I could still recall the day I had my ear itching me. And I reached out for a cotton bud from a pack, to clean any dirt in it, that could be causing the itch. But rather ended up with the cutton from the cutton bud stuck in one of my inner ears. I was frightened, to say the least and being young. I tried all tricks to get it out, but could't. Instead, I had pushed it further and deeper into my ear. Oooh My God! I screamed with fright. Was I going to become deaf?
After much frantic effort, without succes, I finally decided to seek medical help at the hospital the following day. Afraid to even mention it to any other adults, else they might scold me.
I arrived at the hospital, luckily, I had a card there before. I did not need to wait so much in line to acquire a new card or to stay in queue and register again. The nurses wanted to take my temperature and weight reading, normal procedures for admittance for daily medical consultation. I brushed that aside. "I am fine" ; I smiled, as I gently explained to the nurse what I had really come for. Not really for any diagnosis of ailment, nor treatment, but to get the cotton bud removed from my inner ear as soon as pissible.
I was directed to the specialist ward where it would be removed. The doctor that specialized on this, was present, hopefully. And the sight of him, gave me some hope that I would be normal again, anytime soon.
Of course, the doctor was friendly and jovial, but he did make some scary and nasty jokes maybe to scare me about the gravity of the mishap. Perhaps to frighten me. But I was not frightened one bit. I was sure he had all the equipment to remedy the situation. And true to that, he took out some pair of scissors and thongs and another tool, a magnifying glass. He told me to sit still with a little tilting my head to the side. He looked at it with his magnifying mirror and another insrument, to determine how deep the cotton was in.
In no time, he had the cotton removed with a pair of thongs. Hurray!!! I am mormal again. I thought to myself. Never again would I get any thing into my ear, to clean it. And true to that, I never attempted cleaning my ear again with cutton buds or aynthing that could pose danger to my ear, to this day.
But wait a minute, did I tell you how much it cost me? I was hoping it would cost about a few hundred bucks. But I was wrong! The charging deparment gave me about six grands as my bill.
Damn!! I was hoping it could only cost some change. Neigh, I was wrong. I had to go get it and pay for the service. Duh, it was a private hospital, not charity.