The last thing I remember as I was sitting on the couch last night was seeing about 5-7 seconds of the Scottie Pippen number retirement during the Bulls Game. Next thing I know, it's 3 in the morning, the TV is still on, and I'm alone sitting on the couch. I had fallen asleep while watching TV, sitting up, resting my head on my right hand, while my right elbow was on the armrest of the couch. I hadn't moved in hours. I sat up, taking my hand away from the side of my head and realized I had a problem.

I couldn't hear anything with my right ear. ANYTHING.

the whole side of my head felt weird as I must have stop proper blood flow to the skin on my scalp, and my earlobe was tingling. And there was this slight ringing in my ear.

But if I put my finger in my left ear, I can't hear a dam thing.

As the house started to wake-up, I could "work" on my ear and if I tug on it a certain way, I can get some partial hearing back. But it would go silent again.

I made it through lunch, thinking maybe eating something will get the jaw movement to move something around somewhere to get my hearing back. I just couldn't clear my ear.

It's not getting any better, so it's time to have it looked at. There's no Immediate Care places around us, so we decide to go to the Emergency Room of our local hospital.

The hospital has been in a steady state of construction for a few years now. The new emergency facilities were great. There was hardly anybody there in the waiting room. Just jackets and baby blankets... why do people just leave their stuff there, thinking it will still be there when they eventually leave.

The triage area was nice and the tech there did an efficient job and worried me enough about my high blood pressure to maybe get me back on my medication. The insurance person was efficient as well.

When I finally got called-in - about 90 minutes after first arrival - we went to an ER room with a tech - who had me strip, get in a gown, and promptly hooked me up to a 5 lead EKG. Great. I HATE those friggin' patches because they stick to my fur and hurt like hell when I attempt to get them off of me!

A doctor came in and took a look in the ear and new IMMEDIATELY what was wrong - my ear canal was impacted with wax. The other ear - pristine. He also was a bit concerned about my heart rate (not blood pressure) and wanted to see me after the nurse has her way with me.

The doctor leaves, a nurse comes in and starts to work on irrigating the ear with hopes of flushing out the gunk in the ear. Nada. Nothing happens. Another nurse comes in and is upset the first nurse was already working on me. Seems like the both of them like doing this kind of stuff - getting stuff out of people's orifices. the second nurse leaves as the first nurse really gets into her work. Then she has to go leave to get a different catheter. She comes back, and still another nurse comes in saying that the nurses are fighting over me to get this thing out of my ear. The first nurse if irrigating the hell out of my ear canal and all i can say is two words - wet and pressure. Nothing is changing and nothing is coming out. The nurse sends the third nurse to get some q-tips! We had this nice conversation about how she was a professional and can use q-tips in ears, while us civilians are amateurs and should never put objects in our ear canals.

The q-tips show up and she starts to dig. I feel a pressure change and clear sound as she pulls out this grotesque amalgam of ear wax and God knows what about the size of a very large raisin that was the diameter of my ear canal.

I've never had a wax issue before... and now I'm feeling significantly older, because this is just like what had happened to my dad and even my mom has had wax issues. Hell, hell my sister who is younger than me has had this before... does wax run in the family?