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Discussion

Ear bug!

Okay, guys, I have seen a lot of things, but today I saw my first bug in a student's ear. It was a frequent flier, at first I thought student was pulling my leg when he said "there is something in my ear." But I figured I'd take a look and likely send him back to class.

Take out my basic otoscope and sure enough, there is what may be a beetle in there, nestled a little too far for my taste to try and remove.

Friday is never boring...

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    • Featured Replies

    EWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!:yuck:

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    My sheltered little world got shattered when I did an agency shift monitoring BP on an ER boarder and a woman came in dressed for work at 0530 and nonchalantly states she has a roach in her ear, no registration, no record, the doctor took it out and off to work she went. This was the early 90's, Catholic hospital, probably seen as community service.

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    I can deal with a lot of things but this might have made me vomit! I hate bugs!

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    • Author

    I was surprised, the poor kid was suffering as it kept moving! I called his mom and sent him home to have his pediatrician take a look. I was kinda surprised about how calm I was looking at it.

    He totally grossed out a few admin and teachers when he told them why he was going home. I couldn't help but laugh a little at the reaction... :cheeky:

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    • Experts

    Surprisingly enough this is pretty common...at night. When I worked nights in the pedi ER, we would have kids come in on a fairly regular basis, during the wee hours of the morning, with a bug in their ear. in many of the cases the bugs would crawl out in triage when we shined the otoscope light into the ear canal, some needed lavage, and some you could grab with alligator forceps.

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    • Experts

    Oh yea, I keep a bottle of Olive Oil in my clinic for such occasions. Fill the kids ear canal up with the Olive Oil and that will help stop the bug from squirming so much and eventually drown it.

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    Last year I had a Pre-K student come in with complaints of ear pain. With an Otoscope, I found a SNAIL SHELL stuck against his ear drum! When I asked how it got there,he said he was "trying to listen to the ocean" :laugh: Had to go to ENT to get it removed.

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    • Author
    Oh yea, I keep a bottle of Olive Oil in my clinic for such occasions. Fill the kids ear canal up with the Olive Oil and that will help stop the bug from squirming so much and eventually drown it.

    No olive oil in my office currently, but may bring some in now! Though not sure I would still try and remove at that point - have you, OldDude?

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    • Experts
    No olive oil in my office currently, but may bring some in now! Though not sure I would still try and remove at that point - have you, OldDude?

    I do remove object from ears if I have a clear view and the object affords some surface to grasp with tweezers or forceps. Sometimes I'll get one of the office girls to pull on the pinna to help straighten out the external ear canal for a better view and better access.

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    You guys are brave. I do not go diving into ears. Had a few rocks last year and the kids had to have them surgically removed.

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