I hate doctors

October 21, 2004

Nothing personal, they just seem to be the worst time-management people on earth. I had a 2 p.m. appointment today to see an ear specialist (I’ve been having problems in my right ear since the ear-wax incident.)

So I get there right at 2, I fill out the paperwork, and then I sit in the waiting room. And I sit, and i sit some more. It’s 2:45 before the nurse calls me in to one of the examination rooms. There she tells me to sit and the doctor will be there shortly. But again I just sit. Until almost 3 p.m. when he finally waltzes in.

It’s not like there was a huge crowd–when I arrived at 2 p.m. I was the only person in the waiting room, and when the nurse called for me at 2:45 I was still the only person in the waiting room. What the hell was the doctor doing–twidlling his fantasy football lineup?

I will say this though–once he finally showed up things went pretty quickly. He cleaned out my ears with this nifty vacuum thingy that gets really loud as he pokes it closer to the ear drum. Turns out I still had gross ear wax there even after the irrigation from a couple weeks ago. That was what was causing my right ear to clog up every time I went swimming.

He also had the nurse conduct a hearing test, where you go into a sound booth like the one on Win Ben Stein’s Money. You put on these ear phones and she gives you this little toggle switch. Whenever you hear a tone you’re supposed to click the toggle switch. Then she twiddles something on the control panel so you only hear her in one ear. She says ten words and you repeat each one, she jots down your score, and then she repeats with the other ear.

In the end the doc thinks it was just the ear wax–I’m apparently an ear wax machine, and it’s always going to be an issue for my diving. He says I can make an annual appointment to get the ears cleaned, kinda like how some people get regular allergy shots. I’m also supposed to drop a couple drops of baby oil or sweet oil into each ear, to help smooth the expulsion of wax.

I hope that’s it because I really don’t want to go sit and wait in any more doctor’s offices.