This holiday weekend we came face to face with a holiday nightmare.
It started out as a promising Sunday morning. I woke up ravenous and ready for breakfast after having some sort of 24 hour flu bug the day before. Because of this I hadn't eaten the two previous meals with Nate. Waking up in my hungry state was very promising indeed. After making sure Nate woke up to hear my plight we quickly decided we would do breakfast out.
With the decision made we put the into motion getting dressed and ready to walk to our morning breakfast spot.
But as we were readying ourselves, Nate rounded the corner from the bathroom and delivered the bone chilling news, "The tip of the Q-tip is stuck in my ear".
As I looked in disbelief from his face to the Q-tip in his hand which was indeed missing the bulbous cotton tip that is so characteristic of that of the Q-tip, I realized the seriousness of the situation.
I walked around to his side and looked at his ear and saw no visible signs of the cotton tip!
We threw around a few initial ideas. While we discussed Nate began fussing with his ear and I began fussing at him not to fuss with his ear for fear he would make the problem worse. And while he rested on the couch with his head tilted for gravity to perhaps work it out, I did what any normal person would do. I typed in "What to do when a Q-tip is stuck in your ear" into my internet search bar and began reading numerous responses which mostly all said to go to an ER/walk-in clinic and have it removed by a doctor with the right tool as to prevent injury to the eardrum.
I reported all this to Nate and in an effort to be unbiased also read the one post that said it was from a doctor who stated if it was them, they would have someone they trust look into their ear with a light and if they could see the cotton tip and their trusted friend had good eyes and a steady hand they would allow them to try to go in with tweezers and pull the cotton ball out.
While I said I thought we should find a walk-in-clinic and have it removed ...afterall his hearing was at stake...much to my horror Nate declared me as his trusted person! I quickly skimmed the next answer to my internet search and saw the doctor had posted the next one as well as a disclaimer stating that his idea probably wasn't the wisest and you should in all likelihood have it removed by a doctor. Which I quickly reported as well, but Nate had already grabbed a small light and was headed to the bathroom for the procedure.
Nate gave me his "I believe in you" pep talk and we proceeded. I could, I discovered, see the cotton tip down his ear canal with the help of the extra light as I pulled and tugged in different angles on his ear to give me the best view.
Next, I began searching for the right pair of tweezers. The standard issue tweezers were not going to cut it but I knew I had seen somewhere a pair of tweezers that came to such a sharp point I had probably buried them deep as to not injure myself with them. Digging around a few bags in the bathroom I uncovered these very tweezers. Sleek, sharp, and dangerous. Just what I was looking for.
And with a few false starts as I determined the best positioning and angle to get into the ear canal without touching anything, I began my very own real life round of the game "Operation", which for the record I never liked because the anticipation of the heart stopping BUZZZZZ just about did me in whether I hit the metal rim of the game or not. Although it was a good laugh anytime it was someone else's turn.
But here I was, tweezers in hand and instead of the fear of the startling buzzing sound I was trying to block out the fact that if I lost this game, I might never be able to whisper sweet nothings in Nate's right ear. Or at least so he can hear them.
My first advance I had to abort as I realized I didn't have the right positioning on the tweezers after all. I was holding them too far back on the shaft to have the finger strength to squeeze (or tweeze) if I even made it to the cotton tip. They were one tough pair of tweezers.
My next move I cautiously moved towards my target and made contact, squeezing the tweezers closed and pulling them back, but alas! While I had scraped the cotton with the tweezers I hadn't caught any or enough cotton strands to gain the advantage.
I went back in for a third and last attempt, deciding that if I couldn't get it on this try I would abandon my role into more capable hands. I was able to get more cotton between the tips of the tweezers and pulled this small but battle worthy opponent from Nate's ear! Victory was mine! Hallelujah!
With a huge sigh of relief I could focus back on the most important thing. Breakfast. And while we ordered and ate I was thankful as I looked over at Nate sitting next to me in the booth that he could hear me ask for him to pass the syrup.
