What was crawling in my ear?!
Angela Colborn, 38, from London, was convinced there was something living in her ear…
Dashing about again on the school run, I hurried through the alley.
Overgrown, with trees and bushes hanging overhead, it was like being in the jungle!
It was April last year, and just like any other Wednesday.
After dropping the kids at school, I popped round to see my granddad Ken, 87.
Only, as he chatted away, I couldn’t concentrate.
I had a strange itch in my right ear that just wouldn’t budge.
Sticking my finger inside, I wiggled it around.
‘What’s up with you, love?’ my granddad asked. Then the itch stopped.
That’s better, I thought. But, as we sat down for a cup of tea, it came back.
It felt as if something was crawling around inside my ear…
‘Your ear’s very red and swollen,’ Granddad said, looking concerned.
Glancing at myself in the mirror, I gasped. It really was! So, when I popped to the corner shop for Granddad’s newspaper, I
went into the chemist’s.
‘We can’t help you here. You need to go to A&E,’ the pharmacist said. A&E?!
I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time.
But I was certain there was something in my ear. Something alive… It was moving so much, and I wanted it out!
So I shook my head and jumped up and down to try to dislodge it. But no luck. Driving to St Helier Hospital, the tickle was unbearable, and I could hardly concentrate.
There, a nurse looked into my ear, examining it for any foreign bodies.
‘There’s nothing in there,’ she said to me after a while.
Feeling embarrassed, I apologised for wasting her time.
But then… Scratch, scratch, scratch…
It was back! ‘Please look again, I can feel something in there!’ I pleaded to her.
By this point, it was painful as
well as being really itchy. A doctor came to check – and, finally, he could see something in my ear.
Only, pushing tiny forceps in, he couldn’t get at it.
‘Let’s try and drown it out!’ the nurse suggested.
Tilting my head to the right, she dripped olive oil into my ear.
Then she used a syringe to try to suck up the critter along with the oil. Still, nothing was coming. She tried again. Then, suddenly… A leg… and then another… Out of my ear came two dark orange spider legs!
‘I wasn’t expecting that!’ the nurse said, shocked.
Only, there was no body attached to the stray limbs – and, unable to find anything else after another check, she and the doctor sent me on my way home.
Leaving hospital, although the
tickle inside my head had finally stopped, I was worried there was still something lurking in there.
Barely sleeping that night, I was constantly checking my pillow in case something else had come out.
It must’ve drowned in the oil, I decided. Or somehow been filtered out of my body…
I still can’t believe that there was a spider getting comfy in my ear.
Or that it took a trip to hospital to get it out!
Thinking back, I’m sure it must’ve dropped into my hair in the overgrown alley.
Then it had spotted a dark, warm hole and snuggled in.
Whatever happened, it had certainly made itself at home!
Now, every time I have to walk down the alley, I wear my hood up over my head and carry an opened brolly, just in case.
I won’t take any chances of Incy Wincy getting up close and personal with me again!