sholio | Medical question

I figured I'd put this in a separate post rather than cluttering up the last one with medical TMI. It's very mild TMI, but I'll cut it anyway...

Does anyone out there have the slightest clue what it means when you put peroxide in your ear and it hurts like fuck?

I've been having intermittent discomfort in one of my ears for a year or so, which I attributed to earwax, and finally went and got one of those over-the-counter bottles of drops that's supposed to clean it out (containing a peroxide solution). I put in a few drops yesterday evening and left it in for a few minutes, as directed.

It didn't hurt at first. But gradually over the evening, it hurt worse and worse, until by bedtime it was up to full-fledged ear-infection levels of pain. It didn't have the hot tight feeling that usually goes along with an ear infection (in me at least), and I could still hear normally out of that ear; it just hurt like someone was spiking an icepick into my eardrum. I finally took enough painkillers to fall asleep, and woke up today feeling relatively normal, though my ear is still kind of sore and achy.

I figured there are quite a few parents out there on my friend list, and everyone has ears, so I'd see if anyone has had something like that happen. If it was still hurting at last night's levels, I'd probably go to the clinic, but it's not, so I don't really feel the need to drive all the way into town to do that. However, the drops are supposed to be used for four days, and I sure as heck don't feel like putting more of them into my ear right now.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I have a condition that makes me prone to ear infections and have been to a lot of ear doctors. I think that if its such a chronic problem and the medicine caused you pain then the best thing to do would be to see a doctor about it, after all its ridiculously easy to damage your hearing. I know a bunch of people who have had wax removed by a doctor (a lot of it) and it seems to be the way such problems are generally solved.

Also, if you're into alternative remedies, I heard about a procedure called ear coning (or maybe conning?) in which smoke is used to dissolve buildup. It would undoubtedly be less painful than the drops, but depending on your insurance, seeing a Doc could be cheaper.

Ear candling/coning, yeah. I had that done once or twice when I was a lot younger, since my dad is into the whole alternate medicine thing. It didn't really seem to help one way or another, and it's kind of a pain since you have to lay there forever with this candle sticking out of your ear... though, the amusement value is pretty high...

Ear candling is what it's called. :)

I just finished massage school in mid-Feb and have heard of it, but have never seen or had it done. My roommate went to go learn it the other week, from one of the teachers at her massage office, since she is in her last six weeks at school.

It's supposed to be very painless and doesn't take that much to do. And, if you learn to do it yourself, you can probably save $$ by buying the candles yourself. Or, point it out to the insurance company that it's cheaper to pay for the ear candling every so often than having to pay for the doctor and drugs.

Of course, as my clinical applications teacher said, "HIPPA - great idea. Too bad the forms were designed by an IRS agent on LSD!"

Okay, I'm a scatterbrained ditz.... I opened this hours ago and only now, at close to 2 am CDT, did I comme back & find I hadn't finished this. :p

I think I need sleep.... ;)

Any time you get pain like that you need to see a doctor. That's not normal, and while I don't have a parallel experience to share, my son and I have had more than our fair share of ear problems. Go to the doctor and don't put any thing else in your ear until you do--and I'd even recommend getting some swimmer's wax to block your ear to keep water out if/when you shower, until you see a doctor.

I never had anything like that happen to me, but then my ears rarely hurt. Obviously it's best to see a doctor about the pain and the previous discomfort. Do you know that you're not allergic to anything in that solution? I mean, it sounds like it may be pretty harsh and I suspect the skin inside the ear could be more sensitive than plain outside skin even.

Some people can be hypersensitive to peroxide (if I handle the stuff for my carpet cleaner, I get white patches on my skin from the reaction - it's a weak acid and a strong oxidizer). I'd probably go see a doc just to double-check. I've had friends do ear coning for wax and swear it works.

That happened to me once, when I poured some peroxide in my ear to clean it out. My mother had done it when I was a child and I never had any problems. This time, though, I was up all night with some SERIOUS pain, just as you describe. I went to urgent care in the morning, and the doctor I saw told me that some of the peroxide had gotten behind my eardrum. This was a while ago, so I don't remember exactly what they told me to do, but I think there wasn't anything they could do about it -- I just had to wait until it dried up.

I wouldn't put any more in your ear, that's for sure!

*points up*

After I thought about it for a bit, that's the conclusion I came to, as well, that some of it must have gotten behind your eardrum somehow. Best to have it looked at, in any case, especially with the general discomfort that's been going on a while. I'm not one to rush to the doctor for just anything, but this? Yeah.

/mom mode]

Yet another mom agreeing. Usually I dip a Q-tip in the bottle and then put a drop, maybe two in my ear. Sometimes a drop of warm oil in your ear can make it feel better, or place a heating pad on your pillow and press your ear on it. Warm moist heat or.... what my dad did when we were little with earaches.... he blew smoke from his pipe in our ear and it actually helped. lol... go figure.

I did a Nestea plunge once and totally messed both ears. I will NEVER do that again as they took a few days to heal properly and the pain was wicked!

Hope you feel better soon.

Ok, so I wasn't the only one who figured out the heating pad thing with earaches (I was one of those kids who had frequent ear infections and became immune to most of the antibiotics out there). The best advice (thank you alternative medicine) was to keep popping my ears when I felt I was getting sick - no fluid in ears = no earache. Why I couldn't have heard this sooner...

Wow. Ouch.

Go see a doctor! Better safe than sorry, right? You probably should have done so before now.

I hope it's nothing serious and you feel better soon.

Amusingly enough, I was actually browsing your LJ for fics when I stumbled on this.

I'm tempted to say ... go see a doctor! Pity Jo isn't around to answer your questions.

When I was younger, there were times when I'd have a build up of ear wax - to the point that I actually became hearing impaired. The simplest solution was to see a doctor and he'd use a syring filled with water or saline to wash it out. It'd take a minute and be painless - that is if it really is ear wax.

Peroxide sounds harsh... and the thing is if you had a ear infection, maybe you were mistreating yourself!

Hope that helped! :D

Uh, I meant to say syringe.

Peroxide is bleach and does burn if your problem wasn't ear wax... especially if it was a cut or infection! In that case you might have made it worse.

Medical question

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject