HPV vaccine: GARDASIL from Merck (for Clinical Correlates)

on GARDASIL from http://www.gardasil.com/:
( looking again at what they're selling us )

Back to School

Today is Day 1 of Quarter 2. Behind me already is my first class in Medical Ethics (since my undergrad in philosophy in the 80's) and my first clinical correlates class. I'm feeling considerably more settled than I did last quarter. At least now I have a stable place to live, a relationship that has withstood a test or two, and an idea of how things work (or don't work) around here. I passed all my classes from last quarter (didn't find out until I checked my mailbox this morning) and even got honors in one. Woo hoo. Next stop: the bookstore to get a book on microbio for idiots.

I've been coned!

I don't know anything about it but Suzanne knows how to do it. She ordered some ear cones (sometimes called ear candles) from a maker in Sedona that she knows of (at http://www.coningworks.com/) and tonight she burned those things down. It was my first time to be coned, though I kind of knew it was time. Coning is a way to get the excess wax out of your ears, by burning a tube while one end of it is stuck in your ear canal. Makes a crackling noise in your head. Pulls out gobs of wax. Apparently the natives of North America have been coning ears since....they got here, whenever that was. I wonder if they cone in Siberia?

Anyway, I have to say that my hearing is SO MUCH CLEARER that I'm annoyed I didn't try this earlier. I'm 41 years old and this was my first ear coning. Having had it done just once (two more conings to go, a week apart), the music is brighter, the guitar is crisper, and Suzanne's soft words are easier to understand. Life is better. I feel clearer than I have in a good while.

The amount of wax that came from my ears, according to Suzanne, was modest. She got much more out of her own ears. She had hoped that coning would stop her tinnitis, which apparently can be caused by too much wax buildup. But her tinnitis persists, though her ear canals must be among the most pristine.