Thank you for all the lovely suggestions regarding the earache. I especially appreciated the suggestion that I put a bullet in my ear. I passed on that one.
My prescription drops finally showed up at Walgreens this morning, and I think I can tell a difference. The pain still sucks, and I can not hear out of it very well, but hopefully it will be better in a day or two. I also picked up a heating pad and some Tylenol, but I really hate taking over the counter medicines because I know how bad they are for you. However, my daily 81mg aspirin was not cutting it.
I think the worst thing about this ear infection has been every time I have seen/said/read the word earache, I am reminded of this:
Try being in pain for 24 hours with that song running through your head.
Svensker
Are you sure that earache wasn’t the last bit of RW Kool-Aid working it’s way out?
The only thing comparable to earache pain for excruciating I’ve found is toothache and a kidney infection. Even childbirth doesn’t come close. Glad it’s getting better — and take the OTC stuff, would ya? (As long as the C’s are granite, of course.)
myiq2xu
Blind Melon Chitlin and Alice Bowie. Now that’s a double bill worth scalper prices.
myiq2xu
To be fair, I did say that the earache was Hillary’s fault.
Sirkowski
Over-the-counter medecine is bad how?
dr. luba
Next time you have a problem filing a prescription, call the doctor back, as there is probably another formulation that will work and IS available. He/she should be able to prescribe soemthing else, even if just as a stopgap until the other medication arrives.
Common problems are normally treated by common medications. It’s not like you’ve come down with some rare tropical disease that only the CDC knows how to treat. What you have sound like a fairly simple otitis externa (inflammation of the external ear canal), and pretty much any sort of steroid/antibiotic drops should be able to treat it.
Really, you need to be a bit more assertive. Empower yourself–you’re a democrat now. And your doctor needs to know that that whatever it is that he is used to prescribing is no longer locally available, so that other patients won’t have to go through what you did. (And know that I would want to know if MY patients were having trouble getting MY precriptions filled.)
Punchy
Do NOT drink your Friday scotch or mint julip or whatever it is you swirl while on Tylenol. You do know this, right?
Krista
That only works if you’re hanging out near a thinny.
milo
O/T:
I don’t know if anyone is into ‘freeping’ a poll, but this Limbaugh based radio station’s website has one on Obama. I’ve managed to get the ‘no’ vote up from 20% in about 20 minutes. It’s “The Question of the Day.”
Buck
John, ear ache or ear infection?
I’m prone to ear infections. Not enough natural ear wax, my Dr. says. Moisture in the inner ear canal is what causes the infections. Wax helps to control moisture.
Especially while your ears are infected, do not ‘dig’ at them with Q-tips. And when you shower, put a small cotton ball just inside your ear to keep water out. You don’t want any water getting into your ear.
Doing this and using your drops, you’ll be fine in a couple of days.
Kevin
to help with the earache i suggest the following to help it clear up faster (this was recommended by an specialist many years ago when I was a GENIUS showing off to girl by diving in headfirst at Vernon Valley NJ. I blew out my eardrum by turning my head to side at the last second!!!!!)
you take a double dose of SUDAFED (the real stuff) and chew ALOT of gum. These 2 actions combined will help the infection drain thru the eustacian (sp!) tubes!! GOOD LUCK
myiq2xu
From the link:
That pretty much describes this place.
Xenos
… and I only know three chords!
That takes me back to junior high. Good times. No, not really.
Ninerdave
Tylenol (acetaminophen) can damage your liver (especially when drinking booze).
Svensker
As tho any of the Dittoheads would “change their minds” about Obama.
Ben
Seriously, do people still take Tylenol without codeine in it? You need a vicodin or six.
The Other Steve
I hear it can also damage your pancreas, especially when consumed with 750ml of vodka a day.
The Other Steve
Or 30 or 40, if you’re Rush Limbaugh.
Danton
If this is a bacterial infection, do NOT use a heating pad on your ear. Bacteria thrives in a warm and moist environment.
tBone
I think we moved past “worn thin” and into “completely ruptured” territory quite a while back.
On a related note, I have a medical suggestion for John: ignore any and all medical advice you receive from this blog. As a matter of fact, just ignore any advice at all you receive from this blog.
Libby Spencer
You obviously didn’t take my previous advice when you had the last infection John. Not that I blame you, I never believed anyone who told me it would work either and consequently suffered many years longer than I needed to.
I suffered from repeated infections from childhood. It sounds like you have the same ear canal problem I have and in following this advice, I have not had an infection in the last 18 years [knock on wood]. It’s a preventative, so it won’t do you any good until the present problem clears up but I’m telling you, swab your ears with alcohol every time they get wet. After every shower, or swimming or whatever. You should also do it if you get an earache from being out in the wind without something covering your ears.
Use three qtips. Swab the ears dry with the first one. One side for each ear. Then dip one side of the second swab into the alcohol (90% rubbing alcohol, the lower grade doesn’t work), and swab the ear, using the other side to swab it dry again.
I know it sounds crazy but trust me, three qtips a day and a two dollar bottle of rubbing alchohol will change your life. In the meantime, you have my total sympathy. I know your pain. Too bad they don’t prescribe the old original percodan anymore. That was the best pain relief in the world for it. Percoset isn’t nearly the same and I can’t believe tylenol, even with codeine will touch it.
Chasm
I second Libby. Alcohol is a well known preventative to those who grew up near the beach on the west coast, but I didn’t realize it wasn’t common knowledge until my east coast gf moved in. I prefer to just pour a small amount directly into my ear (from the cap) and then turn my head over an let it drip out, gross, I know, but kills surfer’s ear before it starts. C, my gf, used to suffer from frequent ear infections until she got on the alcohol program too, but now she never gets them. I think she uses Q-tips tho.
Mutaman
John I used to enjoy your writing but you have proven over the past few weeks that you are just annother race baiting racist. And unlike you, thats a word that I don’t use lightly. Go back to the right wing, and I hope the medication doesn’t work.
John Cole
That was certainly random.
J. Michael Neal
That was a song? Excuse me, I need to put my Steve Hackett back on.
AkaDad
I denounce and reject all painful ear aches.
LiberalTarian
Amen.
Re the earache–the last time I had a bad earache the doc prescribed a killer decongestant, but no antibiotic. It worked. No, as soon as it feels like I’m getting an ear infection I go for the sudafed and afrin spray. Haven’t had an earache for going on 6 years now (and I used to have them frequently).
My earaches usually started from getting water in my ear. I can see why putting alcohol in your ear would work. I have a chemistry reason for why it works–when you put alcohol in water it reduces the surface tension of the water, so that the water blockages formed in small pores/tubes/capillaries break easier.
Tax Analyst
Alcohol works pretty well. You definitely don’t want to leave water in the ear. No gouging with a Q-tip, however, only gentle swabbing.
P.S. – avoid over-reliance on heavy-duty pain medication, for instance Vicodin. You can actually damage your hearing with that stuff. But one when you are in screaming agony is probably OK.
The reason I counsel moderation in pain-pills is the number of people I’ve known who are no longer with us due to the abuse of and addiction to pain medications. All that shit has to get filtered through your liver and kidneys. When you blow out your kidneys you are on dialysis, when you blow out your liver you are dead or dealing with anti-rejection meds the rest of your life to keep that “new” liver from trying to get back to it’s old owner.
Fat Mort Jellyroll
This is going to sound ridiculous and fairly disgusting but I swear upon the ear health of my two children that it works, put a small amount of breastmilk in your ear. It is so high in natural antibiotics that it will kill just about any nasty you got in there short of anthrax.
Now where you get your breastmilk is on you, but I bet theres an ex-governor in NY that may have a hook up.
bernarda
It could be worse, you could be hearing “Sister Mary Elephant” ringing in your ears.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU34iLemwdY
BTW, in Britain you can get aspirin combined with codeine OTC. It is pretty effective for some pain.
Jamey
My older brother listened to Cheech and Chong. A lot. I still remember this stuff.
Had no idea Alice Bowie was a punk rock send-up. I thought it was a bust on Glam.