Month: June 2025

After several attempts to flush my ears, I threw up my hands and wound up where I should have gone in the first place.

Last november I had my annual physical and Dr. W. is very thorough. When she checked my ears, she told me I had impacted wax in my right ear. As this seems to be the norm this past decade, I told her it seems that approximately every 3-5 years I have to get my ears flushed. Some people just manifacture wax. I asked Dr. W. if she’d remove it, but time had elapsed and she told me to make another appointment so she could do it. Sure, not so convenient, as she’s up north of the city, about a 35 minute drive. Winter was approaching on that visit and I didn’t relish the thought of driving up there again if it was snowing or the roads were bad.

I always use homeopathic eardrops for this problem, and don’t put anything other than drops in my ears. The drops are to soften wax and eventually anything there would fall out in the shower. No such luck. I bought some apparatus to flush my own ears from Amazon – to no avail.

I still didn’t feel like I was in a fishtank with plugged ears, so I thought I’d wait and go to a walkin clinic in Mexico when I went there for my winter vacation. Ironically, one of my Canadian friends in Mexico who stays in the ‘friends’ condo building, mentioned that her sister went to the walkin clinic up the road because her ear was totally plugged. My ears perked up.

I asked her how it went and how much? She told me her sister was ecstatic like she could suddenly hear again and only paid $1000 Pesos, equivalent of about $70 Canadian dollars. The next morning I walked the twenty minutes up the main street to the clinic. It surely wasn’t busy, it was state of the art decorated and I was hopeful. I went to the reception desk and asked for an ear flush procedure. This young girl, a little more interested in her phone than doing her job, looked up at me and told me it will cost $3000 Pesos. I retorted, “Are you kidding me?” She looked puzzled.

The receptionist continued to break down the ridiculous money grab. I differed with her information. I also told her my friend Marian D. was there, I gave her the date and time, and added, I know for a fact she paid $1000 Pesos. Her reply, was some made up BS . I may have left some unpleasant words as I stomped out and headed back to the condo. Mission unsuccessful.

I promised myself I’d make a doctor appointment when the weather got better, but winter was trudging along nonstop, after we had our fake start spring. I had a dentist appointment, which is next to the pharmacy I use, who had recently sold some of their large space to some doctors. I realized they had a walkin clinic right there. I decided, what the hay, I’m going to kill two birds at once.

After the dental appointment, I walked into the clinic, went to reception, asked her if they could flush my ear, and she told me they could do it, at a cost of $40. So worth it at this point, despite it being free if I went to my doctor’s office.

At this point, I don’t need someone looking in my ear to tell me what I can already feel, again, like there’s something deep residing in my eardrum. The doctor takes a look in both ears and announces, “there’s nothing there.” I was not a happy camper. I proceeded to ask her how on earth she could say that to me, especially knowing my problem, and my doctor saw it in November and it was now April. She was lacking a bedside manner, but proceeded to grab an apparatus – the same useless thing I used unsuccessfully at home! Again, not a happy camper, but I let her do her thing. Of course nothing came out, because you need a certain pressure to do a flush, not a bloody squirt gun. I stood up and grabbed my purse, without a word I walked out.

I stopped at the reception desk where I was to pay for that service. I told the girl that I was sorry but I refuse to pay for a service I didn’t get done. She said, “Okay,” and I left.

Next . . .

I finally made an appointment to go back to Dr. W’s office and get the matter rectified. That was over three weeks ago. She brought out the big stainless steel bazooka ear flusher and flushed my ear three times – TO NO AVAIL. Nothing came out. She then said she’s have to use a curator tool to grab on to the wax. A tiny dot was lassooed out. Unsatisfactory. Dr. W. proceeded to tell me she had no other tools and preferred I go see an ENT specialist to perform the removal. It was Saturday, and she said she’d email me a referral during the week.

Dr. W. was in the midst of moving her offices two days later. The place was in disarray, and unsurprisingly, I never got a call back for an ENT appointment. Heck nobody was even answering the office phones. I was pissed.

Last week I took it upon myself to Google up Hearing Clinics. I’ve seen a lot of ads for these clinics lately offering free hearing exams to seniors. I called one close to me and asked if they also did wax removal. THEY DID! As this was a private institute I was told I’d have to pay $50 for each ear. I told the receptionists I was more than happy to pay to rectify this ongoing saga, and that I only had one ear to contend with.

I went there last Thursday. Literally a five minute drive from my home. Josh the audiologist looked in my ears and told me there is nothing blocking my ear drum, but just a little wax surrounded the site. He let me see it on camera screen. It looked so minute to cause such annoying havoc with my hearing. But in one swift motion he removed another bit of wax. I was disappointed not find come out what I was used to seeing come out through the years of ear flushing, but I guess all those lubricating ear drops have helped minimize the wax accumulation.

After the removal Josh asked me if I had time to do a hearing test FREE. I said, why not! It was weird locked into what seemed like a recording booth, him asking me to repeat words and hit the mic button every time I heard beeps. He told me my hearing is almost perfect and one ear failed to hear a few beeps that he thought I didn’t have to worry about anything presently. That was a relief!

When I left, I went back to reception to pay Erika (who we’d already become chums), when Josh walked out at same time and told Erika not to charge me!

Motto of my story: If you want something done, make it happen yourself because this world is just too busy to keep up with all of our needs.

©DGKaye2025