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Published: November 16th 2008
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The saga of the Kupang ear.
November blog
For me this month has been dominated by an ongoing ear infection.
For Colin it has been a very productive month working with the suppliers to install the new hospital computer system - all is looking good with the project at the moment.
You may chose not to bother reading the rest of this self pitying, whining blog entry which is all about me and my ear
The saga began 4 weeks ago when I went for a celebratory swim on the Friday afternoon of the final day of teaching my 5 week ICT course, this was at the pool of Hotel Krystal, by Kupang standards a 4 star hotel by European standards - fairly dire. The next day I swam in the private pool of an Australian friend of ours who runs a diving business here, he confidently announced that although there was some algae bloom in the water it’s Ok cause it doesn't cause any problems. So I’m not sure which of these apparently clear, clean delightful bathing hole kicked off this saga.
The following day I felt my ear was blocked with water so decided
to catch this thing quickly and went straight to the ear nose and throat specialist in the hospital. She came recommended by the guy whose pool I’d swum in!
There followed over the next 3 weeks many treatments of anti biotic drops, ear dressing, and oral antibiotics at times the infection seemed to go away only to return a day later. All this time I have been unable to work, be sociable do anything except doze, read and watch DVDs. At night I have fevers (although the temperature outside has reaches 40C at times it may just be natural overheating) and been in significant pain
So on Friday 31st October when it was beginning to look like hanging a dead lizard round my neck was the only treatment left to try I opted to fly to Bali to see a specialist here.
The infection by now had turned into an abscess so more antibiotics and dressing but after a week in Bali the abscess was just as large even in spite of lancing it and packing it with medicines (excruciating pain) and its not healing after 5 days (usual span for an abscess) was a mystery to the
doctor.
So I went to the specialist clinic and a dramatic albeit breakthrough along the lines of the film ‘Alien’ occurred.
The doctor put his camera in my ear and was dismayed to find the abscess had grown bigger and the infection increased, he then proceeded to spray hose the ear and suctioned out the debris all the time muttering darkly to himself . When he took another look with the camera there was such excitement. With a whoop of exuberance he announced ‘there is something coming out from your ear - it is large, it is white, I have never seen this before’
So I am with the top ENT guy in Bali who is getting really excited about this strange new phenomenon happening in my ear. Suffice to say he removed it under a local anesthetic and has sent it to the laboratory to be analyzed. So I await with interest the verdict. It was 1.5 cm lomg, .5 wide at widest point , grey white shaped like coral but flaccid - any suggestions????
So now the ear is packed with a dressing and antibiotics and I feel fine now, no pain , no
Right ear with abscess
with a hint of something showing inside it fever - the mere fact I feel inclined to write this sage I think shows I am Ok as before this I haven’t wanted to do anything.
I still have the option to fly home any time, which I will take if I feel I can get better treatment in the UK
The doctor has shared the picture of my ear with me but Colin says I'm not to pollute cyberspce with them so I have put in just two as trailers for the upcoming film 'Monsters from the Kupang Ear'
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Ger-Jan
non-member comment
"Never seen this before", says the doctor
Yes, isn't that just the very last position you wish to find yourself in: the protagonist in a medical freak story. Smiths/Phillimores and weird tropical bugs...