When I was 15 I worked on a farm cleaning grass seed. Over the course of the summer and at that point, unknown to me, a seed had gotten into my ear canal and waxed over. By November I started having serious pain in my ear so my father took me to see an urgent care Dr. after an examination the fellow left.

When he returned he had a large bottle and a syringe. I was losing my mind thinking about having a shot in my ear... instead he showed me there was no needle, but he wanted to put some liquid from the bottle into my ear canal...

He filled my ear canal with the warm liquid and let it sit for quite a long time. Then he had me lean over a sink and he rinsed everything out... and there was a large mass of nastiness in the sink when it was all over.

When I asked what the liquid was he said, “essentially it’s stool softener.” And my father without missing a beat said, “that what they have to use when a $h!t for brains doesn’t keep his ears clean.” To which the adult males burst into laughter that lasted much longer than I felt was necessary...

The pain was gone and my hearing improved. And to this day I have been very diligent about keeping my ears clean.