(no subject)

[azurelunatic]

Finally figured out the other trigger besides stress for the swimmer's ear: sleeping on damp pillow.

Comments

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

Well, and getting water past your eardrum and stuck in the middle ear.

But yes, anything that doesn't actively work at drying out your ears will aggravate it. And sleeping on something damp certainly counts.

There are eardrops you can get, which serve as a preventive after swimming.

[azurelunatic]

I have a nasty inflammation of the outer bits of my ear canal, the sort that are in range of Q-tip. It recurs often enough for me to consider it chronic, whether a doctor would or not.

It didn't seem to be related to swimming or full-head-immersion bathing, which I found very wrong and annoying. I had it very badly in the summer of 1996, so badly that I could not close my jaw fully. Since then, it's seemed to come back in times of stress.

I can recognize the beginnings of a flare-up, now. I was actively irate the last time I went to a doctor for it, she stuck her scope in my ear (far down inside), pronounced it clean, pronounced it a jaw problem, and prescribed me the goddamn eardrops anyway.

I would have been incandescent with fury had I not gotten the eardrops. As it was, I let it slide. It happens in the outer parts of my ear canal, not the inner parts, you daft incompetent bitch.

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

Swimmer's ear in your *outer* ear?? Weird.

But, drops. Drops are good.

[azurelunatic]

I am nothing if not weird. The standard advice of avoiding swimming and immersing the head did nothing for me.

Drops are very good. I can get away with not paying $80 to see the urgent care doctor about it if I have the drops on hand. I keep them in my purse because the sooner I nail it after I start feeling it, the better.