"You have a serious ear canal infection"

Did you hear about my ear? It got infected on May 9th and I am still having problems. As frustrating as it is, it's interesting to go to clinics and hospitals in Thailand. Yes, hospitals.

As you may recall, Nok at the Ban Chalok clinic on Koh Tao gave me drops to put in my ear for 5 days. Well by day 2 my ear was stuffed again, my hearing poor. In no way was it like the excruciating pain I experienced on the boat in Ang Thong National Marine Park, but it was still bad. Sometimes I wonder if someone has a voodoo doll of me and keeps pricking my ear and jaw.

Poor hearing in one ear really ruins listening to musical artists like Jack White and The Beatles, by the way. Cryin' shame.

Anyway, Eda and I took a 12.5 hour train during the day to Chiang Mai and in the morning we went to McCormick Hospital - founded in 1889 by Jesus Christ as far as I can tell...and the hospital looks like a fancy resort. I was told it would be better to go to a private hospital than the government one so that I wouldn't have to wait from say 3am to 3pm the following day....

The hospital is really nice and the staff even nicer. I was in good hands and taken care of quite quickly.

Waiting to see the ENT.

The ENT stuck some kind of suction device into my ear and pulled out all sorts of gunk and then declared, "You have a serious ear canal infection." He cleaned out 90% of what was inside but then it started to hurt. And then I got dizzy and needed to sit and drink ginger ale so as not to keel over. What an adventure!

McCormick Hospital prescribes medicine, but good ol' JC is the healer! I was prescribed Sofradex drops - 5 drops 3 times a day and given some Tylenol. The whole experience cost me just over 700 baht = $23 - so my running total now is about $125 on this silly little left ear!

And so this is the middle of the story as I have been taking the drops now for 5 days and in 2 days I have to go get my ear checked again...at that point I should be on Koh Phi Phi where there are only clinics. My ear was good for the first 3 days, but yesterday I started to experience that same voodoo doll shooting pains in my ear and jaw and I have muffled hearing again.

You can't win 'em all. On the flipside - I am so lucky to have Eda to remind me to put the drops in and to let me complain about my pains. Thanks, girl, I owe you big. ALSO, I love Chiang Mai and can see myself living here.

Over and out!