Less Than Brilliant

I'm back. After several weeks in exile from technology to study and recover from study (Drink like a fish). Additionally part of my absence has been enforced by a loss of power and clean up from the several storms that have ravaged Brisbane over the last week.

Although I return with an amusing story if anyone still reads this thing. So I'm at the gym the other night and I'm listening to my i-POD. So the right ear phone falls out and I go to put it back in but it feels like it's still in. I take a closer look at it and realise that the damn thing has broken off and part is stuck in my ear canal. So I go see a medical colleague of mine who lives not far from the gym to see if she can firstly visualize the thing (It was wedged quite deeply in the external auditory meatus) and secondly if it could be removed (without the use of shiny pointy instrumentation near my tympanic membrane).

I needlessly point out that these attempts at visualization and removal failed. Thus late on a Saturday night I presented to a after hours GP clinic to have the piece of plastic in my ear. I had trouble explaining my presenting complaint to the secretary behind the desk in a way that didn't make me sound like a complete tool, philistine, troglodyte, moron (take your pick). I was then asked by the doctor exactly how this had occurred and upon quick inspection he was overwhelmed with mirth. Although he did mention that this wasn't nearly the silliest thing he had ever seen, and more a case of poor circumstance. I felt reassured by what he had said and decided to remember this way of presenting circumstances to a patient, it seems likely to come in handy.

Towards the end of the consultation the doctor asked me what my occupation was I admitted to being an medical student. This resulted in the eventual upside of being bulk billed and avoiding the $70 fee that the clinic has multiple signs up in the waiting room to warn patients about the fees.