“A Flea In Her Ear” is a play by Georges Feydeau. It is also close to the idiom, “a flea in the ear”, meaning, “an unwelcome hint or unexpected reply, annoying like a flea; an irritating repulse; as, to put a flea in one’s ear; to go away with a flea in one’s ear.”
But that is not what I am writing about tonight, although I wish I were.
We were at a music festival on Saturday and Sunday, spending both days out of doors, in a field where it rained off and on, on both days. I wore my wonderful sun hat when it was sunny, and also when it rained, to keep my head cool and dry. But when it was cloudy and it wasn’t raining, I put the hat on top of our backpacks, where it was sometimes knocked onto the grass, where I would retrieve it and either put it on my head, or place it back on the backpacks.
On our trip home last night, shortly after we left the festival at 1 a.m., my right ear began to itch, really itch. I felt like something was moving around in there. It stopped after we got home, and I went to bed and fell asleep, exhausted from my wonderful big day out.
This afternoon my ear began to itch again in the same fashion as it did last night. I cautiously took a Q-tip and swabbed the entrance to my ear, there seemed to be nothing there to cause the itching. I pressed my ear canal closed and rubbed it vigorously with my finger on the surface skin just in front of my ear canal.
At dinner tonight my ear was itchy again. I put my finger in my ear to rub the area, and it came away with crusted blood. Oh dear!
Attila had a look with the magnifying glass, and said he could see a trail of blood, but nothing else.
We thought it might be a tick, because there were ticks in the area of the music festival, there were warning signs in all the public areas. I had checked my legs, and my feet quite diligently, no ticks.
What to do!
We used an ear cleaning syringe to flush my ear. First flush, only a little bit of blood coloured the water, fresh blood. Oh dear again!
The second flush yielded a black dot in the water. It was a flattened flea, or at least we think it is a flea, it does not look like a tick, it looks like a flea. We flushed the ear again, and it was clear but a little coloured from blood.
Attila then applied several drops of hydrogen peroxide to my ear canal, which I left for one minute, then turned my head to drain.
I have my flea, or whatever it is, on a dish. We examined it under well lit magnification, and it does resemble a flea, rather than a tick. But I think I will take my flea and head to the walk-in clinic tomorrow and get a second opinion on that. If it were a tick, and I was definitely bitten, then I would not see the telltale ring around the bite, because the bite is inside my ear.
Some adventures are small, and not all that desirable.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
17°C
Date: 9:00 PM EDT Monday 7 August 2017
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.5 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 16.6°C
Dew point: 15.6°C
Humidity: 94%
Wind: NE 7 km/h
Visibility: 19 km
Quote
“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”
Will Durant
1885 – 1981
I wouldn’t call that a small adventure. That’d worry me enough that I’d label it at least a mid-sized adventure. Glad you’re going to go to the clinic and have things looked at.
I’m also glad you’re going to the clinic. I hope it turns out to be a benign flea!
Thanks Teri, it was a new experience. I don’t think I’ll ever ignore an itch in my ear again. What are the odds though, of a flea venturing into your ear!
Sandy, me too! I have it, and we did examine it carefully under a magnifying lamp, it sure looks like a flea, and not a tick. Also, I don’t know if tick bites bleed, and this bite certainly did bleed. So I am fairly certain it is a flea… but I’ll be heading to the walk-in clinic this morning!
I think it may have been a tick. Some ticks are really tiny, like a dot… Paul always mistakes ticks for a speck of dirt… also, tick suck blood, and I don’t think fleas do that. the tick could have sucked your blood and when you were fiddling around and squished it, the blood it had in its body was the blood you saw. We get those ticks off our Belle a lot (not so much lately but spring was insane) and if you squish them, there is blood everywhere! But glad you’re getting a professional opinion!
Bex, it might be a tick, I am taking the thing in with me. I have been waiting this morning to call the clinics, there is one doctor that I want to avoid, as his diagnostic skills are limited, and he has attitude towards patients, from the reviews it isn’t just women either that he has issues with. Wish me luck!
I’ve had my share of tick bites and the itching afterward is, though off and on, intense for several days. Hope that’s not going to be the case with you. -Kate
Kate, it is pretty itchy off and on! Just got back from the clinic, took the preventative dosage of antiobiotic about two and half hours ago. The doctor didn’t think it was a tick, he didn’t know what it was, I had it with me to show him, so he prescribed the antiobiotic just in case.
Just my luck, the doctor I saw was the one with attititude, the waiting room was empty and I wasn’t surprised. But I got what I needed, just had to deal with an unpleasant interaction to get there. He managed to impart, without actually saying it, that he thought I was a complainer, wasting his time. He lost the opportunity of a lifetime to chat with a lovely, beautiful human being, his loss.
Sorry you got stuck with him. Obviously he’s the problem, with Lyme disease increasing in the province you’d think he’d understand your concern. That could have been a tick nymph.
You did the right thing.
Yes, he is the problem Teri. The reviews online reflect his bedside manner, I think if a person was feeling vulnerable and in need of help, he would decimate their peace of mind… when I see him I go into full armour mode, nothing he can say pierces through it, and I focus on what I want. I wouldn’t trust him to diagnose anything.
I’m glad you got the antibiotic. But boy that doctor sounds like a twit.
Thanks Sandy. He is a twit. I had a backup plan in case though, there is another walk-in clinic in the city that I haven’t tried yet, so I decided that if things didn’t pan out well with this visit, I would try a second opinion at the other clinic. It is a funny thing, all the other doctors at this clinic are good, the woman Attila and I saw a few weeks ago was not just good, she was amazing… I wish she was taking new patients! Same clinic, completely different experience.