Let's give yesterday a do over

Saturday began better than most, we'd been taking our Christmas buildings out of the basement and putting them in the yard. It was a nice day to do this and since we'll be gone most of this coming week we thought it would be good to have one job finished.

As I was getting out of the way of Dale carrying one piece of the little church I ducked under the low branches of a wild dogwood tree which stands at the top of our basement steps. All of a sudden I felt a sweep of a sharp branch across my ear, the worst pain I've ever felt followed by my left ear going deaf. By some freaky bit of time and place the sharp end of a twig went into my ear.

It wasn't long before blood was dripping and not long after that we decided to head to a doctor. I was scared to death I'd punctured my eardrum, the pain was horrible and I could not hear. After waiting some while to be seen by the doctor it turned out my eardrum was not punctured but the membrane in the inner ear was scratched and the area around it was swollen and filled with blood and some clotting. The doctor was able to remove some of the clotted blood with a small instrument with a loop on the end, but said I needed ear drop antibiotics to reduce infection and help the swelling. Hopefully when the swelling goes down I'll be able to hear again and the rest of the blood will drain. 

The reason I tell this story is 1, to warn you that while we most often protect our eyes when we're around bushes and trees and we wear gloves, we rarely consider our ears. I am now very cautious when walking around anything with twigs sticking out at head level. Then number 2 is in relation to the post below on negative thoughts. 

Before we went to the doctor I went in to sit down for a bit and heard the circular saw outside the window. It was Dale cutting down that tree! We both felt very negatively toward that tree to begin with and now we hated it. Not only the damage to my ear, but it pretty much put the kabosh on what had been a great Saturday.

So of our 60,000 thoughts for that day, most of the 80 percent negative thoughts went to that tree.

Part of the tree with those thin but strong ends, you move them and they spring back like a whip.

And what's left after Dale used a circular saw to take it down.

24 hours later I still can't hear much out of the left ear and am actively afraid of even walking past the remains.

Comments

[Frank]

Many years ago I was helping a neighbor remove some bushes, and a twig went in my right ear and punctured the ear drum. No blood that I remember, but I punctured an ear drum and I have permanent ringing in the ear. Then I made a mistake and cut concrete with a carbide circular saw blade, and I am sure I damaged my hearing. Always wear ear plugs. So poor hearing ins both ears, and ringing in one. Not good. Good luck to you. I think my father punctured an ear drum on the farm as a kid, when a piece of straw went in his ear and punctured one ear drum.

[Diane Meyer]

Frank, I'm really surprised this is more common than I ever realized