Seeing this post made me physically cringe. I am “The Public.”
In my late 20s, my ear started hurting. I was utterly convinced it was just a stubborn clump of earwax. I went to the pharmacy and bought one of those bulb syringes for rinsing ears. The pharmacist calmly and explicitly instructed me: “Make sure you only use lukewarm water.”
I went home, washed my ear canal, and nothing happened. I figured I’d just give it a few days to loosen up.
Over the next couple of days, the pain escalated to an excruciating level. I’m talking find-chair, put-my-head-in-my-lap kinda pain. And as my son had just been born, I was operating on a good mix of extreme pain and severe sleep deprivation.
Eventually, i came to the conclusion that hotter water = more wax melting, and if lukewarm water didn’t work, maybe it just needs more heat. The hotter the water, the better chance it has of melting the wax, right? So, I boiled some water. And with zero hesitation, I injected boiling hot water directly into my ear canal.
It was not earwax.
I ended up at the doctor, where I learned that the initial agony was actually a severe case of otitis media (a middle ear infection). And thanks to my brilliant home remedy, I had managed to add a scorched ear canal and a secondary outer ear infection right on top of it.
So yeah. When that optometrist said, “Look at me. I want you to understand that I mean water that has been boiled and has since cooled down,” he was talking to me. I am the guy.
my ear started hurting. I was utterly convinced it was just a stubborn clump of earwax.
I am lucky enough to be one of those people who simply never builds up any serious amounts of ear wax. It’s oily and not crumbly, so a gentle swish of a Q-tip after a shower and it all comes out. my doc checks my ears twice a year and has never had cause to complain.
But IIRC ear wax is soft enough to never be particularly painful unless you pack it down with something like a Q-tip. Like, so long as you know you have one of those ear wax types for whom Q-tips in any usage capacity is a bad idea (it’s usually the crumbly ear wax), the most it will do is accumulate until your hearing is affected.
Now granted, it’ll plug up the ear canal until you have trouble hearing things. But all you need then is some professional irrigation by a doctor a few times a year, and as long as you aren’t in a third-world country like America, that should be 100% free.
i have to lavage my ears out every 6month-year due to massively increased shedding from atopic dermatitis, the indication is when sounds get muffled in one ear. getting the ear lavage kits from online has been very useful.
Ear wax has never been an issue for me either, I had a friend who had just had their ear canal rinsed by a doctor. And their explanation kinda fit the bill…
So with a new born, new house that I was renovating, and stubbornness that I can handle everything myself, I managed to convince myself that this was the root cause
I suffer from impaction occasionally and used to irrigate with 2% hydrogen peroxide. The H2O2 reacts with the wax and helps break it up. It is one of the strangest sensations though, bubbles forming and popping en masse inside of your ear canal.
Eventually I bought an ear cleaning otoscope and scoop out the wax manually every few months.
i just use warm water and a ear lavage, the ones with the spray bottle attached to a tube to squeeze into the eary. before that i used a ear syringe which was much more time consuming and annoying to use.
I’ve got one of those bulbs but it comes apart so you can see and clean the inside. It’s also transparent so you can see inside it even if you decide to be lazy.
As someone who has them quite often: the weird thing is the pain level varies wildly between each infection. One time the doc had to tell me I had an ear infection as it was painless - another time it felt like someone was ramming a dagger into my skull at a 5 second intervall.
Seeing this post made me physically cringe. I am “The Public.”
In my late 20s, my ear started hurting. I was utterly convinced it was just a stubborn clump of earwax. I went to the pharmacy and bought one of those bulb syringes for rinsing ears. The pharmacist calmly and explicitly instructed me: “Make sure you only use lukewarm water.” I went home, washed my ear canal, and nothing happened. I figured I’d just give it a few days to loosen up.
Over the next couple of days, the pain escalated to an excruciating level. I’m talking find-chair, put-my-head-in-my-lap kinda pain. And as my son had just been born, I was operating on a good mix of extreme pain and severe sleep deprivation.
Eventually, i came to the conclusion that hotter water = more wax melting, and if lukewarm water didn’t work, maybe it just needs more heat. The hotter the water, the better chance it has of melting the wax, right? So, I boiled some water. And with zero hesitation, I injected boiling hot water directly into my ear canal.
It was not earwax.
I ended up at the doctor, where I learned that the initial agony was actually a severe case of otitis media (a middle ear infection). And thanks to my brilliant home remedy, I had managed to add a scorched ear canal and a secondary outer ear infection right on top of it.
So yeah. When that optometrist said, “Look at me. I want you to understand that I mean water that has been boiled and has since cooled down,” he was talking to me. I am the guy.
I’m so happy you’re still with us. Stay safe friend. And keep up on your sleep.
Thanks for the kind words, I am glad that you are here as well!
I am lucky enough to be one of those people who simply never builds up any serious amounts of ear wax. It’s oily and not crumbly, so a gentle swish of a Q-tip after a shower and it all comes out. my doc checks my ears twice a year and has never had cause to complain.
But IIRC ear wax is soft enough to never be particularly painful unless you pack it down with something like a Q-tip. Like, so long as you know you have one of those ear wax types for whom Q-tips in any usage capacity is a bad idea (it’s usually the crumbly ear wax), the most it will do is accumulate until your hearing is affected.
Now granted, it’ll plug up the ear canal until you have trouble hearing things. But all you need then is some professional irrigation by a doctor a few times a year, and as long as you aren’t in a third-world country like America, that should be 100% free.
i have to lavage my ears out every 6month-year due to massively increased shedding from atopic dermatitis, the indication is when sounds get muffled in one ear. getting the ear lavage kits from online has been very useful.
Ear wax has never been an issue for me either, I had a friend who had just had their ear canal rinsed by a doctor. And their explanation kinda fit the bill…
So with a new born, new house that I was renovating, and stubbornness that I can handle everything myself, I managed to convince myself that this was the root cause
I suffer from impaction occasionally and used to irrigate with 2% hydrogen peroxide. The H2O2 reacts with the wax and helps break it up. It is one of the strangest sensations though, bubbles forming and popping en masse inside of your ear canal. Eventually I bought an ear cleaning otoscope and scoop out the wax manually every few months.
i just use warm water and a ear lavage, the ones with the spray bottle attached to a tube to squeeze into the eary. before that i used a ear syringe which was much more time consuming and annoying to use.
Those bulb syringes can be a nightmare too, read that the cause of someone’s problem was mold growing the bulb and getting sent straight into the ear.
Gross and terrifying. If you can’t see what’s inside, don’t trust it’s clean.
On the bright side, your boiling water probably did a good job of disinfecting it.
they have the kits with the plastic bottle sprayers attached with a hose, easier to clean and less messy.
I’ve got one of those bulbs but it comes apart so you can see and clean the inside. It’s also transparent so you can see inside it even if you decide to be lazy.
Ear infections definitely are some of the worst pain I’ve experienced. I would put them up there with really bad burns.
Any pain localized in the head is really the worst. Tooth infections, ear infections, migraines…
As someone who has them quite often: the weird thing is the pain level varies wildly between each infection. One time the doc had to tell me I had an ear infection as it was painless - another time it felt like someone was ramming a dagger into my skull at a 5 second intervall.
Sleep deprivation will make you do some crazy things
Not my proudest moment…