Ear Infection

Yea, you probably thought those were just for little kids eh? Well, I have one. The doctor diagnosed me with Otitis Media and Otalgia. Which from what I can tell is a middle ear infection and ear pain.

My guess is that something flowed into my ear while we were checking out the new ride at Aquatica Saturday morning. Yes, we spent a couple hours at Aquatica before having lunch and going to beer fest.

I also should point out that it wasn’t exactly my doctor who made the diagnosis. I spent yesterday calling and waiting for my doctor’s office to call me back. They apparently were very full and were unable to squeeze me in, but they did say that if my symptoms were getting worse I should go to an urgent care center.

My hearing in my left ear got worse and the pain got worse, so I went over to the Lake Buena Vista CentraCare. It was actually a pretty good experience. I arrived at 4:42pm and was told that it was going to be about a two hour wait before I would be seen. Not a big deal since I noticed that they had a “Wi-Fi Available” sign up on the desk. Free Wi-Fi kicked ass!

After about twenty minutes of filling out paper work I settled in with my laptop doing my internet thing. Then suddenly twenty minutes later (I had only been in the office 40 minutes) my name was called and I had to frantically get my laptop put away.

The male nurse weighed me (which I was worried about since I was wearing my full work outfit. Including name badge, HUGE ring of keys, long pants, two shirts, long socks, heavy shoes, pens, notebook and I was even holding 3/4 of a twenty ounce soda. I was thrilled when wearing all of that I weighed in at less than what the Publix scale had been telling me!!!

After a lengthy wait for the doctor she quickly looked in my ear and became the second person (first was the male nurse) to comment on how I have deep and unusually shaped ear canals. She told me that I had a middle ear infection and fluid pushing on the back of my ear drum (which explains my muffled hearing).

She explained to me that she would give me a prescription for antibiotics and some ear drops but also recommends starting an Advil regiment to relieve the pain and swelling. A quick trip to CVS and I have drugs!

The CVS pharmacist would not believe me when I told him I hadn’t had a prescription in decades. He was sure with his “super” computer that he would be able to look me up. Well, I was right. So he had to enter all of my information and then I waited about ten minutes before I had my pills. First thing I noticed was how HUGE the antibiotics are. 125 mg:

So I have to take one pill twice a day and four drops four times a day for the next 10 days. Here is hoping that it clears up my problems!

Sorry about the crappy pictures. But here is one to show the size up against an Advil liquid-gel

So there you go. A grown man with an ear infection and he is telling the world on his blog. Is that weird?