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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/lookoka on 2026-03-26 02:38:20+00:00.
So four years ago I started swimming for exercise to lose weight. (If you're at 120 kgs it's a good way to start btw, almost the most gentle exercise there is and just floating to keep warm burns a considerable amount of calories)
About a month in I started getting swelled ear canals after swimming like an ear infection starting in one ear and then developing in the other. Treated it with over the counter ear spray and I looked stuff up and concluded earbuds in combination with swimmers ear must be the culprits!
So I switched to headphones and silicon ear plugs with my swimming kit. Lost 30 kgs in about a year and dropped swimming since it was more fun lifting weights and I could finally run and hike which was way more fun. So I didn't touch a pool since and stopped using the ear plugs.
But when I dropped my head underwater I could hear a crackling noise. Just thought it was a side effect from the constant ear infections and thought nothing of it since I didn't get them anymore anyway and I can live with that. Last month I went swimming again with a friend and got the ear infections again. Spray, pray and it went away.
I stopped using cotton swabs two years ago since it fell apart in my ear and I panicked trying to get it out and was luckily successful. I switched to ear wax remover and a rubber squeeze ball to rinse.
So yesterday I was cleaning my ears when I out of nowhere coughed. Instead of the ball hitting my ear drum it just bounced? So I did palpitations and just felt a hard wall.
One doctors visit later I have four brown almost black pinhead cotton plugs in my hand (two for each ear and my hearing ability has about doubled and been completely regained with no lasting damage. The ear infections came from pools chlorine soaking into the cotton plugs and causing chemical burns.
Don't clean you ears with cotton swabs aka Qtips folk.
But it taking me 18 years to discover I have neededd glasses since birth and getting diagnosed with ADHD at 26, 4 years to solve a medical problem is pretty ******* quick
TL;DR: Started getting ear infections from indoor pools and unnoticeably losing my hearing, didn't seek help and discovered I had 4 cotton swabs aka Q tips lodged in my ear causing chemical burns from the pool chlorine 4 years later.