Within weeks, it got worse.
I was asking people to repeat themselves two, three times.
I turned the TV up until my husband asked me to turn it down.
Strangely, the thing that bothered me most wasn't the muffled hearing — it was the itching. That deep, maddening itch I couldn't reach.
I'm not old. I'm active. I talk to people all day. How was this happening to me?
I bought cotton swabs by the bulk box. Drops. Olive oil. A little metal pick.
Every swab came out looking like it had done something — and every time, an hour later, the blocked feeling came straight back.
I didn't want to admit it, but I knew the word for it.
Impacted earwax.
And I knew what that usually meant.