Tuesday, October 8, 2013

The Night a Bug Flew in My Ear



I hate bugs. Flying ones, crawling ones. I don’t care. I absolutely hate them. The main reason I don’t like camping is because bugs might crawl on me. Eww.

So the Saturday night when I was on the verge of sleep and a bug flew around my head (I shiver just writing this) I whacked at it. But then I didn’t hear anything. I flipped on my nightstand light and jumped out of bed in the same motion. Hubs mumbled “what?” I told him about the bug and he asked if I used nuclear warfare to get it. Say what? (He claims he never said that.)

I flipped the covers back. No bug. I turned the pillow over. Again no bug. I looked behind the bed on the floor. Nothing but dust bunnies that could wait. My right ear felt funny. I whacked my head, hoping to dislodge it—whatever it was. Nothing. Finally I lay back down, my right ear to the pillow hoping whatever had flown in would crawl out. I worried all night. Okay, not quite all night because I must have fallen asleep. In the morning, I really checked the bed, under the pillows, etc. No bug. I concluded it must be in my ear.

I worried even more. I just knew some bug was chewing its way through my ear and into my brain. (If you've seen Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan you know exactly what I was thinking.) So did I go to the ER? Of course not. I’d feel really foolish if it was nothing. Isn't that typical? We worry we might seem foolish instead of having a medical concern checked out. But I still worried. I had a doctor appointment at 5 on Monday. I could wait. Worry, worry, worry.

BTW, the reason I had a doctor appointment was because his nurse had called on Thursday to say he wanted to talk to me about the results of my mammogram. At first that sounded a bit unusual. Normally they just send me for an ultrasound. Still, the bug in my ear had me more worried.

Monday afternoon in the examining room, I told the nurse I wanted to talk to the doc about the bug in my ear. I told my husband I was going to have him check my ear first because I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on whatever he was going to tell me about the mammogram. So what does the doctor do? He walks in, doesn’t even look at me, sets down his computer, and says “about your mammogram…”

Darn it anyway. I listened as he explained something unusual showed up in my breast. I've heard that before. Since my 30s, doctors have found something unusual but after more tests, it turns out to be nothing. This time my doctor recommended a biopsy. That was different. As he went on about how it might not be anything but they had to check it out, I did listen. Both my sisters are breast cancer survivors. I knew the drill. When he finally wound down, I asked if we were done talking about this. He seemed surprised and said “if you are.” I told him about the bug and insisted he check my ear and pointed. He walked around to stand between me and my husband. I said it’s the other ear. He said “if you were a man, I’d say I can see the bug from here.”

Now I’ve known him for quite a while so I just rolled my eyes. When he finally checked the correct ear, I asked if he could see my husband. Both men just laughed. Diagnosis: no bug.

Results of the biopsy: no cancer. Whew.

I have to thank that bug, though. It kept me from worrying about breast cancer for two long days.



I blog here on the 8th and 30th of each month and Mondays on my own blogsite http://dianeburton.blogspot.com My first romantic suspense, One Red Shoe, was just released on Amazon.



10 comments:

Margo Hoornstra said...

Wow, Diane, quite a story. So glad you are okay! Where did that bug go anyway?

Alicia Dean said...

Ha! Great story, it had humor and suspense. I'm glad all was well with your mammogram and bug...if indeed the doctor was correct and the bug was really gone and didn't lay eggs and start a whole family inside your brain, muwahahahaha!!!

Jannine Gallant said...

Too funny, the bug part. Glad the biopsy was good news!

Barbara Edwards said...

Eww. One of my kids did get a bug stuck in the wax and the doctor took it out. Yucky. You story is better

Diane Burton said...

Thanks, everybody. Alicia, you are awful. All of this happened a week before we moved. When it rains, it pours. LOL

Lucy Naylor Kubash said...

All's well that ends well, right? Seriously, I'm glad everything turned out okay. My husband gets mad at me because I will catch spiders (only small ones) and put them outside. Bigger ones get no mercy, however. But if I thought I had a bug in my ear, yikes, I would be freaking out. I'm glad
the breast cancer scare was just that.

Connie Bretes said...

Wow, glad everything turned out okay. Funny about your hubby and the nuclear warfare, sounds like something my hubby would say.

KatB said...

I'm not terribly squeamish about bugs, but earwigs creep me out. And ever since I met a guy who was terrified of them because one crawled in his ear when he was a kid... I do get the random heebie jeebies laying in bed sometimes. :)

And congrats on your biopsy - it's good that you take your family history seriously and you're diligent in getting your mammograms!

Florence Price said...

I'm glad you're okay, Diane! I heard a story on the news a couple of years back about a boy who kept hearing "crackling" noises in his ear. His mom finally took him to the doctor, and it turned out that he had two spiders setting up house in there - Yuuuuckkk and big shudder!!!

Melissa Keir said...

Sometimes it is the worries that keep you from the fears...:) So glad that things are better. And I hope all these posts aren't keeping you up all night!