Tuesday 9 March 2010

Medical:Ear Pressure and Ear Clearing

Hi guys! I missed my Monday entry again. Nowadays, my afternoon job is killing me and not letting me have the slightest time to write my entry, and so I have to wait until I get back home. I have lots of topics these days, and all of them are pushing me to share with you, so they might sem a little messy. Hope you don't mind.

Well, the one I want to share with you today is one of the reasons I can't hear well in class these few days. I seem to have caught a cold somewhere. No idea where and when, and I used the word "seem" because I didn't visit a doctor but the symptoms fit: sore throat, stuffy nose, dry throat, tiredness, slight runny nose.

http://visual.merriam-webster.com/images/human-being/sense-organs/hearing/structure-ear.jpg

But what is new for me, something that I have never ever had before when I caught cold, is ear pressure. Generally, ear pressure can be easily cured by simple ear clearing techniques, but not this time. I tried everything from yawning to swallowing, as well as those maneuver suggested here.  None of them worked. I guess I must wait until I am fully recovered before the pressure will go away.
Baby Yawning
http://mentalfloss.cachefly.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/baby-yawn.jpg

In serious cases, pressure not released can cause damage in the ear drum, called Ear Barotrauma, but the complication mostly happens to divers, since I haven't done any diving, I suppose my ear drums are still intact.

Anyway, my experience these few days allowed me to realise once more that if we have good health, we are being blessed. This is because it is never guaranteed that we have good health, and we must never take it for granted that our health will sustain if we don't continuously maintain it. The weather is changing fast, so everybody please take good care of yourselves. You can only do what you want when you have good health.



Vocabulary:
complication -- an extra medical problem which makes it more difficult to treat an existing illness
intact -- not damaged
take it for granted -- If you take situations or people for granted, you do not realise or show that you are grateful for how much you get from them




Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuffy_nose
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valsalva_maneuver#Normalizing_middle-ear_pressures
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_clearing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yawning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_clearing#Methods
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barotrauma#Ear_barotrauma

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=15679&dict=CALD&topic=disease-and-illness-general-words
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=41261&dict=CALD