. He told me that was dumb and you should never stick anything bigger than an elbow in your ear.
I agreed with him and promised him I wouldn’t do it ever again.
Then the Japan story happened.

The worst part. It probably won’t be the last time I lose something in my ear.

If you found anything above amusing or even slightly funny help me out and click one of those boxes above or give me a Google +1 or something. Might come in handy in the future. If only it could make me some money. That would be even nicer!

My Youtube Channel, wearing red tights and jumping around as Deadpool (but I say Dadpool to avoid copyright. Smarter than I look!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUXxArlapy0

Other funny stories from this blog 
http://memoirsgaijin.blogspot.ca/

My blog about everyday life (not Japan related)
http://eyethroughtheglass.blogspot.ca/


My Youtube Channel (makes no sense just like my blog)
http://www.youtube.com/user/judoka4eva