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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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:
HairyWorm · 23/06/2013 01:14

OMG i love cleaning my ears with buds. I know I shouldn't but it's just soooo lovely. I rarely do it as I never buy cotton buds, but I've started thinking about it now and for some reason I've actually got some buds in the house..... DH is out and no one will ever know....

TeamEdward · 23/06/2013 01:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WafflyVersatile · 23/06/2013 01:24

My mum used to use a hair pin.

I used to use a cotton bud 'because' they always needed doing. then I stopped and my ears stopped being so troublesome and hurting.

I do sometimes locate and remove a lump of wax with my nail though.

Can't help myelf. Blush

MummytoMog · 23/06/2013 01:25

Ears are not bleeding self cleaning. Well mine aren't at any rate, and neither are the ears of my children. I don't shove cotton buds in their ears, but I do have to have the poor little buggers syringed regularly, and you would not believe the crap that comes out. My own get cleaned out with whatever is to hand. They are already screwed.

squeakytoy · 23/06/2013 01:26

hair grips are the best ear cleaning tool Grin

AlexReidsLonelyBraincell · 23/06/2013 01:43

I was hoping you were going to delight us all with a tale of a big huge lump of wax.
I'm like a stuck record with this one, but I used to adore ear syringing clinic in my student nurse days. Nothing more satisfying than easing out and examining the sheer volume of crud that can collect in a persons ears.

Perhaps MN should have a 'Waxon Klaxon' for the offshoot earwax sporners amongst us. Grin

And I am really bad, but sometimes only a cotton bud will do...

TooClassToGrass · 23/06/2013 02:00

I cannot begin to tell you how pleased I am that I'm not alone in my hair grip use. It is so satisfying to see the crud stuck in the end and know it isn't clogging my ear anymore.

If any doctors surgeries within 5 miles of me actually did syringing anymore, I would probably go get that done but only on the condition that I could inspect what came out. As they don't, I take matters into my own hands and use olive oil and a Kirby grip.

HairyWorm · 23/06/2013 02:12

I have also used the long thin bit on a box biro pen lid and a metal nail file. The pointy end is great for little hard bits of wax.

I've used ear candles in the past and opening up the remaining stub of one after use to see what's come out of your ear is so satisfying.

FruminousBandersnatch · 23/06/2013 02:33

I use one of these.

I know I shouldn't but it's so satisfying. (I used to live in Asia and used to watch people use these pick things to clean their boyfriend/girlfriends' ears in cafes.)

sunflowered · 23/06/2013 05:11

Fruminous I also spent some time in Asia - the family I stayed with at one point had a communal one of those and would pass it round sitting in front of the tv after dinner Sad

AdoraBell · 23/06/2013 05:27

I know someone who went permanently deaf in one ear after cleaning his ears with cotón buds, damaged the ear in such a way that it never recovered.

YABU. Stop putting things in your ears, they are self cleaning anyway.

desertgirl · 23/06/2013 06:05

Hairy Worm, if you burn one of those ear candles on the table (instead of in your ear) then open it up - the contents look remarkably similar.

Disappointingly....!! (Also used to like seeing the gunk that came out.

sashh · 23/06/2013 06:15

hair grips are the best ear cleaning tool

If you are near China town you can get a metal ear scraper, very satisfying - but should be done by someone else.

www.globalsources.com/gsol/I/Ear-scraper/p/sm/1056394201.htm

In japan they have salons to clean ears

travel.cnn.com/tokyo/life/new-era-ear-cleaning-has-arrived-tokyo-878557

Now I want one of these

www.engadget.com/2007/03/01/ear-scope-turns-wax-removal-into-primetime-entertainment/

MadBusLady · 23/06/2013 11:12

Yeah, they're "self-cleaning" in the sense that they will randomly drop out sticky globs of earwax in any hot date/important meeting/public address scenario. I try to resist cleaning too deep, but I do like to anticipate the "self-cleaning" mechanism slightly.

YoniBottsBumgina · 23/06/2013 11:21

I do it very very carefully with cotton buds soaked in warm water to melt the wax off rather than scraping at it and they are fine. I can't bear the feeling of them if I leave them to it. DS gets huge globs of horrible brown stuff which looks horrible and gets quite deaf if I don't clean his out (again, very carefully) - I left it for years on the advice that they are self cleaning and even took him to the doctor wondering if it was abnormal but he said it was a perfectly normal amount of earwax Confused it clearly bothered him though as he was constantly rubbing his ears on his shoulder as though trying to scratch them.

TakingTimeOut · 23/06/2013 11:26

I was expecting a tale of some sort of insect in your ear...

Reading this thread has really made my ear itch.

3littlefrogs · 23/06/2013 11:33

I remember syringing the ears of a chap who was a drummer in a band. I have never seen so much wax and gunk come out of anybody's ears before or since. Huge thick caterpillar sized lumps.

I often wondered whether he was surprised by the noise of the band when his ears were no longer blocked.

FutTheShuckUp · 23/06/2013 11:36

Ditto takingtimeout...im amazed people still clean their ears with cotton buds these days

BeetleBugBaby · 23/06/2013 11:36

If ears are self cleaning explain the sheer volume of wax in my ears if I don't clean them for a couple of weeks?

cocolepew · 23/06/2013 11:36

My ear was blocked with wax, I went totally deaf in it so used ear drops. It said on the instructions to put the drops in and then a piece of cotton wool for 10 minutes. Which I did.

When I went to get it finally syringed the nurse pulled an incredibly long pierce of cotton wool out if my ear. The fibres had dropped off and formed a length of rope in my ear.

It was like watching a magician pull scarves out of his sleeve.

valiumredhead · 23/06/2013 11:45

I use the cornet of a wet flannel.

JesusInTheCabbageVan · 23/06/2013 11:48

And the winner of Odd Things Emerging From Bodily Orifices goes to.... nope, it's still Worm Fell Out of Bum lady. Sorry OP Grin

Not that it's a prize you want to win, mind.

Original poster
pinkstinks · 23/06/2013 12:18

I think I missed that thread!!! And no don't really want to win That prize!! :)

OP posts:
3littlefrogs · 23/06/2013 12:20

Was there ever a satisfactory conclusion to the "worm fell out of bum" thread?

Mrsdavidcaruso · 23/06/2013 13:05

Yeh I too am disappointed I expected to hear lurid tales of baby spiders
or earwigs falling out of your lughole