What have we ear?
A BEXHILL hairdresser had the surprise of her life when doctors discovered a small plastic bead embedded in her ear that’s possibly been there for over forty years.
Shelley Ellis, a partner at MJM hair studio on Western Road, had no idea the object was in her ear and said it was pure chance that it was discovered at all.
“I went to see my doctor with a chest infection just before Christmas. He examined me and checked my ears. It was then that he told me he could see what looked like a red bead in my left ear!”
Shelley, 41, was sent the the Conquest hospital where Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) specialists used a miniature camera to take a picture of the object.
The specialists said they couldn’t be sure if it was a foreign body or possibly a polyp (a small growth).
Because Shelley was suffering with a chest infection, she was told to return when she was recovered and they would see if it had changed shape or become inflamed.
On returning to ENT this week all was revealed.
Shelly said: “The top ENT man and a colleague said it was a foreign body. I then had drops put in my ears and the object was flushed out with hot water.
“It looks like a small red plastic bead and I have no idea where it came from or how long it had been in my ear, but I reckon it had been in there since I was a child.”
Shelley was presented with the bead in a small specimen jar.
She said what made the mystery even more incredible was that she had never suffered from any ear infections or had any hearing problems - though she claims she does now have “X-ray hearing!”
PICTURED: Shelley with the bead specialists found lodged in her ear
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Weather for Bexhill-on-Sea
Monday 28 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South west
