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Sucks to be bound by the Hippocratic oath, so you can't just suggest putting a wet Q tip in the freezer and put that in your ear. I can't believe this thread just went to two pages.
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As long as we’re discussing ear stuff – one of my ears has been weird for about six months. Sometimes it feels like pressure on the eardrum, but most often it feels like little ants with feather dusters crawling around deep inside. I talked to my allergist, and he couldn’t find anything wrong – no wax buildup, no redness or swelling, no dryness, nothing. He said my ear could be the poster ear for “healthy and normal.” But it still tickles so much it makes me want to stab an ice pick in my ear at least once a day.
Anyone (Sara?) know what could be causing this? Or more importantly, what to do to stop it?
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Well, that sounds like an infection of the ear canal, then. Not a zit.
So, you probably should see a doctor.
I'm disappointed, I was hoping for an update that said you finally popped it and detailed description of all the gross stuff that came out. Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I was going to say "ewwwwww" to all of you people, but then I remembered the grim, grotesque satisfaction I took in hobbling around a vacation town in Italy collecting impromptu medical supplies in order to cut away four different blisters on my feet, each the size of a half-dollar.
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dkw, I get that when my allergies cause swelling that leads to constriction of the tubes that connect the sinus cavities to the ear (I can't remember the word right now). The best thing I can do for it: take Allavert to treat my allergies and relieve the pressure.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I have an ear infection. By the time I went in to see the doctor today, I had a fever and some nicely enlarged lymph nodes. After he looked at my ears and felt my neck, he said "Okay, I'm going to give you some eardrops I want you to put in two drops four times a day, and amoxicillin three times a day for ten days."
me "I've never had an ear infection before."
him "Well, there's a first time for everything, because you certainly have one now."
THEN he said I'm not to go fencing today.
And THEN he looked at my chart and said "We haven't done a liver function test in 3 months, so we should do that right now."
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I take a variety of meds, mostly psych meds. Because they could be taxing on my liver, they periodically do liver function tests to make sure my liver is okay. He glanced at my chart and noticed I hadn't had a function test in 3 months.
So while I was THERE...they drew blood for 'em.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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So no poppage, then? Dang. Though it was an infection... so I was sort of right.
quote: connect the sinus cavities to the ear
eustachian tubes? I know those actually drain the ear to behind the tonsils. I had tender ears and ear infections a couple of times a year most of my life.
But I can pop my ears without holding my nose or chewing gum. I have voluntary control over something that clicks in my inner ear. That may be what dkw was describing. I also don't get heartburn, as far as I can tell. I'm a medical oddity.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Wow, never? I had them all the time as a kid and have had about 10 since I turned 14. (It appears I have inherited strangely shaped sinuses from my dad which predispose me to ear infections and sinus infections.)
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I never had an ear infectin until I was fifteen or so. From fifteen to twenty-five, I had them all the freaking time.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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If he's giving you eardrops, then he must have diagnosed you with otitis externa (swimmer's ear), not otitis interna (middle ear infection, typical kid's kind, where we only give drops if you have intact tubes placed in the eardrum to get behind it). That started with a bump? No, like, drainage or iching or anything? Very weird.
I'm glad you went to see a physician after that whole side of your head started hurting and you developed a fever.
I'm still betting on a carbuncle, but the oral antibiotics should take care of that. Keep us posted!
[ September 30, 2004, 11:58 PM: Message edited by: Sara Sasse ]
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Yeah, I too kind of skimmed through most of the posts and I apologize for doing that.
I was treated for acne in the ear in high school. I ended up taking Tetracycline 500 two times a day for a month to clear it up. It never came back, but it was very gross and embarrasing.
I am therefore glad and sad that you have otitis, mack, and have to smack myself for spelling it wrong the first time to resemble a part of a woman's anatomy that I should not be commenting on.
Posts: 1870 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:A little bit more on topic than that last bit, but still pretty tangental: Anybody ever feel like their ears are on too tight? Every now and then I'll feel that way. The area where the ear meets the side of my head will feel...tight. If I, say, turn my head all the way to the left, I'll be able to feel tugging at the base of my left ear that verges on being painful. If I grab my ear and pull it out away from my head it kind of pops, and is somewhat more comfortable for a little while, but before too long the sense of tightness will have returned. Eventually this problem goes away, but I experience it 5 or 6 times a year, I'd guess.
I have had that happen. But I have never tried to pull my ear to make it pop. The feeling does go away after awhile. Nice to know that someone else has this problem too.
Posts: 747 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:dkw, I get that when my allergies cause swelling that leads to constriction of the tubes that connect the sinus cavities to the ear (I can't remember the word right now). The best thing I can do for it: take Allavert to treat my allergies and relieve the pressure.
Owwww. Congested eustacian tubes hurt. Not only that, when it happens, the affected ear clicks, loud, every time I swallow. Like it's doing now. It also tends to start feeling all crawly in there (sort of like dkw mentioned). I've found that the best thing to do is to keep the ear warm. Aiming a nice warm stream of air from a blow-dryer at the ear for a few seconds works. Going to bed and nestling that ear into the pillow so that it warms up works even better. Especially since I hate, hate, hate taking drugs, even the over-the-counter kind.
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Yeah. Funny I started getting swimmers' ear after I joined the swim team, and stopped getting it when I stopped swimming so often. :-p
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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mack, I think you and I have already come to an easy understanding about this, but just to be clear: I don't think it's effective for me to tell you to go to the doctor or not to go to the doctor. I think you make good decisions on your own, even when the world gets a little wacky -- that is, you have great survival skills, and when you mess up, you fix things for yourself.
I know you rely on people in your life who are close to you to help with the mania and when to go in for that, but I'm pretty sure that isn't the way we work best together. And I'm so glad you do have people who are closer to you than I am to help that way. (I have my own crew for similar concerns about my hobgoblins, too. )
It's an approach I've pretty much decided to take with all of Hatrack, the more I think about it. Be frank about when I worry about my friends, link to information that may be helpful, but back off on telling people what they should do. I don't like it when people do that to me, and I suspect telling other people what to do may be more of a power trip for me than a help to them. I'm pretty sure, too, that it doesn't improve outcomes of any sort.
But I'm glad you are on antibiotics! If it's turned into a little abscess, it might have to get drained before it will fully heal (depending on the size, the antibiotics & white blood cells may not be able to get to the center of it). Did you and your physician make a contingency plan for what to do if it doesn't improve? Ar you supposed to call back?
Hope to hear (ha, ha ) it's better in the morning.
[ October 01, 2004, 02:26 AM: Message edited by: Sara Sasse ]
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Isn't it funny how much of life is learning about yourself?
I'm in Ottawa, and though I love my time here, I've finally realized that I absolutely loathe vacations. I will never want to go look at buildings or see re-enactments of famous battles. I will try to justify this in my head by looking down on the plebian exercise of, say, getting in line to go to the top of the Toronto CN tower, but it isn't based on anything subjective. It's just my personal preference.
I will never give a rat's poot about a football game, either. I mean, I can still go and get what out of it I can, but I've given up on getting swept away by it.
For me, the only good vacation would be very very tailored to my specific needs, involve lots of solitary reading or parallel play, and be, frankly, boring.
What a curmudgeon!
Anyway, awesome to have you as a friend, too.
[ October 01, 2004, 02:40 AM: Message edited by: Sara Sasse ]
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Hey, I am on vacation too! But I stayed home and got the home ready for fall and winter...
quote: Isn't it funny how much of life is learning about yourself?
Yes, this week I learned that shaving is overrated, and I am growing a beard like those dudes from ZZ Top.
I also learned that I hate it when people ask questions that I am afraid to answer, because I do not know if yes or no is the appropriate answer, like:
Are you not glad that you did not get to not go to the football game...?
I mean even if I think the right answer is, "yeah, I am" they might have been expecting a "no, not really: because of some wierd regional dialect or grammatical difference.
I'm up awake because my sweetie and I quarrelled about different debarking-from-the-train habits, and so I felt rotten because of the quarrel, and so while he was in a meeting I went and got my eyebrows waxed. Definitely a masochistic pleasure. They hurt like fire now.
Ah, good grief, I just want to be a squirrel. Except for the fleas and the food shortages and the scar-inducing fights with dogs and other squirrels, and the high mortality rate, and the sleeping outside in all kinds of weather, it looks like a pretty good life.
Toronto has black squirrels.
Ottawa has a feral cat colony on the capitol grounds. That's where I'm going tomorrow. I think they capture and neuter, and there is food provided. For the cats.
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Is food provided before or after the neutering?
P.S. Mack, sorry to turn your otitis thread into a conversation!
Today I mowed a field, scared some birds out of my spouting with a 22, changed the oil in everything, and had the fuel tanks for the furnace and propane tank filled.
I am becoming a redneck and have come to favor overalls, coveralls, and John Deere ballcaps. I also chew Red-Man and am learning how to Clog...
Posts: 1870 | Registered: Mar 2003
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You know, I generally feel the same way you do about going to see buildings and stuff. Generally, when I'm on vacation, what I like to do is get a feel for the pulse of life in another place. Unfortunately, most vacations don't last long enough to really make that happen. When Christine and I were in Thailand for 4 months or so, we did do some of the touristy "visting the different wats" type stuff, but it was our least favorite part of the trip. We much preferred just living there, eating at little hole in the wall restaurants on the street, watching the people, and generally getting a feel for the place. I do enjoy looking at and being immersed in beautiful natural places, and I enjoy poking around in ancient ruins and such, and I'm a sucker for a good natural history museum, but I don't feel the need to visit, say, the Statue of Liberty, or the Lincoln Memorial, or anything like that.
About the whole poking through ruins thing, it's funny. When I was driving through England 13 years ago, I went to a number of castles. I'd always wanted to see real castles. The ones that were completely restored, with Madam Tossaud dummies and all that, and with their long lines of gum smacking tourists bored me silly. I was much more interested in ruins like that of Raglan Castle.
Oh, about the "tight ears" thing, I misspoke--when I turn my head all the way to the left, it would be my *right* ear that would feel uncomfortably tight, not my left.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Did this hurt you and much as it hurt me this week? Mine was $1.30 per gallon to fill the 500 gallon propane tank. That will only do us through about 2 months or so of winter (depending on winter weather)
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Good god, that adds up FG! I haven't had a propane tank since I started paying the bills myself (grew up with one in the back yard though), but I had no idea what the price of propane was these days.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Re: rising energy prices: Of note, China is trying to buy into Alberta (Canada)'s oil reserves, and the provincial government is warning off the national government about any thought of nationalization.
My David had predicted this sort of scenario over on GreNME. I'm going to try to get him to post some Globe & Mail links to the stories.
[ October 01, 2004, 11:15 AM: Message edited by: Sara Sasse ]
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
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You know, my kind of vacation has two parts. One is going out and doing something hard, athletic, and something I haven't done before (sea kayaking trip I haven't taken, summiting a mountain I've yet to climb to the top of, snowboarding at resorts I haven't visited). The other half involves sleep. And reading. And writing. And watching DVDs.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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What's wrong with ear drops? I've only had to use them a couple of times, but I love the way they feel.
I don't have a problem with eyedrops, either, which is good since I'm a contact wearer. But when my husband gets something in his eye, I practically have to tie him down to rinse it out with saline! Sheesh.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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They're torture 'cause they tickle the inside of your ear and you have to just let it HAPPEN! o_O
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I have trouble with eyedrops, I think it's pretty natural if one doesn't wear contacts. One time I had a tentacle grow out of my inner eyelid. The doc snipped it off, and it grew back and this time he gave me some topical NSAID drops. I stuck with it- nothing like a tentacle coming out of the eye to overcome minor squickiness. It wasn't prehensile, spotted, or covered with suckers but still...
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Nothing is more satisfying than ear drops when I have an itchy ear canal. Especially Debrox-types, which break up wax buildup. Though, a nurse once told me I could get the same effect with some hydrogen peroxide....
And then there was the third time my eardrum was ready to burst, except that we got to the doctor in time (hadn't the first two times) and she put these wonderful, wonderful drops in my ears that made them stop hurting. And then put me on antibiotics.
Unfortunately, that was not the last of my ear problems.
Posts: 54 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I can't stand ear drops. The actual dropping was a huge ordeal when I was a little kid (Mom would practically have to chase me around the house and hold me down to give me my drops). Sometimes it was refrigerated so it was a cold shock getting the drops, and for hours afterward I could *hear* them rolling around in my head. Uuurgh.
I have had many, many ear infections, but I have *never* had a tentacle in my eye. One more thing to add to the "thank God that didn't happen to me" list. Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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You're young yet. I can't remember if I was pregnant at the time. It may have been before that.
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