Ear We Go Again!!!

Ugh!!! Ears are our downfall this week! 

First, I took Checkers to the vet as he had really begun shaking his head almost constantly. We thought he might have gotten an ear infection but since they do t do anything or give antibiotics when  the kids get them, we thought it would clear up. The vet looked at me stunned when I asked her if that would have happened. "Are you talking about your kids' ears and your dog's ears...!?!?!?" Ummm uhhhh, no of course not cuz apparently that would be idiotic. (That last part might have been just in my head...)

So once a day we have to hold him, squirt cleaner into his ear canals, massage for a couple minutes to work it in well. Then I have to clean it all back out with cotton balls. Twice a day I need to jam the long nosed bottle of medicated drops down inside each ear and squeeze out 4-5 drops (which I can't actually see coming out and have to guesstimate that I'm applying the right amount of pressure to release), and more massaging. He fights us a bit less if we double team him and the bottles are warmed a bit first so they're not completely cold. 

So that's one situation. 

Next, we went shopping today for earrings. Honey had a $10 coupon for Claire's and Sweetie is able to change her earrings tomorrow but had none to put in. Honey couldn't find 3 pairs she liked so she and Sweetie shared her coupon and the buy 2 get 1 free deal. They decided to spend the extra and get sterling silver so they wouldn't have problems with the cheap metal. Yay! Lovey found some that she liked and everyone was happy. 

Happiness is a tricky thing. It can disappear soooooo fast! Sweetie decided to clean the new earrings so they'd be ready for tomorrow might. Unfortunately, she knocked over the bottle of peroxide which somehow bumped her brand new sparkly turquoise earring and send it....somewhere. We shook out the bath mats, we swept the floor, rumbled around in the drawer by the sink and we removed everything from the counter. Murray used his high power flashlight trying to catch a glimmer...nothing. The last option was the sink. It could have fallen down the drain. Sweetie was extremely upset and the tears were flowing. We examined the drain pipe and it has one of those U bend/trap things that looked like you could take apart! Maybe it was stuck on the little cap! Maybe it is. We'll never know because we couldn't get the thing open despite a few efforts with various wrenchy type things. 

So that was that. No earring retrieved but maybe more caution will be employed in future near open drains! (highly doubtful)

Well then Lovey decided to change her earrings to the new ones purchased today. She came to find me when she felt something hard and lumpy in the hole. "Mummy, I think the back of my earring got stuck inside the hole!"

That didn't sound good, or very likely so I took her to the vanity mirror to investigate. Oh dear heaven, there was something black and chunky in there!!! Holy crap! IS it the piece of metal that somehow got sucked into the hole and wedged there?!??? How would I get THAT out without a handy bout of unconsciousness?!?!? I decided to see if I could pull it out, but there wasn't much to grab onto. Luckily I remembered my tweezers and disinfected those. I almost had a hold of the piece protruding when she noticed I had tools involved and started screaming. We'd now been poking and pulling and disinfecting the spot for awhile and it was sore. I was worried about leaving it in but there was no convincing her to let me try much more. Instead I poured rubbing alcohol on the front and back, cleaned the studs off got them back in and put polysporin on and called it quits for now. We're hoping it is just some dried blood and will keep on disinfecting the site every day and watch it carefully. 

And if anyone (not naming any names... *cough*cough*Nanny) knows how to open that darn trap thing in the bathroom sink drain pipe, give us a call!! Sweetie is pretty sad that her $18.75 earrings are half gone!

Here are a few of the tools of the trade today!

*UPDATE*

Murray didn't give up! He was back at the plumbing tonight and managed to get the cap off the trap! There wasn't anything in there unfortunately. In a last ditch effort, he unbent a coat hanger and put it down the drain to see if it might have gotten stuck on the way down but no luck there either.

Except for some bad luck. The jiggling from the coat hanger caused the pipe to snap, although upon closer inspection, it looked like a section had already weakened and rusted away prior to tonight's activities.

But, all is not lost! Actually, all is found! He happened to look in the drawer beside the sink (previously inspected to no avail) and spied something glittering in the beam of his headlamp! Sweetie will be so thrilled that he found her expensive earring! We are not nearly as excited about the $200 plumbing bill. Nanny, cancel the trap order, can you come install a new pipe instead???

But all is not lost! Actually all is FOUND! He happened to look in the (previously briefly inspected to no avail) drawer beside the sink and spied something glittering in the beam of his headlamp! Sweetie will be so thrilled that he found her expensive earring. We are not nearly as enthused about the $200 impending plumbing bill. Nanny, please cancel the request for a trap opening and update us to "pipe replacement"???

On a brighter note, Honey had a lovely day, got some new earrings which she did not lose and found a great book to read in the latest pile from Grammie.

My highlight of the day was being able to dig some of that gunk out of Lovey's earring hole before bed tonight. The cleaning, disinfecting and polysporining seems to be working.

Must go look up that plumber's number...