I have vowed to come back to these forums and post the outcome of my ear infections so whoever is searching for answers might find some. Having had a bad sinus cold and a week later suffering from excruciating ear infection in both ears, I scoured the net looking for answers only to conclude from all the comments that I would be permanently deaf 😩. It seems there were not many who returned to forums to post the outcome of their illness and treatment. However, I am pleased to say, two weeks later and my hearing is almost back. This is how it panned out:
Day 1 - ear pain started in evening
Day 2- woke up with ear ache in right ear, felt deaf in ear as if it was stuffed, after a few hours I visited the walk in centre, was seen for about 2 seconds and told it was red and had wax in it. I was not prescribed antibiotics and told it would take 2-3 days for the pain to stop and up to 6 weeks for the hearing to come back!!! That evening pain started in my left ear.
Day 3 - deafness in second ear (left) worsened and had that stuffed feeling. Could barely hear at all. It was awful. Decided to ride it out as the walk in centre suggested. Some watery leakage from ears
Day 4 - first ear (right) started to feel less painful but still almost completely deaf Left ear continued being very painful
Day 6 - left ear still in so much pain, visited doctors, still almost completely deaf. From symptoms I described, pain, deafness, leaking ears etc she described antibiotics, she wasn't able to see past the wax blockage in my ear so had to go by my description. Started Amoxicillin that afternoon.
Day 7 - pain almost completely gone and some improvement on hearing but very slight
Day 8 - almost completely deaf again, pain gone, sharp shabby pains which I think was fluid moving.
Day 13 - still blocked in left ear but right no longer felt stuffed but still could not hear very well, would say 20% hearing returned.
Day 14 - both ears no longer stuffed but still feel fluid with popping and crackling, hearing vastly improved say 50%
Day 15 - 80% hearing, still popping and crackling but another couple of days and I reckon it will be much better.