Have you ever heard about something so scary you thought it could only happen in the movies?
This is just such a story. But the only thing different is that it really happened. And I can hardly imagine anything worse.
It’s only been a month since this particular horror scene took place Katie Holley and her husband had recently moved into a new house in Florida. They had also discussed whether to have an exterminator to rid their new home of pests.
One morning, Katie woke up and felt something in her ear. She grabbed a cotton swab to investigate what it was, but she never could’ve imagined what she’d see when she pulled it out.
I was “like someone had placed a chip of ice in my left earhole — but it was something way worse,” she wrote in SELF magazine, continuing: “When I pulled the cotton swab out, there were two dark brown, skinny pieces stuck to the tip. Moments later, I came to the realization that they were legs. LEGS. Legs that could only belong to an adventurous palmetto bug (Florida woods cockroach) exploring my ear canal.”
A cockroach in her ear
According to FOX News, Katie confirmed that it was a cockroach that had creeped into her ear. But try as they might, Katie and her husband couldn’t get the insect out and sought medical attention.
Katie’s doctor poured a numbing agent into her ear that would also kill the cockroach before it could be picked out.
“Feeling a roach in the throes of death, lodged in a very sensitive part of your body, is unlike anything I can adequately explain.”
The doctor then pulled out what he thought was the whole cockroach and sent Katie home with antibiotics.
Still had pain after nine days
Nine days later, Katie was still in pain and went to her family doctor and told her what had happened.
She flushed Katie’s ear four times and saw what she thought might be another leg.
The more times the doctor flushed Katie’s ear, the more of the cockroach’s body came out. By the time she was done, she had pulled out six more pieces of cockroach that had remained in Katie’s ear for nine days.
Katie was then sent to a specialist to make sure the whole cockroach was really gone.
“Once I got situated in the fancy chair in his office later that day, the ENT placed some sort of microscope beside my ear. He didn’t say much, but he did confirm there was still ‘something in there.’ Using a tool that looked like very large scissors, he extracted THE ENTIRE HEAD, UPPER TORSO, MORE LIMBS, AND ANTENNAE. I just sobbed.”
The doctor also told her that it was the second time that day that he picked a cockroach out of a patient’s ear, writes FOX News.
Katie is currently sleeping with earplugs on and has had an exterminator come and spray the house again so she doesn’t experience the same horror show again.
Share this article with a friend who’s also afraid that a cockroach might creep into their ear while they’re asleep.
One thing is for sure: if I go camping this summer, I’m definitely going to sleep with earplugs in.
