Ear Infection

[raggamuffin]

Hi all,

Been a while since I've been on here. Overall things have been improving a lot. Unfortunately though I'm going through a second ear infection this year. These are totally new to me so it did conjure quite a bit of anxiety initially.

First time was in June in my right ear. Had 7 days of antibiotics. 2 days later the pain comes back so they give me a spray that contains an antibiotic. This cleared up the pain, but yet again it came back. Turns out the spray at this point had cleared the infection but was now just irritating the ear.

So after that calmed down ye olde health worries said "What if the other ear gets infected?" A few hours with this worry and guess what starts to hurt? So I start to worry a bit and think maybe it's got infected too. But I tell myself it's just my anxiety talking and a few days later it goes away.

Fast track to September and I start getting a muffled/full sensation in my ear. Relying on my old trust "anxiety + symptom" Google search I see that ear fullness is quite common with anxiety. After a few days of constant fullness I start to experience on and off pain. Still I'm mostly convinced it's another anxiety symptom.

Then 1 week ago on the way home from work my ear pain ramps up to rather unbearable levels, anxiety goes rather doolally. I go to work the next day and twice throughout the morning the pain gets bad. So i ask to leave work and I see a nurse (this is Monday of this week). She says the ear is red, swollen and there's some discharge. Strange as the pain felt totally different to my last ear infection. I get given the same spray and I ask her about what happened last time, where the spray worked and then just wound up irritating the ear. She said to stop if my ear feels irritated. Confusing as it already felt irritated.

The next few days I feel grand, and then Thursday the pain returns once more. I can't get an appointment last minute so I wind up receiving a phone call from my GP who gives me Flucloxacillin for 10 days at 500mg.

Once again for 2 days I feel better. Then, today it goes mad once again. It feels like it's all over the place at the moment. I still have 1 week left of the course of antibiotics. My partner said not to worry and that the infection won't have cleared up by now so that's why there'd be pain. As for me, I'm just a bit confused and annoyed at this point. Strangely enough a real issue/condition is more frustrating and annoying than one conjured by anxiety. I suppose it's because I'm in control with an anxiety symptom. I've felt them all before and I know how to overcome them. A genuine physical ailment and I'm at the mercy of medication (that i'm never fond of taking).

Anyone well versed with these issues? I have a friend who is, but she's not been much help in all honesty. My boss at work had ear infections then went to an ENT who diagnosed him with ear cancer. I didn't freak out, which is nice as hearing something like that a few years ago and I'd have a panic attack straight away. He did suggest asking to see an ENT though. That could be a couple of weeks. I guess today just feels like a backwards step. I've been feeling good for over half the week and then on 2 occasions the pain just goes out of control again.

Ed

[Pepperpot]

I get ear infections a lot. For a while, the drops worked but now they don't touch it. Last few times I've had it, i take antiobiotics for a week or so and while I'm doing that, they take swabs and they send them off and it comes back with a rare strain that requires a different type of antibiotic. So ask for ear swabs. I also got referred to ENT where the nurse told me I had tiny ear canals and they were blocked with dead skin and soft wax so they did microsuction and put some cream in and I must keep them dry x

[raggamuffin]

I've rang the Dr as the pain has been on and off the past few days. Just used the spray today after a day off from it and it caused a lot of pain. So something isn't right.

Ed

[ponybro123]

This is a huge fear of mine right now, had an ear infection in my right ear last week and was prescribed cephalexin 500mg 4 times a day for 7 days. Still a little bit of pain but no more discharge. While on the antibiotics my left ear felt a bit funny (I figured the anti b's were clearing bacteria) but now I still have mild pain in the ear if I move my earlobe and a little pain in my left. I'll be going back if it gets worse/I detect a fever but my biggest fear is that the antibiotics will stop working and I'll end up in the hospital with a brain infection or something. What did people even do before antibiotics, I guess they just died? Haven't had an ear infection since I was a little kid but allergy season was extremely bad this year so I guess it's not totally unexpected to get one eventually.