When I was around 7 or 8 years old, I suffered from a few nasty ear infections. I recall one in particular when my Godfather picked my mom and I up to take us to my doctor’s office. I was in a considerable amount of pain in my right ear. On the way to the doctor, I felt a trickle of moisture on the right side of my head. My mom got one of her ubiquitous kleenex from her sleeve and wiped up what was draining from my ear.

The night before that incident I woke up in so much pain that I was crying. My mother got a kitchen towel, put a pile of table salt on it, and heated it in the oven. Then she put that wrapped towel under my pillow and had me lay on my right side. It soothed my painful ear, and allowed me to get back to sleep.

This past Sunday, at 3:00am, I was awakened with the worst ear pain I have had since back in those days. At first I tried to ignore it and go back to sleep. When that didn’t work, I got up and took some ibuprofen, then pulled out the heating pad. With it on the lowest setting I put it inside my pillow case and laid on my right side.

A Monday morning trip to see the Nurse Practitioner at my Doctor’s office confirmed that I do, indeed, have an ear infection She put me on antibiotics, and as of this writing I feel better than I have for about a week.

As a result of all this, I’ve been set back on my goal to walk 200 miles by Christmas Eve. Right now my priority is to get back to 100% health. I elected to take the extra rest today, with an eye to getting back to my routine beginning tomorrow.

Just wanted to give you all an update. By this time tomorrow I should be back to my walking routine, and scheming how to make up those missing miles to still reach my goal. Until then, good health to you all!