When I was young, about four years old, I was in a bad situation. It started when I was up in the village, Venetie, visiting my grandparents. When I went back home to Fairbanks, where my mother was waiting for me, I was eventually taken to the hospital. After my first visit to the hospital after leaving the Village, my mother took me more often. Apparently something was wrong with me. The nurses and doctor said I was fine, but my mother still had doubts.

This is what I remembered. So arriving at the hospital, my mother got me a check-up to find out what was wrong with me. The nurse examined my left ear. I had no idea why, but I was a bit anxious. At that time I was nervous but after going to the hospital constantly, I adapted to the hospital, as if it was my second home, I guess.

The more I went to the hospital, the more things began to get serious. There was one doctor who seemed more serious than any other doctors I’ve seen.  He would stare at my left ear and talk to my mom. Honestly, I was scared because my mother brought me to a different doctor who immediately wanted to fix me. I didn’t know what he meant by that. After my first day at a different hospital, the next day I was suddenly put into a room and it was clear white in there. I was bit frighten but later the nurses calmed me down. After they lie me down on a table and right after they did so, they put a mask over my mouth and I feel asleep.

After that, all I was being pulled around in a wagon. But before I was pulled around in a wagon, there was a nurse who was coming after me with scissors. My first thought was, “she’s going to cut me”. I watched as she came closer and closer. As she raised the scissors to the left side of my face, I began crying. I didn’t want her to cut my ear off. I actually didn’t want her to cut me anywhere at all. My mind was going crazy, my heart beating quickly, and I wanted to leave. For several minutes of my mother and the nurse trying to calm me down, I finally calmed down and allowed the lady to do whatever she had to. There was some kind of strip of paper wrapped around my ear.

That’s actually all I remember and as I think of it now, I feel so embarrassed. Since this is all I remember at that time, I asked my mother if she remembered anything about that. But I told her how I remembered it and she told me that I was wrong. So apparently it didn’t really happened as I remembered it. Or at least the part where the nurse was trying to cut my ear didn’t happen. I swear that woman was trying to kill me. So my mother told me what actually happened and she starts off when she notices something on my ear one day.

My mom was giving me a bath one night, until she noticed something upon my left ear. Every time she tried to wash my left ear, I’d wince a bit in pain. My mother assumed it was probably an infection, so she took me to the Clinic. A doctor examined my infection and told my mother that it would be gone within a few weeks. That was only if my mother applied a damp cloth. My mom did this every day but she had not once seen any improvement. So my mom began bringing me into the Clinic more often.  She explained how it was only getting worse and the only thing the doctor told her was that she was probably not doing the method right.

Later, my mother decided to go somewhere else where someone would actually help me instead of saying I was fine, when I was actually getting worse.  By the time my mother found an, ‘ear, nose and throat’ doctor, she literally had to beg for an appointment. She kept asking if there was any possible way that I could have an appointment on that same day, but they declined it. But eventually they worked it out and I was going to have an appointment by the next morning.

When the next morning arrived, my mother brought me in and I met a doctor who actually helped me. After he saw the condition I was in, he suddenly became angry and called the Clinic I used to go to. He argued to them saying that my infection was a lot worse than anyone had ever thought. So immediately, the next morning, I ended having to get surgery.

A few weeks later, I was better than ever. Although my mother had to bring me in a few more times just so the nurses can do a clean up. Basically, what I had was a hole right above my left ear, but it wasn’t necessarily a hole through my skin, it was just a hole that was too deep. My mother has the same hole above her right ear but it’s not infected, neither is it deep.

My mother told me that if she didn’t switch me to another doctor, the infection could have ruptured because it was too deep and it would have went straight to my heart and brain. If it did ruptured than it would have flowed through my blood cells and I guess it would have reached my heart and brain. I have no idea what I’m talking about but all I know is that I couldn’t have died. My mother said that I was being pulled around in a wagon before I had my surgery and that the woman was not trying to cut my ear off. That last one was a big relief.