Blocked ear & severe pain

[Bobbins5467]

I flew on two long haul flights last week & on the outbound flight, I experienced the most horrific ear ache. When we landed, I couldn’t hear anything at all in my right ear & it has remained this way for 10 days now. left ear is a bit muffled, I’m generally finding it quite hard to hear. My flight home was quite painful too but nothing like the outbound flight.

I saw my GP on Monday & he said I had a severe impaction of wax in my right ear and some build up in my left. He prescribed me drops & said it’d be better in a few days. He mention possibly, I need to pay to have it privately removed if it didn’t clear up.

6 days later, zero improvement, still can’t hear anything & I’m in agony. My right ear is in a world of pain. I’ve been looking up private clinics but no-one has any appointments until mid-June! And these are clinics miles away from my house as well..

What do I do?!

Can you pay for a private ENT appointment?

Otherwise specsavers will hoover your ears out if you have one near you (though I would be worried if they are v painful in case it's an infection rather than wax!).

Microsuction is fab. Miraculous. Worth every penny. Book the first you can. And you have my sympathy - blocked ears are horrible.

Even if you have to wait for microsuction they advise you use olive oil for a week or so before if possible, so you can get on with something useful while waiting, and it might help at least with the less impacted ear.

If you are that way inclined you can buy ear cameras on amazon - although do NOT be tempted to use any tools they throw in for digging out your own wax, it's not something to be doing blind.

I did see somewhere that menopause (the gift that keeps on giving) can make blockages and ear infections more likely as your membranes dry out so it's harder for wax and skin to migrate out by itself.