Adonis Diaries

What happens when your ears wax-shut? (Feb. 22, 2010)

I woke up late and knocked at the kitchen door to check if mother can hear well. She could.

This time, mother smiled sheepishly and then toned down the volume of the radio.  She said: “Did the radio waken you up?”  I said: “For the last month I have been fleeing home because the radio volume was 100% up and the TV volume was breaking the sound barrier”

I admit we are a hard-headed family for insignificant matters, and very loose and understanding for what really counts.  I think that hardening of arteries exacerbates hard-headed behaviors as we move toward senility.

My dad would never admit that his ears needed cleaning, until he became totally deaf and would sit like a child, his head down, among chatting people.

Apparently, the prior steps of injecting for three days ear drops to loosen the wax was more that dad could suffer.

Finally, dad decided to have ear drops to loosen the wax before having them cleaned; the drops made him completely deaf and he was feeling useless and a half-man.  I recall the day dad had his ears cleaned: he could not stop chatting and cracking jokes; a new-born person!

Mother would never admit that her ears could be “dirty”: It is not a feminine characteristic.

For over a month, she could not hear the phone and the TV volume was set all the way high.

When mother decided to have ear drops of wax solvent it was a monumental acknowledgement.  Making her use ear drops three times a day was out of the question: first, her ears could not be that “dirty” and second, ear oil made her more deaf than before.

I had to take mother three times to the dispensary to have her ears cleaned before she realized that she was not injecting enough wax solvent. The wax in her ear  was as thick and tough as a wall.

At every failure in the cleaning attempts with pressurized water and Betadine, a process that is painful, mother was finally convinced to resume using the wax drops three times a day and in sufficient quantities.

Yesterday was a new day: her ears finally released tons of wax that astonished me. Mother faked not to see what was pouring out.  Mother is whole again and can start visiting people and harass them with her discovered genius for un-interrupted chatting.

Mother could have saved so much misery if she could afford an ear specialist with adequate tools.

There is a slight difference between having financial means and being totally parted of money colors.

For example, mother could have saved months of suffering and feeling half-human (one of the sensory organs deficient), simply because she could not afford to check with an ear specialist with the adequate tools for cleaning ear wax and other debris.

For example, I could have visited a skin specialist and saved several months of excruciating itching harassment.  Finally, the physician at the dispensary refused to prescribe any medicine until I have a blood test to analyze the conditions of my liver.  The blood test should cost around $40.

Until I manage to save $40, I should suffer. I am still hoping that time will take care of the itching demon.

And  I am realizing that this hope is dwindling fast, not only for the itching healing but also having my computer repaired.

The test was never done, and I recovered a week later…

All that I want is a word processor; a gizmo that process words such as easy editing and saving instead of jotting down notes on separate paper sheets.

All that I want is a machine that you could have gotten for practically free if computer companies would think about the millions of people who don’t care about packing hundreds of applications and audio-visual facilities in smaller and smaller portable machines; sort of one machine per application at a time; one tool for one application for both the simple-minded and pocket simple.

Note: The itching disappeared for no particular reason and using nothing.  I make sure to rub some alcohol over sweaty parts of my body, and it smell good too.