don't wake me

I had an interesting night of sleep last night. My right knee has been killing me from my recent ascent out of Havasupai (look for more in an upcoming post). So last night I wrapped bags of ice around my knee with an Ace wrap. I then slept on my back. That's uncomfortable in itself. I woke up from knee pain around 2:30 AM.

During those moments of half-awake consciousness, I discovered a problem with my left ear. I started feeling it with my hands. It felt unusually large and hot. I ran into the bathroom and to my immediate horror, my ear had tripled in size! It was a total Will Smith moment.


I immediately start looking for some sort of bug bite to explain this hideous swelling, but nothing to be found. My early-morning mind starts racing towards possibilities: ear cancer, Indian diseases, cellulitis... I finally resorted to some good old Benadryl and went back to bed.

I woke up around 8 AM to get ready for work. I had hoped that the whole ear deal was just a bad dream. Not so. Although the swelling did dramatically decrease, my ear is still slightly swollen, red, and hot to the touch. Not to mention it just looks bigger than my other one. Dr. Jones offered to cut it off for me to stop the undoubted infection raging thru my ear.

Another added bonus is that because of the consumption of Benadryl, I woke up more drowsy than usual. You know the feeling you get when you're really tired and if you stop moving at all, this warm feeling comes over you and you're ready to fall into a deep sleep. Yeah, that keeps happening to me at work today. I made a sign for the patients that reads, "If I'm asleep, don't wake me."