Otitis Oschmitis

What a fun year I've had so far! January it was a killer head cold, February was a sinus infection, and now March brought me a nice ear infection.

Apparently, I have bilateral Otitis Externa, also known as Swimmer's Ear. It is an infection in the ear canal that causes swelling throughout the ear canal and usually severe pain whenever the ear canal is moved, such as by pulling on the earlobe. I'm so lucky I get to have it in both ears!

My personal opinion was that there were three contributing factors to my getting this infection:
1. We went scuba diving last weekend.
2. We dove and swam in some pretty gross and murky fresh water - some places underwater visibility was about 2 feet and everything else around us was green/black/dark.
3. I was a bit paranoid about remnants of my sinus infection hanging around so I cleaned my ears out good before diving so I wouldn't have any additional problems equalizing.

Probably any one of these wouldn't have caused a problem but the combination of these was just the ticket.  Anyways, I'm on oral antibiotics, ear drops, and prescription ibuprofen and they seem to be working. Today it doesn't seem too bad although my ears are still fairly blocked up.  Earlier this week I was miserable and half deaf!

So, the moral of the story is:
1. Avoid swimming in fresh water or dirty water.
      Probablility of getting swimmer's ear in regard to location highest to lowest:

• Fresh water (lakes and rivers)
• Ocean water
• Bath water
• Pool water

2. After swimming in probable risk areas, rinse your ear canal with 1:1 white vinegar and rubbing alcohol and let dry.

3. Don't clean out inside your ear unless it is seriously gunky. Your ear canal should mostly clean and dry itself.

Anyways, I'm not complaining (too much). I have had a decent week overall. Last week I found really good recipes for chocolate muffins and poppy seed muffins that I'm tempted to make again.  My work has been proceeding well, although phone calls are somewhat painful or difficult still. General Conference is this weekend! Life is good.