The Danger of Q-Tips

So I don’t know about you but I use q-tips when they are around. I don’t ever buy them, but it is often my personal routine when over at someone’s house to use one in the bathroom if they are sitting on the counter. You can’t deny that it feels good and clean, but I must warn of the danger involved.

It’s somewhat like one of those urban myths that you hear happened to a friend of a friend of a friend, but I assure you it’s very real as just last week it happened to our drummer Dana. Dana hopped out of the shower last Tuesday, and nonchalantly q-tipped
the water he felt was in his ear. After heading to bed he awoke several hours later by a pain in his ear that continued to get stronger and stronger. By the middle of the night he claimed that he was in the most excruciating pain that he’d ever felt in his life and proceeded to panic and rush to the emergency room on his bike. After the wait of hours, they proceeded to tell him they couldn’t see anything wrong and gave him some mild pain killers and sent him on his way.

After little sleep the following day, the pain came back worse then ever and a ringing started. The cycle continued for the next three days, wearing out Dana’s body and mind, until he felt like he had the flu. It hurt to move and he continued to suffer. On Friday night we had a show and I was almost thinking it’d be certain we’d have to cancel, but Dana decided that he would go to the emergency room again before the show to get some stronger medication. Finally acknowledging that he was in serious pain the doctors gave him OxyContin, which is apparently the mother of all drugs. In a half delusional state, Dana played our show Friday wearing as much ear protection as possible and it turned out great.

We had planned, as I mentioned before, to go into the studio at the end of this month to record some new demos. I was still pushing forward for this, but we really needed to jam everyday this week to be ready in time. I got a call from Dana after a jam we did Sunday and he was very distressed, saying he could not hear a thing out of his ear. Even though the pain had subsided a little, he couldn’t foresee doing a whole day of tracking. To make matters worse, Dana was scheduled to hop a plane for Europe the next day on May 24th. The huge paranoia is that with a torn eardrum, the pressure from flying could cause immense pain and damage.

I feel bad for Dana and I am not sure what he is going to do. It is also a shame that we could not get into the studio to record some new material and our Journey cover before he left for the month. On the bright side however, I will be heading to Toronto for a week to do some songwriting workshops with some EMI folks, and perhaps they can offer some interesting ideas. Plus I get to hang in Toronto for a week which is good in my books! So the moral of this story: Don’t put q-tips in your ear, unless you’re very careful. I know I can’t stop doing it myself, but I will certainly be very, very gentle.