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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To go to A & E?

146 replies

EarProb · 11/07/2021 21:28

Even though I'm not strictly sure it's an issue for them because I am so desperate.

I am having really bad problems with my ears. My GP is at a loss and has referred me to ENT months ago but nothing has come of it yet. I keep going back to the GP but they say there is nothing they can do.

My ears are completely blocked with gunk. GP says not infected but the one time I managed to pay privately to have them cleared out he said he thought they were.

Both my ears are completely swollen on the outside and the inside. My ear drums have not been visible for the best part of a year and I sometimes wake up with stuff leaking all over my pillow and even running down my face. It's absolutely vile. I have even woke up before now with blood dripping down the side of my face from the inside of my ear.

It looks awful too so my self esteem has plummeted.

I now cannot hear at all when I am lay down and only slightly when I'm stood up because they are that swollen and full. I cannot hear my baby stirring in the night.

I am so desperate. I feel incredibly depressed with it and I've no idea where to turn. The ENT referral has been chased several times by my GP but nothing yet. It was sent in April.

I don't know what else to do. Sometimes I honestly feel like I don't want to be alive anymore it's affecting me that much.

OP posts:

Original poster

EarProb · 15/07/2021 11:44

I'm really upset actually as they are so contagious and I've been handling my baby the whole time who's only a few months old

OP posts:

mumsie8 · 15/07/2021 11:48

Who finally diagnosed this for you? So glad you (fingers crossed) will be on the mend.

Original poster

EarProb · 15/07/2021 11:56

The hospital with a swab. I've had swabs before though so I don't understand how it wasn't picked up.

OP posts:

Original poster

EarProb · 15/07/2021 11:59

Although I was always told that the swabs by the GP was to check for fungal infections and I understand this is a bacterial infection.

OP posts:

Musicaltheatremum · 15/07/2021 12:03

The swabs we do pick up fungal and bacterial infections so it wasn't there when you were swabbed before.

Original poster

EarProb · 15/07/2021 12:05

It's strange though because I've had the same issues with my ears for a long time now and they are now sure it's because of this but how can it be it the infection wasn't there when I was swabbed before?

Very confused. I just hope this antibiotics sort it and I can forget this mess now!

OP posts:

Realitea · 15/07/2021 12:08

Otitis externa
I have it due to allergies and at it’s worst I had the same as you
Left untreated it damages the eardrum and leaves scarring which I have
I’ve also been deaf due to it
The GP I saw was also dismissive leading me to go to a private ear clinic where they finally gave me the medication I needed and sucked out the gunk in there (which was pus!)
The medication is a spray called Otomize
Have you tried this?

Realitea · 15/07/2021 12:10

Sorry I just saw the full thread!

RosmertasMead · 15/07/2021 12:33

Please ask to be swabbed for staphylococcus aureus Pantone Valentin leucocidin. In severe and recurring staph infections it might be a possibility. It’s probably not as rare as they make out but due to ignorance of PVL, it’s rarely tested for. @EarProb

SchrodingersImmigrant · 15/07/2021 12:53

I had golden staph issues when i was a baby. Antibiotics numerous times a year, ear infections (not like yours), laryngitis etc. Then someone thought to check for it. Haven't had issues since. If I remember correctly, my mum was saying it was in my nose.

Nengineer · 15/07/2021 12:55

I hope you will be suing the GP practice.

whynotwhatknot · 15/07/2021 13:12

terrible from the gp saying it wasnt an infection when it clearly is hope you get better soon

Terhou · 15/07/2021 13:23

@Zilla1

Except for a few PPs, the posts that seem to think everything is a bacterial infection treatable with antibiotics that have no adverse effects matches my routine experience of the public.

This post hasn't aged well.

sillysmiles · 15/07/2021 13:24

The swabs we do pick up fungal and bacterial infections so it wasn't there when you were swabbed before.

Unless you are the OP's GP, you don't know this. Potentially her GP only swabbed for fungal infections.

Pipitypop · 15/07/2021 13:29

Really glad you've been seen OP and I'm so sorry you've been suffering so much.

Original poster

EarProb · 15/07/2021 13:38

@sillysmiles

The swabs we do pick up fungal and bacterial infections so it wasn't there when you were swabbed before.

Unless you are the OP's GP, you don't know this. Potentially her GP only swabbed for fungal infections.

This was the impression I got from my GP that they only swabbed for fungal infections but I obviously could be wrong. I'm thinking of requesting my notes to see what was swabbed for previously.

I need to know as if this is just a secondary issue caused more recently by whatever it was initially then it still needs looking at but obviously if this is the whole issue and always has been I want to know why it was never tested for.

OP posts:

Mindymomo · 15/07/2021 13:52

My DH had a swab taken, it came back as a fungal infection, but his ear was very badly blocked up. The GP said he needed microsuction which would be about a 6 week wait. He went to private gp, who did this the same afternoon. The canesten ear drops his own GP didn’t help and he then had another swab which came back as a bacterial infection and was given a different antibiotic ear drop. He then saw the private gp again for microsuction. Luckily at that time there was an ENT specialist there who saw DH and prescribed another type of ear drops, which (touch wood) seem to have worked, but this has taken over 2 months to sort out and get this far.

BroccoliRob · 15/07/2021 14:41

It could be a secondary infection.
I've had an ear infection which at one point was fungal. Fungal drops irritated my ears to the point of bleeding/pus, which I think then turned into a staph infection. Ears were so irritated, swollen and crusty that it got to the point that they had to use a steroid cream applied to the inside of the ear canal right down to the ear drum. Thankfully it eventually got sorted but I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Hope it all clears up soon especially as you have a young baby x

shinyblackdog · 15/07/2021 22:36

@EarProb so glad you have some answers, I hope it clears up soon. I went to the doctor today to see about my ears (not as problematic as yours but still annoying) and got the same as usual - might be this, might be that, try clotramazole, if that doesn't work come back and we'll do a swab. How about just cutting straight to the swab now??? It's extremely annoying messing around with eardrops that might be entirely pointless.

Terhou · 20/07/2021 16:48

Are the antibiotics improving things?

YouCantSeeMee · 17/05/2023 12:16

I just wanted to update this and say that anyone suffering with these symptoms please please push to be seen.

Things didn't improve after this thread and I ended up in hospital not through choice on IV antibiotics for nearly a week when I developed severe cellulitis from it. I had a fever and felt completely outside of my own body by the time I got to A&E.

I still do not know what exactly kicked off the problem but we suspect it was likely a skin condition like eczema in the ear canal that kept getting infected but (touch wood!!) since I was discharged from hospital around 6 months ago I have not had any further issues and was discharged from ENT recently too.

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