Medical question

[sholio]

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.

Comments

[nebbyjen.livejournal.com]

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.

[vecturist.livejournal.com]

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...