Ear infection or ruptured drum?!


Question: Ear infection or ruptured drum?
I'm assuming its one of these two, here are my symptoms:

My ear is not sore.
I have no loss of hearing.
When I put earphones in it's fine, but when I pull them out, creating suction in my ear, that's when it hurts. I've stopped using headphones currently because of this.

I clean my ears with Q-tips regularly, and with a little alcohol about a week ago. Since then I have been practicing underwater swimming in a 5 foot pool so I can be prepared for Marines boot camp. I ship off March 28th.

So could this be an ear infection or ruptured ear drum?
What can I do to make it heal up faster?

Answers:

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

If you had an ear infection you would be experiencing pain and possibly fever, so this rules out an infection. A ruptured ear drum causes intense pain followed by drainage from the ear and subsequent pain relief. Since you have not had pain in the ear, a ruptured ear drum is highly unlikely.
Perhaps you have gotten some water trapped in your ear and the pressure/suction caused when removing the headphones is the source of your pain.
Remember that Qtips are not to be used inside the ear canal- they are for cleaning and drying the outside of the ear only. You may have pushed wax into the canal and simply need to clean it out. There are products available in most pharmacies to do this at home such as Debrox.

Registered Nurse



If you're not sure I would suggest you see your doctor!

Don't show up at boot camp with a problem or you may end up being a guest there longer than to anticipated. Any missed training because of injury or illness will most likely cycle you back!



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