my ear

... and a very clean ear it is, inside and out.

As some of you know, I've been battling hearing problems since late May/early June, when a combination of lots of flights - 13 or 14 - in Argentina, and going up to 14,500 in the pre-Andes, created (or so I thought) around 60% hearing loss in my right ear - and if that wasn't bad enough, a feeling of being perpetually distanced in some kind of diving bell, or echo chamber, where not only did all sound become muffled, and it was difficult to tell what direction sounds were coming from, but it made me feel horribly cut off from the world (and grumpy). Social events, with fuzzy noises hitting me from every side, were a nightmare.

I've had to wait 4 months to see a specialist, during which time Googling didn't (of course) make me feel much better.  But first, the technicians at Keck peered deep into my ear - or as far as they could, because like my primary care doctor before them, all they could see was wax, and more wax: it was as though I had a wax cork in there.  So they used a tiny suction machine which I could watch on very magnified CCTV doing its magic (until I got unbearably dizzy, which is apparently normal), and then the specialist finished it off.  No, I've never had my ears deep-vacuumed before.

And now I can hear, just as well as before.  You can't imagine my gratitude.