Otomycosis; A Weekend Nightmare

I don’t think I’ve ever had to spend the weekend in the hospital but I’ve had to spend a couple in bed all day. But I remember a few times that things went south particularly on Saturdays. First, I had a home accident where a faulty wooden door fell on me and my head went straight to the floor. I was really young then so I have no photos but I have a scare on my head. The spot where the door landed scraped my hair but it’s beginning to close up now. I was mentally unconscious for a few days. That’s to say I was alive, awake but I couldn’t coordinate activities around me. My aunt told me about how I defecated in bed and stayed in it during that period.

I also remember an incident where children in my neighborhood were playing a game called Pursuer. Using the simple random technique, a paper containing different game roles was folded and the children picked. Whoever picks the pursuer will begin to chase every other person and whoever is caught will become the pursuer.
For some weird reasons a neighbour suggested they bring their dog. Well, I wasn’t part of the game but I went to call my brother out for a sibling gossip. I became a victim of circumstance. I was bitten by the dog just behind my thigh. And I didn't mention it to anyone until hours later. I was young, I didn't even think the dog bit me because there was no injury just a drop of blood. It wasn't until my mum returned and scrubbed my skin with a strong sponge that the mark of the dog's teeth became visible. For the whole week my parents didn't let me out of sight. The scar remains till date.

The most recent happened in the month of August while I was on a one month end-of-the-session break. I had just returned from a youth conference.The program ended on a Saturday. The next day, something strange happened.
I started feeling slight pains in my right ear. It was mild at first so I tried to ignore it and see if it would go away for a while, but it didn’t. With each passing day I felt worse. My ear suddenly felt blocked. I was getting the exact feeling I get when I’ve just showered and some water gets into my ear. I tried to sleep with that side of my ear on the pillow, with hopes that the water will get out but it didn’t work.

I went to a pharmacy to complain as that's what I could afford in that moment. The pharmacist said he couldn't find anything in my ear but he prescribed some pain killers.

A few days later, something stranger happened. I belched and felt something in my ear go up and close up immediately. It was quite painful. I asked my parents to look into my ear, something they had done before and said they couldn't find a thing. This time, my mum said she could see a swelling, like a growth in my ear. I had a boil inside my ear.

The same day, I started feeling something dripping from my ear. With the use of a cutton bud, my ear was cleaned. It looked like pus. It was quite scary. The initial color was yellow but soon we were cleaning black stuffs from my ears with a mixture of blood.

I couldn’t eat because lifting my head from my pillow was painful, chewing was difficult. I stayed in bed for days. My mum kept assuring me my ears would heal on its own but I was worried. I’ve never had ear problems so I felt so uneasy. All the medications the pharmacist gave me wasn’t helping my situation so I went to the hospital.

I visited an ENT doctor at a university teaching hospital. With the help of an otoscope, the doctor looked into my ears. She said my experience was a result of a fungal infection otherwise known as Otomycosis and I needed ear irrigation. Using a syringe, she directed a mildly warm water into my ears and the content of my ears poured out. It was surprising the things I had in my ear. Unfortunately I couldn’t take any pictures.

I felt very good after the process. My ear no longer felt blocked and I could hear with my right ear. An anti fungal cream was inserted in my ear and I was asked to return a week later for the cream to be washed out. Fluconazole was prescribed and I healed thereafter. This experience made me become more aware of how to take care of my ear. I hope I never get to experience something like this again.

^{Note: All images used in this post are mine.}