For the first time in nearly a month, I just took a shower and washed my hair without having to worry about getting water in my ear. I don’t mind saying that it felt pretty luxurious. I’d perfected a method for keeping the water out — first I covered a piece of gauze in vaseline and put it in my outer ear, then put a piece of waterproof gauze over that and taped it in place with an adhesive bandage; while washing my hair I then held a paper cup stuffed with a washcloth over the whole shebang and did the best I could to get my hair clean with one hand and a healthy dose of terror — but it’s so much nicer, not to mention more efficient, just to let the water run over my head. Not only that, but I was finally able to wash out my ear. It’s not a body part that I generally think of as getting very dirty, but after the surgery with its blood and yuckiness, a week or two of viscous ear drops, and four weeks of putting a vaseline barrier in it every time I showered, it felt grosser than I care to describe in detail.

As you may have surmised, I did indeed get the all clear from the doctor on Tuesday, and now I can feel free to fly, to take normal showers, to lift heavy objects, to get a headcold — in short, to do all the things people without sliced-through eardrums can do. And best of all, of course, I can hear out of my left ear! It’s not perfect yet, but I’m assured that it takes a couple of months to stabilize, and already I notice a big difference. I wasn’t actually that close to deaf on that side, but I missed enough that it was noticeable. I’ll have my first hearing test some time later in the spring, and I’m looking forward to seeing in hard figures how much it’s improved. Until then, though, I’m satisfied enough with clean hair.