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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be shocked at what came out of my ear?

86 replies

pinkstinks · 23/06/2013 00:13

I have been deaf in one ear for about a week and a half, this has been a bit frightening and odd.

The night it happened I cleaned my ears and had a shower, I was washing my hair and the water went in but it wouldn't come out. I tried everything google suggested and then had to sleep, Apparently sometimes it clears overnight. It didn't and I felt all weird for the next few days. Then it started to get a little better until I went to the gym, had a shower and the same thing happened again!

Again it was horrible but then improved a little over the next few days until Friday, wen I had an itch in my ear at work scratched inside and out came the cotton from the cotton bud!!! Bloody hell it had been in there over a week.

Aibu for buying cheap ear cleaners from pound land? I think the answer is yes, however wibu to complain?
I'm quite shaken up although it was amazing when it came out and I could hear again!

OP posts:
pjmama · 23/06/2013 00:15

YABU for putting cotton buds in your ears - daft trick.

IneedAsockamnesty · 23/06/2013 00:16

Yabu for putting anything smaller than your elbow in your ear, stop it its not sensible

puds11isNAUGHTYnotNAICE · 23/06/2013 00:17

You have to be really careful with cotton buds.

JollyGolightly · 23/06/2013 00:17

YABU. Nothing smaller than an elbow should be put in your ear, according to my DofE first aid training.

attheendoftheday · 23/06/2013 00:19

Don't clean with cotton buds, they push wax further down the ear canal and can damage your ears.

You don't need to clean the internal part of your ear at all, it's self cleaning.

dickiedavisthunderthighs · 23/06/2013 00:19

Bloody nora, so you relied on what Google told you rather than what your brain told you which presumably was to go to the doctor?

HoppinMad · 23/06/2013 00:20

Yabu - it isn't recommended to stick cotton buds in your ears iirc it pushes the wax further and can cause damage to eardrum etc?

By the way did you not notice the bare stick whilst cleaning, that the cotton bit had disappeared off it Confused

apostropheuse · 23/06/2013 00:20

Nothing should be put in your ears - other than your own elbows, as others have said.

Your ears are self-cleaning. Wipe around the edges, but leave your orifices alone!

DeepPurple · 23/06/2013 00:20

How did you not notice that the cotton had come off? Shock

FuckNugget · 23/06/2013 00:21

I thought this might be a spoken thread for a moment with a compacted earwax extraction Grin.

But I agree with PPs, don't put cotton buds in your ear.

FuckNugget · 23/06/2013 00:22

Spoken = sporner

pinkstinks · 23/06/2013 00:23

Don't worry nothing else is going in there! I didn't realise the cotton had got in, I thought it was just water, hence googling all sorts of swimmers ear things where the vast majority of advice was it would sort itself out. It was only when it came out I put two and two together, I noticed the bud was misshapen but I think only half of it ended up in my ear. I didn't think anything of it, apparently you shouldn't clean your ears before a shower anyway! Who knew!

OP posts:
ScrambledSmegs · 23/06/2013 00:23

Cotton buds aren't advised for cleaning your inner ear. Just the outer area.

ncforembarrassingproblem · 23/06/2013 00:24

I went to nurse once for an ear syringe as I was deaf in one side, she took one look and said there was a growth in my ear and she'd call the doc. She said she'd gently syringe first. Seconds later a rotting, dark brown piece of cotton popped out. She was horrified - but I genuinely didn't know it was there. She reckoned it had been there for a couple of weeks or so.. Nasty!

HoppinMad · 23/06/2013 00:27

Have to add, there's nothing more satisfying than grabbing a cotton bud and sticking it in to get rid of a terrible itch. Have to resist the urge since I found out the harm they can cause Sad

MadBusLady · 23/06/2013 00:31

Oh dear how far is too far? the outer ear is just basically rhe ear, right? So if I clean around the edges of the hole bit is that ok?

MadBusLady · 23/06/2013 00:32

I have been known to use hairpins Blush somebody tell me off

Raum · 23/06/2013 00:38

If you think you have a blockage use some thing like otex rather than a cotton bud

ncforembarrassingproblem · 23/06/2013 00:38

I've used hair pins, needles/dressmaking pins, and a bent paper clip..

pinkstinks · 23/06/2013 00:39

Hairpins?! :o

OP posts:
pinkstinks · 23/06/2013 00:39

That was supposed to be a shocked face!

OP posts:
squoosh · 23/06/2013 01:02

I know you're not supposed to, but cotton buds in an itchy ear is orgasmically pleasurable.

NoEyedDeer · 23/06/2013 01:05

How disappointing - I thought it was going to be a worm, or a sock or something

MadBusLady · 23/06/2013 01:10

String of flags? Or Flowers?

apostropheuse · 23/06/2013 01:13

I actually had to go to A & E one time to have a piece of a headset removed from my ear. The soft plastic thing from the headsets that go into your ear. It was such a relief when the doctor took it out. The lovely doctor told me it was quite common - but normally the patients were about twelve. I was about forty eight at the time.

Embarrassed.com Grin

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