Right ear hurts

...and I can barely hear anything with it. Work has been really hard today because people call for me and think I'm ignoring them.

Dunno if it's an ear infection, wax, or perhaps I got ear cancer.

I don't have health insurance at the moment so I'm hesitant to go to the hospital.

Yesterday I picked up wax removal from the store and put some in the ear this morning, but that just makes hearing even harder. My ear doesn't hurt as much as it did before. It's not hurting at all right now...I just can't hear

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snadam

astorrs wrote:

This thread makes me really glad I don't live in the US. Go to the doctor, this is your hearing for crying out loud - it's worth whatever it costs down there.

Unless you have a huge amount of hard wax buildup they can usually just use an ear syringe and flush it out with water. Pouring hydrogen peroxide will work, but since rubbing alcohol evaporates it is better for this than hydrogen peroxide, which leaves water behind which makes for a nice breading ground for bacteria (warm and wet) and if you have a perforated ear drum (from trying to clean it out with a Q-Tip for example) you're asking for a nasty infection that could seriously and permanently damage your hearing. If the rubbing alcohol hurts then you have a damaged eardrum and should see an ENT specialist, but you won't have caused any further damage and you'll know about it and can treat it.

for the record, thats what most doctors do. I dont know why everyone else is having issues. If its REALLY bad, you go to an Ear/nose/throat doctor.

what freaking 19th century doctors are you guys going to?

jbaello

I ended up purchasing the following, once again TE has saved me, cause my hearing has been bothering me. If you go to the drugstore there is so much of them.

1. Physician Choice Ear Drops - comes with an ear wax plug and a rubber syringe
2. Debrox
3. 32 OZ Hydrogen Peroxide Topical Solution (CVS Brand)

KGhaleon

Be aware that if it was as bad as mine, the proxide may not be enough. My doctor and nurse couldn't get the worst of the wax out, so they had to bring in special tools to pull/rip it out. ;_;

Just lie down on the couch and insert it in one ear at a time, then wait for 10-15 minutes and let it fizzle. Afterwards flush the ear out with warm water using the syringe. They had to do this for 2 hours at the hospital to help me...so, just saying.

For the record, it costed $200...but now I know.

Talic

Decongestants also help with keeping wax from building up in your ears, I had frequent wax build-ups and started taking some Walgreen branded decongestants helped clear it up and keep it from coming back. Allergies seem to clog both your nose and ears since they seem like they are connected.

I still find it weird that my allergy doctor didn't see the connection between the two but whatever; I noticed it helps.

RussS

Not keen on putting peroxide into my ears.
I wouldn't waste time going to an emergency clinic either - go to an ear clinic that uses suction to remove ear wax. It is a whole lot more gentle than syringing and a bunch more effective.

sprkymrk

Yeah same thing happened to me several years ago, but due to the circumstances I had no idea it was just ear wax. My dad and I had been at an outdoor shooting range, and on the way home I noticed I had a hard time hearing my dad talking, he was on my right in the passenger seat. I thought, great, the noise from the shooting must have damaged my hearing.

About 4 days later, still unable to hear well out of my right ear, I went to the doctor. He could see it was plugged with wax, so he tried the old warm water jet-stream method a few times which failed to dislodge it. So he gave me some wax softener stuff to put in the ear and keep it there overnight with cotton stuffed in my ear, and had me come back in a couple days. This time he was able to dislodge several chunks of wax. It was a relief to have my hearing back!

BeaverC32

LOL, was browsing Digg and found this article and it reminded me of this thread:
http://www.livescience.com/health/080829-earwax-removal.html

JDMurray

Check for Earwigs.

Emergency room nurses have the most disturbing stories about insects (both alive and dead) found in people's ears. Apparently, the preferred way to extract a live intruder is to fill the ear hole with Vaseline, which cause the the insect to begin suffocating and it will eject itself (unless it has a very bad sense of direction).

Oh--and don't panic.

bertieb

JDMurray wrote:

Check for Earwigs.

Emergency room nurses have the most disturbing stories about insects (both alive and dead) found in people's ears. Apparently, the preferred way to extract a live intruder is to fill the ear hole with Vaseline, which cause the the insect to begin suffocating and it will eject itself (unless it has a very bad sense of direction).

Oh--and don't panic.

Great. That's me not sleeping tonight

JDMurray

Maybe fill your ear holes with Vaseline before a nighttime intruder invades.

sthomas

I went to an ENT specialist a few weeks ago for my nose and he looked at my ears while I was there. He said my ears had a lot of wax in them so he took a long metal thing with a sharp hook at the end and cleaned my ears. It hurt a little but it seemed to work.

vCole

I finally tried cleaning my ears with the syringe and Peroxide. Wow what a difference!

L0gicB0mb508

I feel your pain. I have a nasty inner ear infection in both my ears. It's horrible.

Plantwiz

KGhaleon wrote:

Whoohoo, some great advice. I will try the peroxide method sometime, but I may go to an urgent care center(close to where I live) first to make sure it's not an infection.

Completely up to you.....your body, your health, your life.

However, H2O2 (aka hydrogen peroxide the 3% kind the general public can buy) is the best.

First, if there is an infection and it is viral, a doc isn't going to help you out. IF it's bacterial then the peroxide won't hurt, though do flush with alocohol afterward to dry out the H2O that is left as a by product once the H2O2 hits the wax.

H2O2, Vinegar, Isoporpol Alcohol are all household items you can relatively safely use to clean ears and swimmer's ear I even had perscribed Vingear and alochol by a doc as a kid....so after a bit more research and and trial I've used the above three in various combonations for that past 20 years with no damage to my ears (because yes, I've had them check).

Obviously, you don't want the ear canal to be too dry, but then again, the only way to kill the bad bacteria is to help dry it out. H2O2 leaves water behind and water breeds bacteria. What the H2O2 doesn't kill the vinegar will....sometimes stings a little, but in a day or two...no problem (from my experience).

Not too many docs will openly tell you to use H2O2, but you definately don't want to take antibotics for no reason and it's pretty tough to tell if an ear infection is viral or bacterial without a culture and very hard with wax in the way. If you can get them to agree its an ok thing to 'try' first, they'll recommend you cut it 50% with H2O....your choice again, I can tell you I've used it for years, and turned others onto it...I perfer the full strength of the 3%. I cannot use it more then 2 days straight because the irriation is too much, but generally one or two rinses (pore in, let fiz, tilt head the other way and let it run out). I'm good to go.

Either continue doing your own online research or go to your med-center. Again, completely up to you, but then once you've had a couple infections you can decide what you can tolerate and if you are ready to self-treat or still desire to seek a med-center opinion.

YMMV

KGhaleon

Well, as mentioned, I had infections in both and currently put antibiotics in both ears everyday. I'm actually at work right now and they are stinging, but I can't put anything in them until I get home later. o_o;

JDMurray

I sure miss Mercurchrome. That, peroxide, Bactine, and septic pencils kept me alive as a kid.