Dr. A Shot the Ear Wax

Dr. A took the metal blaster filled with water and hydrogen peroxide and he kept shooting it into my left ear. Was it sexy or was it silly? Was it messy? Was it useless?

I still heard nothing.

I had just read how radiation might cause eventual deafness in one ear and you know what? I came to realize that for weeks, that for months, that damn left ear had weaker hearing than the right. Was I making this up? Was brain tumor boy now hypochondriac?

I didn't hear you.

The solution was getting all over my t-shirt, my shoulder, down my stomach, and onto the floor, then my right ear recognized a sound: they had found something. But it was not enough. He kept shooting. And shooting. And he found something again. But I still heard nothing from my left ear. I was worried. But Dr. A was not. He had seen this before.

Boom/squirt, boom/squirt, boom/squirt, again and again, until, Wow! I was staring at the floor, but I felt the nurse and Karla and Doc A squint in awe at something strange and larger than expected being pulled out.

All of a sudden I could hear again.

And I saw the brown curls like tiny burnt macaroni in the sink.

It has nothing to do with your brain tumor, he said. Just come on by for a cleaning next time you're having trouble hearing.

When we stepped outside I heard the wind. And I hear the wind now. And I hear the ice cream truck song singing on a Saturday afternoon on the first day of August when it's only 71 degrees.