Calvin Wright, 46, was a loud talker. Turns out, it's because he had a pearl stuck in his ear. For 41 years. When he was 5, he and his big sister broke their mom's pearl necklace, and she, goofing around, pushed pearls into his ear. One got lodged and, when their mom got home, they had to visit the doctor to have it removed. Turns out though, the doc missed a second pearl buried even deeper in his ear canal. This month, Wright, suffering from bronchitis, was examined by a nurse practitioner who spotted it. From the Atlanta-Journal Constitution:
"The nurse was checking my ear and said, 'Do you use Q-Tips?'" Wright said. "I said yes, and she said, 'you've got one in your right ear, I'll get it out.' She tried getting it and then she was like, 'Whoa, this is hard. This is not a Q-Tip. Looks like you got a pearl in your ear.'"
Nurse practitioner Christina Harrelson and nurse Haley Faulkner referred Wright to a specialist. Dr. James Dempsey removed the pearl, which Wright kept…When the second pearl was discovered, doctors asked Wright if he had suffered headaches, sinus problems or other symptoms. But the only effect was he struggled to hear himself speak.
"Everybody would say, 'Why don't you lower your voice?'" he said. "Now, when I went to the barber shop , they said, 'You're not talking loud like you used to.' I notice I can hear myself better."
"Pearl comes out of ear 41 years later" (Thanks, Jason Weisberger!)
