Ear infection… on both ears!

So this past week, I was ill. I was down with an ear infection, which resulted in me being forced by the doctors to take 4 days of medical leave so that I could rest and recuperate as my ears slowly heal. Which is a good thing because I desperately needed the rest because my ears were killing me. The infection, thankfully not in the deeper part of the ear canal, was causing so much pain, it felt like I was having an earache, headache and toothache all at the same time! The pain was like firecrackers going off in my ears, shooting pain through the nerves up and down on the sides of my head. At its peak (in terms of inflicting pain) I could neither move my jaws nor chew my food during meals. I couldn’t sleep because of a headache giving me such excruciating pain that only paracetamol and diclofenac could alleviate. And I was on those painkillers for the better part of the week, 24/7.

The infection took longer than usual to recover because both ears were not infected at the same time. It started on my left ear and slowly made its way to the right ear. That means I had to endure excruciating pain both times as it travels from the left to the right over the week. At one point, both ears were hurting so bad that diclofenac was the only painkiller that would allow me to sleep.

I am better now and I finally finished the course of antibiotic. The doctors prescribed me Augmentin, which is the brand name for amoxicillin antibiotic.

While visiting the hospital, for some odd reason, the doctors couldn’t pinpoint the exact cause of my ear infection. The symptoms were the classic ear infection one would typically diagnose given the type of pain one would get, but couldn’t exactly find the cause of the problem. Was there a wound in the ear? Was there a yellow discharge in the ear indicative of an infection? Was there an insect residing in the ear, or some piece of foreign material stuck in the ear canal? No, no, and no. I told them that only the outer ear area was hurting the most and that I retained my hearing just fine. It seemed that the ear canal and the surrounding soft tissues like the skin and cartilage that gave my ears shape were hurting the most. But as to what caused it to be infected. No one could give me a straight answer.

Nonetheless, Augmentin was prescribed, as its usually prescribed as a first level defence against ear infections (among other types of infections that Augmentin is useful for). Whether it truly works, I am not too sure, but the over time, the pain subsided and now I am back to normal.

I have an appointment with the ENT on Monday and hopefully, nothing serious will come out from this whole saga.