Anyone know of anything my dp can do to ease a bad ear infection until he hears back from the dr?

[bodiddly]

My dp is taking antibiotics and ear drops and has already taken his day's allowance of paracetamol and ibuprofen .... can anyone think of anything he can do to ease the pain until he can see a dr. We are waiting for the emergency dr to call back with an appointment or some suggestions but it could take hours and he is going up the wall! When I was little and had infections my mum used to give me a hot water bottle to put on it but he seems to want ice .. does anyone know whether either of these would help/harm?

Aitchtwooh,
You seem to know quite a bit about ears so may i pick your brains.
have been plagued with ear infections for 20 years and its always pseudomonus !
Nothing seems to work and i am totally pi*d off with having ear ache.At Christmas it was so bad i got myself an ulcer from taking so much brufen
I lose my hearing and my balance and my ear smells.I cant lie on my side in bed and i cant swim and the list goes on.I thought i`d tried everything but can i really use tea tree oil as i have used it for lots of other things with amazing success.Is it not too strong ?
Bascally my ears are wet all the time so maybe it would dry my ears up.
QAny suggestions would be great x

well i'm not medical so i can't really say much about it other than what i've done.
the reason i started to use the tea tree was sheer desperation on my part, tbh, i started to get that horrible 'impending infection' feeling boiling away in my ear and it was a saturday night so i knew i couldn't get anything til the monday. as i said, i put some on a cotton wool bud and wiped it around the inside of the ear. lo and behold the next morning, no infection. Much to my surprise.
i always have damp ears as well, it's a real pain. and i have very thin ear canals so when they close over, they close quickly which is awful.
i'd mentioned this to my doc and he said that he wasn't surprised and used tea tree as a first port of call with his kids. also i've used neat tea tree oil on laparoscopy scars and they healed without infection. i am hard-core, though, and don't mind a bit of a sting. why don't you half it with sunflower oil and see how you go?

thanks for all your help everyone. dp went to 3 (yes 3!) different hospitals last night .. and was eventually home by 8am. I had to take him back to the dr today as the pain was still too much for him. fingers crossed the new pain relief gets him through the night.

So, how's he doing?

well after all that our local dr seems to have come up trumps and has given him some strong painkillers, some even stronger painkilling suppositories, some new antibiotics/penicillin and some ear spray. The combination of all of that seems to be doing the job and have enabled him to sleep!The ear spray is soooo much better than the drops and probably well worth asking for if any of you get ear infections as it doesnt leak back out of the ear ... it seems to shoot further inside!