Think Before You Clean

They say, never put anything smaller than an elbow into your ears.

And we ask, can we have smaller elbows?

Anyway, being a little girl who defied orders, I went playing with the cotton bud when mum wasn't looking. Of course it looked like cotton candy, but I was no dunce so I thrusted it into my right ear.

I don't remember all this, but mum said blood was oozing out from my ear and I was excited. Okay maybe I wasn't a brainiac after all.

I was quickly brought to the doctor and he said if only I had pushed a little deeper, I could have perforated my eardrum like this.

Looking at this picture scares the hell out of me, man!! I feel so lucky now. God must have loved me too much back then.

Anyway, that's not the end of my love-hate story with cotton buds.

After high school, I got quite obsessed with cleaning my ears that I'd clean them almost every day. Maybe it was the fact that cleaned ears boost my confidence or maybe it was plainly because of the tickling sensation that gradually gives one pure pleasure. I don't know.

However, after years of consistent everyday ear-cleaning, I realised one day that I couldn't hear anything more than a metre away clearly. Sometime I felt like my ears were blocked, the kind of thing u've got when water got trapped inside the ear after swimming. 

I've tried everything you could possibly think of - from putting a few drops of water in and hop on one leg to sleeping on one side every night for a month - but nothing worked. So I decided to get my ears checked.

It turned out that there was a massive lump of hard solid earwax in both of my ears! Disgusted enough? Hehe. The doctor explained that using cotton bud apparently pushes some earwax further inside while leaving the outer part spotless. They soon accumulate and when the ear is dry, the chunk hardens.

I was sent to an ENT specialist who asked me to put three drops of olive oil at night for a week and return to syringe the earwax out. Well, when syringe didn't work, he had to vacuum it out !!

Haha! Of course not this type of vacuum.

Anyway, I remember being charged RM180 for the procedure - the most expensive earwax cleaner I've ever paid for. I was also advised to stop using cotton bud and use this instead.

It's got a spatula-like tip to scoop the wax out easily without destroying the tickling sensation. I love using this cleaner, seriously, that sometimes I wish I have a thousand ears.

So guys, while cleaning your ears might be good and hygienic, using cotton bud as a medium could be harmful, to the extent that it can cause deafness. You might want to take extra precaution.

Finally, Instagram time people!! pffft.

Think before you clean :)