the adventures of my left ear

The last two weeks of life in Amman have been relatively quiet, with some small exciting moments but nothing outrageous or extreme.

Friday night we - being my Aussie and Belgian housemates and the Pakistani expat from downstairs - went to a concert for a local Jordanian band called Autostrad. Their music kinda sounds like John Butler trio meets Cat Empire meets something entirely else that it's hard to explain. The concert was held in this old cinema in downtown Amman, with carpet going up the walls and the egg-chairs being this retro orange colour that rocked back-and-forth. We somehow managed to score front row seats, however after the music started this advantage quickly became obsolete as the boys from behind us got to their feet and moshed forwards. As this is Jordan, and the concert was an underage gig, there was no alcohol, so whilst there was moshing and excessive consumption of Red Bull, there was this lovely calmness that comes when there are no stupidly drunken people which I absolutely loved. The music was so catchy and easy to dance to, and even though I understood nothing of what they were singing or saying, it was still a great night. Surprisingly the concert started precisely at 7.30pm, and finished before 9pm with no encore or anything... so we decided to just go home and chill - or so we thought...

Autostrad! So close! Took this with my Blackberry Q10 with no zoom

Last Sunday I had gotten my tragus pierced - it's something I had been wanting for a while and thought "why not" now that I am 30 I needed something to commemorate such a big occasion. I did my research and found this amazing salon (HuzzInk) which is fully accredited and has all the appropriate sterilisation equipment etc. The guy was super nice however the procedure was horrendous - I had read online that the procedure hurts but seriously I've never fainted before but I think I was pretty close too it. The guy did say that my cartilage was rather strong but also said that he was amazed I didn't faint. But if you're in Amman, Dubai or Cairo and want piercings or tattoos, these guys are the place to go.

My beautiful shiny tragus piercing

Fast-forward back to Friday night and at some stage during the concert I touched my ear and noticed that my piercing was no longer there. Earlier that morning I woke up after having slept on my new pierced ear and discovered that the earring had been pushed inside and the hole had started to close over - I disinfected my tweezers with ethanol and pulled it out and cleaned my piercing with iodine and thought nothing of it. So when I couldn't feel the piercing I thought that it had done the same thing again - gone under the skin - especially as the site was all swollen and there was a lump which felt like the earring.

After the concert I asked my Aussie housemate to try and pull it out with the tweezers, to which she did attempt but after deliberation with my Belgian housemate decided it was better to let the professionals deal with it and off we went to the Amman Medical Centre. The triage nurse laughed at me and said I had been playing with it too much, which is true, and sent us straight through. The Dr rostered on that night was wearing a t-shirt that read "trust me I am a Doctor" which I thought was ironically cool. We went to radiology for an x-ray; my housemates were looking on the screen even before the technician was - medically trained people must make annoying patients. Anyway, we went back to the Dr who decided to try and remove it in minor theatre with local anaesthetic - yeah he sucked at administering the local as it went through my piercing and into my ear canal, so when he was digging around I could feel everything. As we were only in minor theatre he was not willing to open up the area far, and so could not find it. He closed it up and said that if it had not expelled itself in two weeks then I was to go in for surgery...

say what?!

Me looking sad with my bandaged ear

Slightly freaked...

So I spoke with my Doctor friend who lives in the apartment underneath me, who spoke with his Doctor friend who is a maxillofacial surgeon. He offered to open it up further and remove the earring. Super nice fellow - he administered the local anaesthetic perfectly (my face is still numb as I type this) and looked around but alas, he did not find the piercing and stitched me back up. His conclusion is that the lump we felt is trauma-related and that the earring has fallen out at some stage, but that if by the slightest chance the earring is still in there the body will expel it. He said after the wound has healed I am free to put an earring back in but advises against a small plastic piece and suggests a solid metal earring, like the one in my upper right ear.

Post minor surgery this morning - stiches and all. Not so sad but feeling sheepish 

Yeah, lesson learnt - when I put my tragus back in I shall also put a bandage over it so I don't play with it so much. But now I have a cool x-ray of my head and my first (and hopefully last!) experience of surgery and stitches.