J-rap Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 About 12 years ago, I woke up one morning to really painful ears. So in other words, it happened very suddenly! My doctor first thought it was an ear infection, and put me on several antibiotics over a period of about a year to help it. It didn't, and I eventually was sent to an ear, nose and throat doctor and then an infectious disease doctor. In the end, it just seems to be that my ears hurt under pressure. No infections, no weird diseases. Just super sensitive ears -- specifically, it seems to be my ear cartilage. I don't know why it came about so suddenly, but ever since, my ear cartilage just appears to be super sensitive. Sleeping on my ears hurts, wearing a hat that presses on my hears hurts. Doctors can't figure it out but are no longer worried about it. I'm not worried about it, but do think it's strange. Particularly, because I found out that my older sister has the exact same problem, so it appears to be a hereditary disorder. Does anyone else have this and know more about it than I do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Do you swim a lot? Are they sure it's not swimmer's ear? Did they try Ofloxacin drops? My son had a similar issue, but it cleared up after 10 days on the drops. I'm not trying to doubt the ability of your doctors, but they see swimmer's ear a lot here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 Do you swim a lot? Are they sure it's not swimmer's ear? Did they try Ofloxacin drops? My son had a similar issue, but it cleared up after 10 days on the drops. I'm not trying to doubt the ability of your doctors, but they see swimmer's ear a lot here. No, I don't swim. And it really isn't in my ear, it's in the cartilage around my ear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 No, I don't swim. And it really isn't in my ear, it's in the cartilage around my ear. You can get swimmer's ear from just showers or baths, if water gets trapped. By cartilage around your ear, do you just mean the outer part of your ear? Because that is what hurts with swimmer's ear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 You can get swimmer's ear from just showers or baths, if water gets trapped. By cartilage around your ear, do you just mean the outer part of your ear? Because that is what hurts with swimmer's ear. Yes, just the very outer part of my ears. But wouldn't antibiotics have cured this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Yes, just the very outer part of my ears. But wouldn't antibiotics have cured this? Oral antibiotics don't usually help. You need antibiotic (or sometimes anti-fungal) ear drops to clear it up. Did they ever do any kind of drops? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 Oral antibiotics don't usually help. You need antibiotic (or sometimes anti-fungal) ear drops to clear it up. Did they ever do any kind of drops? No, never any drops. Just pills. It seems like this is something they would have known, though! Strange! Are the drops by prescription only? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 No, never any drops. Just pills. It seems like this is something they would have known, though! Strange! Are the drops by prescription only? Ds's doctor wrote an RX for the drops, and we picked them up at the pharmacy. I don't know if they are available OTC. I thought maybe it was a more common diagnosis here in a warm climate with lots of water sports? But, it seems like after *12 years* it would have become bad enough for anyone to diagnose. Maybe you *had* an infection similar to this that managed to do some sort of permanent damage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 Ds's doctor wrote an RX for the drops, and we picked them up at the pharmacy. I don't know if they are available OTC. I thought maybe it was a more common diagnosis here in a warm climate with lots of water sports? But, it seems like after *12 years* it would have become bad enough for anyone to diagnose. Maybe you *had* an infection similar to this that managed to do some sort of permanent damage? Yes, you would think! It was at its worst in the first three months or so. Then, they were even bright red! Now, they only hurt when pressure is applied, such as sleeping on a pillow or wearing a hat. But the strange thing is that my sister has this same problem -- not quite as bad, but similar. Which makes me think it is some other weird genetic condition! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lavender's green Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about, but I'll just throw this out there: sometimes my ears hurt and it's because the surrounding muscles in my scalp are tight because of stress. Massages help a lot - shoulders, then neck, then scalp. Don't know how to do an ear massage...LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about, but I'll just throw this out there: sometimes my ears hurt and it's because the surrounding muscles in my scalp are tight because of stress. Massages help a lot - shoulders, then neck, then scalp. Don't know how to do an ear massage...LOL Hmmm, well that's something I never thought of! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WishboneDawn Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Sometimes mine hurt, generally if I've slept with one on the pillow, that one might hurt. It's not all the time though and hats don't bother me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mergath Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 I've had something similar this last week. I have Eustachian tube dysfunction, and for the last week I've had a bad ear/sinus infection on one side. When I lay on that side, the ear cartilage hurts. Not a horrible pain, but enough to be really uncomfortable. It's an inner ear infection, so I don't know why my outer ear hurts when I lay on it. It sucks, though. :grouphug: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plink Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 One other thing to have checked is your teeth. The nerves for both are closely related. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyThreeSons Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 My son was laughing at me the other day because I was holding an ice pack to my ear to make the pain go away. It almost always happens to me upon waking. When I was a kid, my Mom said it was because I had scrunched my ear while sleeping on it. I don't ever remember them both hurting at the same time, so I think she's right. And it's my right ear much more often than my left, which makes sense because I sleep on my right side way more than on my left side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 Interesting to hear what others have to say. Also, I WAS recently diagnosed as having mild TMJ (jaw pain, maybe due to clenching because of stress), so perhaps these two things are related... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glitch Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 I have EDS and Polychondritis and have it to for a long time. Last year the top of my right ear curled over from it. Its inflammation that can literally eat your cartilage. It's an immune system problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 (edited) Yet another ZOMBIE THREAD BODY PART ALERT -- this time EARS! (Resurrection of an old thread by 1st time poster, who is never "heard" of 😜 again... who is having their ear cartilage EATEN away -- Zombie-like, indeed!) 🧟♂️👂 Edited October 1, 2021 by Lori D. 1 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 🧟♂️👂 again, another year later... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eos Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 2 hours ago, Lblom said: I found this old thread because I was googling to see if it was normal Bot is listening and responding to our thread about bots - beware! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercyA Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 Aww, I don't think @Lblomis a bot. Sorry about your ears. I knew as soon as I saw Mrs. Mungo's avatar that it must be a zombie thread. Usually it takes me longer to catch on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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