I may be in trouble, my hearing has not returned?

I normally go through a cleaning regimen twelve to fifteen times each day. Unfortunately last night I slipped on my bathroom floor and a cotton swab got stuck in my ear. I heard a popping noise accompanied by some blood and I cannot pull out the cotton swab for fear of passing out. To make matters worse, I cannot hear from this ear either. I tended to my wound the best I can, taking care to clean around the ear canal and remove the blood, I even managed to sleep on my back the whole night without turning on my side- or so I thought. This morning I awoke to the broken end of a swab on my pillow and I could almost swear the other part is still stuck inside my ear canal. I still cannot hear from this ear but my medical condition precludes me from venturing into public- I cannot afford to be around germs. It is a very similar condition to the bubble boy. What should I do? Should I brave the world and go to the hospital? I feel so silly about all this, what an embarrassment.

Call your doctor and ask if you can come as the last appointment of the day. Wear a mask outside.

just go to the doctor... don't mess with worring about embarrassment, get it checked out... which is more important your hearing or your social status?

You should probably be worried about getting infections or possibly permanent hearing loss. You should not use q-tips inside the ear canal. Call your M.D.'s ofice and find out what they reccomend- you most likely ruptured your tympanic membrane (ear drum).

Sounds to me that you have perforated your tympanic membrane. Unfortunately this is something that is often permanent depending on how damaged it is, unless I am wrong.

You should definitely have it check, at least to make sure it doesn't get infected.

As others have noted, you very well may have punctured your ear drum. This is a common injury that occurs when people stick q-tips, bobby pins and other things in their ears.

When this happens, it's important to ensure that a doctor removes any piece of the q-tip that still might be in the ear, and you may need antibiotics. You also want to keep the ear dry and clean.

The good news is that the ear drum often heals itself, and the hearing loss may be temporary.

But the first step is seeing the doctor. It's important to stress that if you let this heal on its own without treatment, you risk serious infection and permanent hearing loss. For online information specifically about this problem, visit the the American Academy of Otolayngology's web site at www.entnet.org/healthinfo/ears/perforati... (this is the professional society of ear, nose and throat doctors/specialists).