Ear pain - tumor?? Don't know whwat it could be, new to this forum

[Nutation]

Hello everyone,

The past few months have been really rough for me with multiple health scares and lots of anxiety. I really thought I had just gotten over it, but a few days ago I started to experience right ear pain and then pain in both my ears. It's achey and sharp and mostly constant, although sometimes worse in one ear than the other. Also a little bit of ringing in my ears. Maybe a little pressure but not really and I can hear fine. I was at the doctor for a different reason a few days ago and she looked in my ears and said that there was no infection, maybe just some congestion behind my ears that shouldn't be causing pain. I've had a mild upper respiratory infection recently but really nothing bad. Is it normal to get really painful ears with a mild cold? It's freaking me out and making it hard to function and it HURTS. Any help would be SO appreciated.

[noegddgeon]

Hi Nutation,

I've had this occasionally with upper respiratory infections; if you plug your nose and breathe out (not too hard), which I'm sure you've done before, you'll probably hear "wetness" and clogginess from your eustachian tubes and their surrounding membranes, which is probably what's causing your pain. I'll also have days where tinnitus is worse than others, and often it's as simple as having taken pain medication that day which is causing the ringing, but this will also be exacerbated by any kind of middle ear infection. If it doesn't get better within a week or two, have your physician refer you to a specialist (likely an ENT) who can take a closer look and ascertain what might be going on, which sounds like an infection. The chance of it being an ear tumor is incredibly unlikely, exponentially so if you're experiencing it in both ears.

Best,
Colton

[Nutation]

Hi Colton,

Thanks so much for your suggestion and advice! I went to an urgent care yesterday and got antibiotics, although the doctor said that my ears didn't clearly look infected, which freaked me out because the pain has continued to get worse in both ears and I don't have any idea reasonably what else it could be. I'll give the antibiotics more time to hopefully work, and go to an ENT later if they don't. Still freaked out - both by the pain (it's awful!) and the chance that it's worse and more difficult to figure out than an infection, since none of my medical problems that been THAT easy to figure out, and because the doctor didn't seem convinced about what it was.