I have had a ruptured eardrum- Ginger.

I am so sorry about the pain, Suzi.

If feel like kindly brontosauri would make me get them what they want as slow as possible. I think I have KBd customers however, when they were trying to scam me.

I left my anti-depressants at work over the weekend and I am still recovering. If there was a zombie apocalypse and I ran out, I think I would be dead, because the withdrawal is horrible to me. I was/am out of commission for 2 days after not having it for 2 days. That is the first day is OK, but the day (today) I start taking them again, it takes awhile to build back up in my blood stream and I am still nauseous, have a headache, tired, anxious, dizzy, have brain zaps, and basically feel like I have had a stroke.

May all Buffistas stop being sick and hurty now, please, Universe.

I didn't read the article, I'm assuming Kindly Brontosauruses are those people who don't make a fuss but just stand there, a little too close, and watch you, until you give in, right? Those persons irritate me and I am unlikely to do anything for them that I wasn't going to do anyway and/or I do not absolutely have to do. You can stand there all day, buddy. Being stared at does not faze me. I've been stared at naked.

They smile and look sweetly at you too--it's basically grooming the person you want stuff from, instead of just leaping in (politely) and getting to business.

I ruptured mine as a kid, Ginger, and one of Sara's ruptured when she was about five. One key: If the pain builds up and then stops, and there's a horrible smell/ick coming from your ear, it probably burst.

I did something stupid involving a Q-tip. My left ear has been bothering me for months, and every few doctors' visits, I ask a doctor to look at it. They never see anything. Anyway, the itching and burning sensation has been helped by carefully swabbing the ear with alcohol. (FYI, because of the "your ears must be burning" idiom, it's difficult to google "burning sensation in ears.") I am, however, rather unsteady on my feet with the anemia, and I lost my balance and the Q-tip went in further than I meant it to. It didn't seem like anything major, but a few minutes later my hearing was reduced in that ear, and this morning I itched my ear and found dried blood. I don't know if a doctor's visit is called for, and I really don't want to admit to a doctor that a lifetime of flouting the "don't put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow" rule finally caught up with me.

ETA: On the other hand, my ear feels better than it has.

I'm pretty sure I could ignore a passive-aggressive brontosaurus forever. I do not give one single shit about someone else's arrogant entitlement, which is why I sucked at service industry jobs.

However, I think if the brontosaurus was a man, and I had asked him to sit down or step away, and he opted to continue to loom, I would call security on him, because I suspect it would feel threatening, not passive-aggresive. But a woman with what she thinks is a "kindly, benevolent" smile? Please. She can stand there until the store/counter/museum closes for all I care and then bunk down and sleep there, as long as she doesn't physically get *between* me and my actual job.

I don't think you ruptured it, Ginger. You could have had something like a zit in there -- that's happened to me, too, and it's awful.

If it were me, I wouldn't go to the doctor at this point, but I am a "wait until it's really bad" patient, so take that with a grain of salt.

Rather than alcohol for ear-swabbing, I use a dab of cortisone/anti-itch cream. Eczema inside your ear canals sucks.

I see my oncologist tomorrow. I suppose I could ask him to look in my ear one more time, although most specialists seem pretty clueless about things outside their specialties.