I have something in my head... literally

My dearest Sassies,

Please forgive these departures from celebrity smut. I can't help myself. Weird shit is going on and I must share. I'll start from the beginning. Last spring (April 2009), my boyfriend and I were cycling in a park when we came across a very narrow trail with a lot of thick tree branches lining both sides. Of course, we decide to take this trail because we're adventurous like that. At one point, I lost my balance, and a tree branch basically stabbed the back of my left ear. 

Needless to say, it hurt like a bitch but I kept on riding because I'm tough like that. Back at the car, our adventure done, my boyfriend took a closer look at my shanked ear. There wasn't a lot of blood but there seemed to be a pretty big gash. He thought it would be a good idea to go to Emergency and get it looked at. I balked at the idea but caved and ended up going to the hospital.

Once there, we waited, and waited, and waited... Then, we were brought into an exam room, and waited, and waited, and waited. We started playing with some of the equipment, out of sheer boredom, then got kicked out of that exam room and put into another. Finally, a doctor arrived. We explained what happened, he looked at my ear, then said "This is why I don't exercise." He flushed out the wound with water and glued it together (apparently, they use glue now instead of stitches for some minor wounds). 

Over the next year, I sometimes noticed a little bump in the back of my ear and always thought it was the scar from this incident. I never bothered to actually grab a mirror and look behind my ear. Well, this past weekend, my boyfriend took a closer look because, from what he could see, something just didn't seem quite right. After a closer examination, he suspected a piece of wood may still be lodged under the skin behind my ear. You must understand that usually, I don't worry too much about my health. Until someone tells me they think a foreign body is stuck under my skin. Gross.

So, at my boyfriend's suggestion, I went to see my family doctor who looked at it and said "Huh". Her theory: it could very well be a piece of wood or a piece of broken cartilage. She thinks there's definitely something there. Meanwhile, I'm thinking I should start shopping for funeral homes. Sometimes, my reactions are slightly out of proportion with what's actually happening. I had a tearful breakdown in a bathroom stall once when I found out I needed a root canal.

It's a mystery since there doesn't seem to be any kind of infection, there's no pain, and it hasn't really bothered me for over a year. The family doctor decided to refer me to a plastic surgeon, who will ultimately decide my fate, since she concluded her expertise in this area was somewhat limited.

Knowing there's something stuck in my head feels kind of weird. Ignorance really is bliss. Of course, this surgeon may decide not to do anything if it really isn't bothering me and it's not causing any harm, apart from the circus freak aspect of it. Except now it is bothering me, psychologically speaking, because I know it's there, and I don't quite know what it is.

Of course, I'm trying to keep things in perspective and have a sense of humour about this. Yesterday, my boyfriend and I were discussing something having to do with sex and I said: "Hey, now I have wood too!".