So, I Was Freaking Out That My Left Ear Couldn't Hear Yesterday (Don't Worry, I'm Fine)

This was me yesterday in regards to my left ear.

Now that I've had time to process this, I'll share a story about yesterday. I woke up Wednesday morning and noticed I could not hear from my left ear, basically at all. My right ear was fine but my left ear was muffled to the point that if you snapped your fingers loudly right next to it I would've barely noticed. This obviously freaked me out but the internet was (mostly) reassuring, telling me I probably had impacted ear wax. The internet also said I could have a tumor on a nerve or other terrifying things, but I figured/hoped it was just the ear wax. I made an appointment for the first opening at a local Urgent Care that I could on the internet and was there the moment they opened. It turned out that it was indeed a bunch of impacted ear wax, so that was good.

After discussing how I make a lot of wax and being told it was good I didn't stick a q-tip in there (I've been taught that's always a bad choice), they did a weird irrigation thing with this special water-mixed-with-chemicals blend they blasted into my ear. The wax came out and I could immediately hear which was nice after how strange it was having no sound coming through for a number of hours to my left. My mother has worked in audiology and when I texted her about what happened she said people don't realize how much wax can stop us from hearing. I now have some firsthand experience proving that enough wax getting impacted will block out a shocking amount of sound! For real though, everyone, keep your ears as clean as possible via safe and responsible methods. You don't wanna experience impacted ear wax as it is scary when you don't know why half your hearing suddenly is gone!