Major ear pain...HELP!!!?!
Question:
Major ear pain...HELP!!!?
I have both a middle and inner ear infection since July 4th. I went to a local urgent care center and they prescribed an oral antibiotic and ear drops. The pain is getting worse today, so I called and they changed the prescription for the ear drops. My ear is completely swollen and in terrible pain. Tylenol is not working anymore. Any suggestions on what I can do until the meds help? How long will they take ?
Answers:
Any antibiotics should start to have noticeable effects within three hours.
You should see your regular doctor, or a doctor outside the urgent care center as soon as possible. Urgent care doctors are for quick fixes, while a general practitioner (or if available, an ear, nose, and throat doctor) has time for and access to lots of laboratory testing options, and can possibly examine you a bit better, and get a more complete history of the problem. It's possible that the infection is resistant to certain antibiotics, which may be why the infection hasn't gone away yet.
Drink lots of water to help thin the pus and thus drain some fluid out of your ear.
Have you tried advil/ibuprofin? It's similar to tylonal, but if you usually take tylonal, your body may be more sensitive to the advil.