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swestrupRecently I've had reason to remember that old Saturday Night Live sketch with Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest, where they say:
You see, I'm prone to getting ear infections. I actually had one burst my left eardrum once, so I now have reduced hearing in that one ear (I don't usually notice though, unless I'm using headphones without a balance control.)
Anyway, about ten years ago I discovered that melaleuka (teatree) oil was good at preventing infections. Now, when I get that deep itching in my ears that (sometimes) worsens into a full infection, I use an eye dropper to put a few drops of teatree oil on a cotton swab and swab out my inner ear. Since I've been doing this I haven't had a single ear infection.
Now, the oil normally doesn't sting or hurt or anything, unless I actually have an infection, although it does tend to cause me to have a coughing fit, but a few months ago I started noticing that about an hour after the oil was put into my ear, my eardrums would start to sting for a bit. At first I thought I had caught an infection in the early stages, but as time went by, each application stung a lot more, and lasted longer.
I started worrying that I had built up some sort of a intolerance to the oil, and would have to search for some effective replacement to use, and then the bottle ran out. No problem, I have a larger bottle to refill the smaller one with. Only, when I took the top off of the smaller bottle, I discovered that the eye-dropper's rubber bulb had been slowly dissolving into the oil, and was now 80% gone. Okay, I had known that that might be a problem when I first started using the dropper 3 years ago, so I'd been very careful not to get the rubber wet. I guess the last time I refilled the little bottle I spilled some on the rubber, and never noticed.
I tried out some of the uncontaminated oil on my ear and, sure enough, there was no stinging.
So, take that as a lesson: don't dissolve latex into teatree oil and apply it to your inner ear, cause it smarts like heck.
I hate it when that happens.
C: "You know what happened to me last night. I took one of those -- what do you call them?"
G: "Rectal thermometers?"
C: "Yeah. I took one of those rectal thermometers and just . . ."
G: "Shoved it right in your ear?"
C: "Yeah, ooooooo! that smarts"
G: "I know what your mean"
C: "I hate when that happens!"
G: "Me, too!"
C: "Then I took one of those . . . those . . ."
G: "Ball peen hammers?"
C: "Exactly, and I just rapped that thermometer deeper and deeper into my head"
G: "That really hurts"
C: "Yeah, I hate when that happens!"
G: "Me too!"
You see, I'm prone to getting ear infections. I actually had one burst my left eardrum once, so I now have reduced hearing in that one ear (I don't usually notice though, unless I'm using headphones without a balance control.)
Anyway, about ten years ago I discovered that melaleuka (teatree) oil was good at preventing infections. Now, when I get that deep itching in my ears that (sometimes) worsens into a full infection, I use an eye dropper to put a few drops of teatree oil on a cotton swab and swab out my inner ear. Since I've been doing this I haven't had a single ear infection.
Now, the oil normally doesn't sting or hurt or anything, unless I actually have an infection, although it does tend to cause me to have a coughing fit, but a few months ago I started noticing that about an hour after the oil was put into my ear, my eardrums would start to sting for a bit. At first I thought I had caught an infection in the early stages, but as time went by, each application stung a lot more, and lasted longer.
I started worrying that I had built up some sort of a intolerance to the oil, and would have to search for some effective replacement to use, and then the bottle ran out. No problem, I have a larger bottle to refill the smaller one with. Only, when I took the top off of the smaller bottle, I discovered that the eye-dropper's rubber bulb had been slowly dissolving into the oil, and was now 80% gone. Okay, I had known that that might be a problem when I first started using the dropper 3 years ago, so I'd been very careful not to get the rubber wet. I guess the last time I refilled the little bottle I spilled some on the rubber, and never noticed.
I tried out some of the uncontaminated oil on my ear and, sure enough, there was no stinging.
So, take that as a lesson: don't dissolve latex into teatree oil and apply it to your inner ear, cause it smarts like heck.
I hate it when that happens.
