I just got off the phone with my Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. The good news? The lump didn't show any odd signs to link to any diseases. OK, great! But being that I wasn't even slightly concerned about that in the first place, since we knew the lump developed from a too large ear bud on my hearing aid, I was shocked to hear it was even tested. OK, nothing wrong with being safe I guess.

Then I asked him about my pain. You see the pain meds I can take every 4 hours, stop working about 2.5 to 3 hours in and I'm left with some pretty bad pain. Now I'd be the first person to tell you my pain tolerance is next to nothing so what may be painful to me may only be slightly painful to most other people. But in this circumstance, I'm left nauseated for about 2 hours from the pain and then fine for about 2.5 to 3 hours on a rotating shift. Another fun fact? Because the lump was in my ear canal the pain isn't restricted to one area, instead it spreads into my jaw and makes it difficult to talk/eat when the pain meds have worn off. Plus, those pain meds make me loopy and unable to completely focus. Needless to say I've been a pretty miserable person and Dusty even suggested that I call my doctor as neither of us expected me to be taking so many pain killers for so long.

What does this kind doctor tell me? He reassures me that the pain I'm feeling is normal. As long as the pain hasn't increased more than the first day (it hasn't), I don't have a fever (I don't), and my face or ear aren't swollen (nope) then it sounds like everything is normal and that it can take up to a week for me to start to feel better. That's why he prescribed so many pain pills.

A WEEK people! That means I could still be feeling like this over the 4th of July! I'm going to need a 4th of July miracle that makes it so I'm not in pain that day, do you think I could get that instead of a Christmas miracle? I'm keeping my fingers crossed.