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Ugh, this week. For almost two months, I've been fighting off an ear infection. My ear would start to close up, or it would start to get sore, and I would up my Vit C and take some decongestant, and things would go back to normal for 3-5 days, then the cycle would begin again. Last week, it became clear that the battle was over. It was like there was some sentient ear infection imp living in my ear, determined that I would get an ear infection, damn it! Tuesday the ear was completely closed, and really started to hurt, so I called and made a doctor's appointment. By the time I saw my doctor the next day, the swelling had begun.
For those of you who are lucky enough to have never had a severe ear infection, the swelling is the best part, really. My neck, where the Eustachian tube starts; the ear canal; behind the ear itself. By Wednesday night, the side of my head was so swollen that I couldn't chew, I could hardly open my mouth, and it hurt to smile and even swallow.
And then the pain, oh, the pain. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that Wednesday and Thursday was in the top three worst pain I've ever had in my life. Thank GOD, my doctor gave me ~*~hyrdocodone. But even that was really only effective for about two hours. I was supposed to take one every 6-8 hours, but those two days, if I made it 4 hours, I was very proud of myself. (It was so bad Wednesday night that at one point I was actually hoping that my eardrum would rupture just so the pressure would relent.)
By Saturday afternoon, the swelling and most of the pain was finally gone, but as of today, the stupid thing is STILL closed up, and it's achy and tender. I have this horrible premonition that I'm going to finish out this round of antibiotics, and then it's going to go nuclear again. Siiiiiigh.
It was kind of embarrassing, when I googled home remedies, that everything I read was like "your baby probably has an ear infection if she's tugging on her ear and crying!" It's just sort of undignified to get an ear infection as an adult, let alone one that's bad enough that I ended up calling in sick to work three days in a row. Blergh.
For those of you who are lucky enough to have never had a severe ear infection, the swelling is the best part, really. My neck, where the Eustachian tube starts; the ear canal; behind the ear itself. By Wednesday night, the side of my head was so swollen that I couldn't chew, I could hardly open my mouth, and it hurt to smile and even swallow.
And then the pain, oh, the pain. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that Wednesday and Thursday was in the top three worst pain I've ever had in my life. Thank GOD, my doctor gave me ~*~hyrdocodone. But even that was really only effective for about two hours. I was supposed to take one every 6-8 hours, but those two days, if I made it 4 hours, I was very proud of myself. (It was so bad Wednesday night that at one point I was actually hoping that my eardrum would rupture just so the pressure would relent.)
By Saturday afternoon, the swelling and most of the pain was finally gone, but as of today, the stupid thing is STILL closed up, and it's achy and tender. I have this horrible premonition that I'm going to finish out this round of antibiotics, and then it's going to go nuclear again. Siiiiiigh.
It was kind of embarrassing, when I googled home remedies, that everything I read was like "your baby probably has an ear infection if she's tugging on her ear and crying!" It's just sort of undignified to get an ear infection as an adult, let alone one that's bad enough that I ended up calling in sick to work three days in a row. Blergh.
