Recurring ear infections

Just wondering, does anybody else have recurring ear infections? I get them probably at least once a month, maybe more. it starts with one ear getting sore and itchy (then when i itch it really hurts) then in a day or two the other ear feels left out of all the fun and gets going too. I'm 19 years old, and have probably been having these infections since i was 12. My doctor is of no help, all he says is 'stop smoking, lose weight, then come back to me'. I don't even smoke, nor am i overweight. He just keeps giving me wax melting drops... but I just want to know, are my infections a little too regular?

Reply 1

salgueira

Is it definitely wax that's the problem? If it's an inner/middle ear infection then the drops won't do anything for it. But once a month sounds unusually often.

Reply 2

mally06

OP

i don't know if the wax is deffinitely the problem. about 2 years after the infections started my mother asked the doctor to book an appointment with the ear specialist. he said that would be useless but she persisted (she is 90% deaf and was born like that so she had some obvious worries) and he eventually got us an appointment. they checked my hearing, it was fine. the specialist said i seem to have some dead skin in my ear that gets infected then oozes puss once in a while which causes swellings and pain etc. He said it's pretty hard to heal but he gave me some drops and there never was another appointment with him. mind you , this is like 5 years ago now. the infections last a couple of days and usually by the time i get an appointment with the doctor it's almost healed - maybe that is why he says he see's no infection? although sometimes, the ear that got infected later is still swollen and he says 'yes, this ear has a problem the other is fine'. Sometimes i get to the doctor before the other ear has got the infection, and i tell him 'the other ear may be fine but it's going to get infected soon, i can assure you' and he doesn't believe me. Lo and behold 2 days later the other is infected too. I just can't be bothered to keep visiting the doctor so regularly when he's not even offering me much advice. He did give me anti biotics for one of the infections a few years back, and after that the infections were less regular but still occuring. then a year later they are more regular than ever, and the wax drops don't do much at all. if i leave the infection untreated, it heals in the same amount of time that it does with the wax drops. And the amount of time between the infections is the same with/without the wax drops so i'm not sure if wax is the problem.

We're changing doctors soon anyway so hopefuly they'll be a little more interested... but i was just wondering if my situation is familiar with anyone else!

Reply 3

RetiredAccount89

18

mally06

Just wondering, does anybody else have recurring ear infections? I get them probably at least once a month, maybe more. it starts with one ear getting sore and itchy (then when i itch it really hurts) then in a day or two the other ear feels left out of all the fun and gets going too. I'm 19 years old, and have probably been having these infections since i was 12. My doctor is of no help, all he says is 'stop smoking, lose weight, then come back to me'. I don't even smoke, nor am i overweight. He just keeps giving me wax melting drops... but I just want to know, are my infections a little too regular?

sounds like it isnt inner ear infections but otitis externa, but an odd thing sort of eczema that can occur in the ear canal.
Its very itchy and can flare up badly from time to time. occasionally gets infected with a sort of fungus, but generally not.

a big cause is having damp ears.
Do you swim, or have long hair..?

Reply 4

mally06

OP

i don't swim but i do have long hair. i always blow dry my hair after a shower though (if that's of any relevance).

Edit: having just read about otitis externa on wikipedia, i'd like to note that around the time these infections started (about 7 years ago) i did go swimming in indonesia. the hotel claimed its water was a special kind from their mountains etc. i haven't ever been swimming since but a family friend who went with us to the same place actually got some serious problems from swimming in that water and consquently had to have an operation on his ear. Do you think theres a link by any chance? symptoms of otitis externa do sound very familiar.

Recurring ear infections

Related discussions

Articles for you