It Gets Worse....

Yesterday morning I woke up to my husband writhing in bed and swatting at himself. It was because one of these bugs pictured above (a Galeritula beetle) had crawled into his right ear while he was sleeping. I would be writhing too.

So...there we are. Asleep. And with a 1 month old, we sleep deeply. I awake to the bed shaking. Look over and there's John moving all over the place. And John's quick, but not at 6am. He bolts to the bathroom and goes straight to the sink. My thought? He's gonna vomit. In the sink. Which makes for one heck of a mess. I scream, "Go to the toilet!!!" (what compassion, right?) But then John yells, "THERE'S A BUG IN MY EAR!!!!!....to which I reply "Can I help?" "Of course you can help....There's a bug in my ear! Get a Q Tip!" Not wanting him to cram that sucker in there any further I don't want to hand him the Q Tip, but I do, because I don't want his current fury to be redirected at me. Then...John starts screaming, "It's biting me! It's biting me!!!" After several attempts to blow the bug out of his ear by holding his nose and applying pressure to his inner ears, he realizes that, indeed, he is not a dragon and no built up steam is going to shoot the bug out of the ear. So he tries hitting the left side of his head, thinking that the bug would feel the jolt and fall out of the other side. And he's yelling, "It's gonna go to my brain!!!!" Finally, several freak outs and bites later, John announces that he thinks the bug is trying to get out. Then I panic. Because I now play the role of the Swatter. Fortunately the bug does come out and I have an easy flick opportunity. The bug falls out and we wash it down the sink. He finally gets to use the Q Tips to get the blood out. Yes, there was blood.

It gets worse.....

John goes to work that day and is having a normal day. A day with an achy ear, but normal nonetheless. After attempting yet another dragon move to 'clear his ears' (You know that thing you can go with your ears when you feel them popping on an airplane or driving through the mountains? That.), John feels the appropriate and expected 'pop' in his left ear, but feels air coming through his right ear.

To the doctor he goes. He learns that the Galeritula beetle not only contributed to one heck of a wake up call that morning, but that he/she also perforated his ear drum. It will heal itself, but as a preventative measure, he's on antibiotic ear drops.

(All during the day I'm googling "insect identification" but was unable to find anything that looked like our friend.)

It gets worse.....

Tonight I come home from the store. John's bathing Jack. Finn's sleeping in his swing. I go to pick up some dirty laundry in our closet and notice as I walk by John's sink this black speck sitting there. He's back!!!!! Which is obviously not cool on so many levels, but good that we were able to trap him. Jack came in there as I was taking pictures and he says "Ewww...bug." Which reminds us again of those nights ago when Jack would say after waking up: bugs in bed. We thought it was a dream, but now? Not so sure. John asked to have some alone time with the bug and specifically said that Jack was not supposed to hear what he had to say to the bug. We gave him his space. It was well deserved.

So this concludes (hopefully) another eventful evening for the Ussery, Jrs.

*The above picture was taken from a website, not from our bathroom sink:)