Earache

I woke up in the middle of the night with a piercing earache, not something I’ve had since about age 10.  I still have it now, though I am taking Advil to quell the pain.  I assume this is allergy-related since pollen is literally dripping off the bushes out front and I have had other signs of allergy symptoms: stuffy nose and gunky eyes after sleeping.  Last night, I had to get up and get Advil in order to sleep so while up, I decided to read a bit about earaches.  The general consensus from what I read was that they usually go away on their own in fairly short order with minor treatment.  I am hesitant to put any ear drops in my ears, or olive oil, as was suggested in one blog. Since Advil seems to be working, I thought perhaps it’s best not to add any other anything to my ear canal since that thought scares me just a bit. I have no desire to add to the pain…

This ailment has shifted our plans a bit over the next few days.  We didn’t go to church today and we’re waiting a day or so before heading to Ojai.  Hopefully, the earache will have subsided by then.  We had other reasons to delay our trip as well; it wasn’t solely based on my ailment.  But I will admit that I am happy not to be jumping in the car just yet to drive for an hour and a half. Not that a drive would affect my ear ache one way or the other, but I didn’t sleep as well as I might have last night as a result of that accused pain so I am looking forward to my comfortable bed tonight.

I can see from this little ailment just how precarious quality-of-life balance truly is. Piercing pain in basically any bodily location from a splinter to a deep scrape to a toothache or a headache can knock the wind out of your sails in short order.  This dang ole ear ache falls in that same category.  I’m not incapacitated, but with just a slight upping of the pain and a slight downing of the Advil effectiveness, this small annoyance could bring me right to my knees.  Of course, I’m counting on my body’s strong immune system to send this annoyance packing so I can get back to life as I prefer it to be, aka, painless from the physical point of view, except for a few minor joint squawks.

Okay, I will stop waxing philosophic (was there any philosophy there?) so I can now go leash up the dogs and walk them around the block.  I might add this is not high on my list of “Yes, let’s do this,” types of activities, but Ray is already up in bed and I prefer knowing we’re not having any doggie accidents during the night.  There is some comfort to THAT thought.

Off I go to let the canines do their duty.  I’ll check back in tomorrow with what I hope is a good report on the end of my achy ear.

Sleep well, my friends.  I plan to Advil-up so I can do the same. Fingers crossed.