Ear infection - pain like nothing else

[ChickyDuck]

I've got a ear infection for which I started antibiotic drips on Tuesday and oral antibiotics on Wednesday afternoon after it got worse. I've just woken up after a couple of hours sleep and the pain is absolutely excruciating. I cannot get back to sleep, I can't comfortable, and I can't concentrate on anything. The pressure in my ear is immense, I can feel it throbbing and hear it whooshing with every heart beat. My face and jaw around the ear feel sore and swollen too.

I spoke to 111 and can expect a call back within 2 hours. In the meantime does anyone have any advice? I'm currently considering cutting my ear off or sticking a knitting needle in it (not seriously,,,).

I've also taken as much paracetamol and ibuprofen as I'm allowed (I can have more paracetamol at 2:00...) and have no other painkillers in the house

Ibruptofen.

Hot water bottle or heat pad.

Suck a sweet.

^^ Sucking can help reduce pressure in the Eustachian tubes,

Haven't tried a heat pad, will do that now!

Ok heating my pad and sucking on a sweetie now...

Chicky, don't know if it helps but sat here with swollen face and feel like head butting a wall pain too.

anxious you know, it actually does help a bit...there's something about being awake and in pain that feels so lonely

Bless you. Yes. I find holding my hand in the side of my face, chanting and rocking like a mad persons seems to help

I'm sat with a microwaved hippo beany on my face sucking on an eclair (the only hard-ish) sweet I could find. Neither seems to be doing much good

I'm awake with horrible period pain, so feel your pain but in a different area! Sending a gentle hug.

My sympathies. This was me last week. Pain was so bad that i convinced myself my ear drum had ruptured. I couldn't sleep and ended up taking some left over opiate painkillers that had been prescribed but not taken after surgery (as that pain was manageable!). Turned out to be just an external ear infection . Anyway things that helped (other than spare opiates!) were cold pack, heat pack and those numbing throat sweets. Also paracetamol and ibuprofen but i see you are doing those already. Hope the antibiotics kick in soon.

If your ear drum does burst it’ll help the pain immediately but obviously it isn’t great.

I don’t have any advice other than to say my wee girl was like this once - I could see her ear drum bulging and a warm hot water bottle did help when she was lying on it. Also try massaging your sinuses a bit and steaming.

A hot beanie and a menthol strepsil (thank you to PP who talked about tube drainage and inspired this experiment) have helped somewhat but it is still very painful. Just not quite cut-my-own-ear-off painful....

Either way I have an OOH appointment at 3am so I'm just heading there now. Hopefully they'll give me some stronger pain killers.

I am very prone to ear infections - I find the only way I can be remotely comfortable is to lay on the bad ear. It seems silly but I think the pressure on the ear is a relief. I hope the OOH goes well!