Friday morning dawned cold and brisk in the foggy Southwest hills of Beaverton.
I bundled up and trundled out to the bus stop where I watched in dismay as the bus bustled by, it's window's opaque with the breath and heat of its passengers.
When the next bus lazily rolled to a halt in front of me, I boarded and chatted with the bus driver, paid my extra fees and found an empty seat.
It was there in that threadbare seat, as I pushed a rubber headphone into my ear canal that I felt the first twinge of pain. I pulled it out, confused, and pushed it in a second time. Also, for a second time, pain.
All during that first day, the uncomfortable ache just inside my ear swelled--
Until that night, it was uncomfortable enough that I couldn't sleep on that side.
Until that night, it was uncomfortable enough that I couldn't sleep on that side.
I grew worried.
The pain grew.
It was Sunday, two days into the affliction, when I realized that this was not any type of general pain, there was a focus. The pain had an epicenter: a growth inside my canal that was..starting to impede my hearing.
I called the clinic.
On the phone with the nurse, I confessed: I hope it isn't, I donno, a pimple or something. I would feel so silly. She laughed and scheduled me for that same day.
My worry heightened.
In the room, the Physician entered, I tipped my ear towards the tiny pinpoint of light emanating from her otoscope
She pulled my ear closer by the lobe, and squinted one eye to the magnifying lens, and stated simply, "I can't really see deep enought into the ear because of this zit that is in the way, it is pussing on my instrument". She pulled her tool away and cleaned it off with her scrubs, her face scrunched in annoyance.
-Sigh-
