A or B?

To begin our post today, we present a short quiz. Please choose the most appropriate response.

When suspecting that there may be a problem with something in one's house, or with one's health, one should ask oneself the following question:

A) What steps can I take immediately so that this problem does not develop into a full-scale disaster or illness?

B) What problem?

Of course we all know the correct answer.* But studies of human nature show that we do not always behave as we know we should, mainly because this would take effort, something many of us** heartily avoid.

Asking question B) is largely the reason the Hero and I made a frantic call to the plumber one evening regarding a toilet that did NOT, as far as we had let ourselves believe for months, have any problems that might lead to a massive malfunctioning. Plumbers LOVE people who ask themselves question B) a lot. Most likely, plumbers invented question B).

Question B) also led to my recent unplanned visit to a medical establishment, where a nurse who had seemed nice enough thrust a syringe and tube into my left ear numerous times, in the process soaking not only the ear but also pretty much my whole left side with water.

All of this was thanks to my ignoring the increasing discomfort in that ear for some time, in the belief that if I followed this course the problem would go away. Of course it would go away. How could it not, when a problem did not exist? 

Here we come to something else about people who make a habit of asking question B): Once forced to conclude that a problem does exist, they gradually come to the logical realization that this means THE WORLD IS NOW GOING TO END.

That is what I, at any rate, believed one morning when I realized that I could not hear out of my left ear. I couldn't hear my alarm ringing. I couldn't hear the fan whirring.

(I did, however, hear the Hero saying directly into the malfunctioning ear, "Can you hear me??" several times, reminiscent of a certain TV commercial.)

I made immediate, pessimistic leaps to further consequences that were likely, including but not limited to surgery, deafness, and consignment to an institution for those who cannot be trusted to do practically anything.

This line of thinking continued, and grew more dour, at the doctor's office, where two nurses tried to flush out the wax that was blocking my ear canal. I was convinced that should they ever uncover my eardrum it would be destroyed by their constant Chinese water torture.

"Can you hear better now?" they kept asking. With so much water in my ear, I felt that this must be a medical impossibility, but they seemed confident that it would happen.

When the doctor finally called off the torturers, she pronounced my eardrum healthy, although I had my doubts. I was sure that the pain would take days to heal, and chocolate would probably help.

I asked what I could do to prevent such a situation. Not much, the doctor said pessimistically. It happens again, you come in here again.

Which definitely means I am going to continue asking question B).

______________________
* C) Blame the problem on someone else.

** the Hero and Princess