Adult ear infection - what were your symptoms?

[sarahjsdddd]

Hello,
Hope someone can help! 2 weeks ago I was diagnosed with ear infection, the doctor said both ears inflamed but one eardrum was bulging. I think I've had the symptoms many months but didn't realise what it was and blamed each symptom on something else - runny nose hayfever, ringing ears anaemia, headaches hormones, fluid from ears allergy. Dizziness aching body general tired feeling. I also get pains on and off in both ears. Had antibiotics for 5 days and felt some improvement but not fully. Called back and the gp wouldn't believe me really, said use some ear drops and steam inhalation, antihistamines!! So calling back tomorrow

What were your symptoms, what does it feel like? If this is indeed an ear infection or something else! Thank you x

Bump x

I had a ruptured eardrum over a year ago and it never really hurt I just had fluid coming out of my ear and went quite deaf. They said it would get better on its own. I left it two months but was still deaf and had thick ‘gunk’ coming out of it, so I went back and I did have an infection at that point. It didn’t hurt at all and was much better after a week of antibiotics.

By February it getting worse again, my hearing never got back to normal so I went back, my drum had ruptured again and there was a bit of an infection they told me to buy this spray to use. It didn’t really help but then lockdown started so I didn’t go back. Eventually I went back a month ago and my ear drum had healed but they said it was bulging and infected but no pain again, I had a week of antibiotics which cleared the infection but now my ear drum has got another hole in it. If it’s not better in a month or two I’m going back as my hearing had been noticeably affected in that ear for over a year now.

Sorry for the essay but my only real symptoms were deafness, discharge and a sort of whooshing sound / blocked feeling. It never really hurt.

@Geekster1963

Thank you for your reply! Oh gosh sounds like you had a terrible time of it. I hope you can resolve it soon and start to feel better :(
Mine just started as twinging pain in my ears sometimes and the fluid, especially in the morning, ive also had a low grade fever too for a while - was convinced that was caused by coronavirus 😂
Hope we can both feel better soon x

Intense itchiness in ear
Completely deaf
Pain in ear and sinuses

I have an ear infection just now - my ear is very swollen to to point that the ear canal is closed over, no discharge (I think my ear drum is still intact) but so much pain - enough time wake me from sleep (hence me replying at this ungodly hour). The whole side of my head/face feels like someone has hit it, and my ears are crackling like mad. The GP gave me a steroid/antibiotic spray which so far seems to have no effect whatsoever.

@sarahjsdddd I hope you feel better soon. Luckily mine has never really hurt and is only one ear but I have gone quite deaf in that ear. They said it will be while there is a hole in my eardrum or infection and it seems to be one or the other at the moment. The plus side is if DH is snoring and I lay on my good ear I can’t hear him.

@Jellycatspyjamas that sounds very painful I hope you get some relief soon.

I had one last week and was in bed the whole week.
I had shooting pains going up my head and down my neck. Both were inflamed but the left was infected and then a few days later the right became infected just as the left side cleared. I was taking paracetamol every 6 hours and using a ice pack In-between to ease the pain as all my lymph nodes were up. I was completely deaf for a few days and had drainage from both ears. It’s been 2 weeks and my hearing has just returned to normal. Mine was from infected eczema in my ear that swelled up and closed my ear off.
The antibiotic drops did eventually work but I used ear calm which helped the pain immensely in between and hydrocortisone cream for the eczema around the external parts.

I usually get a middle ear infection as part of a cold every 5 years or so. Pain, feeling like eardrum is going to burst, sometimes the whole side of my head goes tender. I find ibuprofen helps, I take it as soon as I feel the fluid building.

@Jellycatspyjamas I have the exact same thing now but in both ears and spray is making no difference. Can I ask how long the symptoms and pain lasted for you?

I had exactly the same and after 7 days of antibiotics I needed Otomize which worked like magic. I was in so much pain I bought some on line so I can nip it in the bud early if it happens again as I had to wait over the weekend to see a GP.

@mrsPelligrinoPetrichor I have been using Optomize for 4 days now and the pain is only getting worse 😔