Miserable

Remember that one time, not too long ago, where I felt like a horrible wife because Steve was up in the middle of the night coughing, and all I wanted him to do was take some damn cough medicine so we could all go back to sleep? You know, this time? Well, it turns out he’s not such a sympathetic person himself!

I have an ear infection. That’s right, a freaking ear infection. And I’m pretty sure I haven’t had one of these since I was young enough to expect my mom to sit up with me all night while I cried about the pain, and she worked to make it all better.* Let’s just say it’s been awhile. I’m assuming this little earache has something to do with my allergies, since I started feeling some pressure in my ear when the pollen count was through the roof a couple of weeks ago. I thought it would all clear up on its own, but yesterday, my poor ear started to throb a little. Since the situation was obviously getting worse instead of better, I made an appointment with the doctor for Wednesday morning.

Apparently, that’s not good enough for Steve. Apparently, Steve is a little perturbed that I was up several times between 1am and 2am last night, rummaging around for something, anything that would make the pain stop so I could go back to sleep, before finally settling on a nice little cocktail of ibuprofen, warm olive oil in the ear,** and a heating pad on my pillow.*** Apparently, Steve would like to avoid a repeat performance tonight, if he can. Apparently, Steve likes his sleep.

So, he begged me to see the onsite doctor here in the office, for my sake, because he was afraid that it could be something SERIOUS, and it might get WORSE before tomorrow, and I should have it looked at RIGHT AWAY, and OMG, the world is ending. I told him I’d be fine. So, when fear for my safety didn’t work, he tried guilt, with stories of raging contagious ear infections, risks to him, risks to the baby, blah, blah, blah! I told him I’m pretty sure ear infections aren’t contagious, and Google backed me up on this one. At this point, he fully owned up to the fact that he just wants to sleep through the night tonight, and he didn’t need any disturbance from me or my ear.

Hugs and kisses, honey.

In all seriousness, though, I decided to go with it. I don’t want to be up at 1am any more than he does, and honestly, it felt so much worse as the day progressed. But the doctor! He didn’t cooperate! He was away at some meeting all morning! And he wasn’t back when he was supposed to be! I went down to see him twice! They finally said they’d call me when he came back! An onsite doctor is no good if he’s never onsite! I need to stop using so many exclamation points!

Anyway, I finally did get in to see him late this afternoon, right before I left the office early for my second dentist appointment in a month.**** So, antibiotics it is. Hopefully, it will all be cleared up in a few days.

And maybe I won’t be sleeping in the guest room tonight.


*So, maybe about twenty-one, then? I kid, I kid!
**Disgusting? Yes. Effective? Maybe. Something I used worked last night, and I’m just as inclined to thank the olive oil as anything else…
***Which I turned off after the pain subsided a little, and before I fell asleep. Fire safety, people!
**** I was a little worried about how that was going to go, since I figured having someone manhandle the jaw that’s attached to a sore ear wasn’t going to be pleasant. Turns out, a Novocain happy dentist is actually a good thing when you have an earache. Go figure.