Itchy Ear Canals

For most of my childhood and adulthood years I suffered from itchy ear canals. But I didn’t know why. I also had lots of ear infections.

Cotton swabs didn’t really help, and they were also not always readily available. So silly me used to grab anything to scratch the inside of my ears, whether they were ballpoint caps, the end of a paper clip, or anything else that I could reach into my ear canal with to stop the incessant itch. I don’t recommend any of these.

Liquid In Ear

One day while scratching the inside of my ear, I went a tad too deep. Ouch! It hurt. But there had been other times that I pushed a little to hard with pain resulting. This time though was different.

The pain was intense, but I just assumed it’d go away. This was not the case. Liquid formed in my canal, but it wouldn’t come out. I went to see my doctor. She didn’t look inside my ear. She prescribed antibiotic drops for my right ear and that was that.

Ear Drops Taste Awful

Every time I went to put the antibiotic drops in my ear, I’d taste it in the back of my throat. Yuck! My ear pain increased despite me trying both warm and cool compresses. If I tilted my head down, I could feel the liquid move. I called and made another appointment with the doctor and asked her if she would please refer me to an ENT doctor. In case you’re wondering, ENT stands for Ear Nose Throat.

Ruptured Ear Drum

I was finally seen by the ENT specialist. When I told him I stopped taking the ear drops because I could taste them in the back of my throat, he paused. Huh? He thought I was taking them orally! I assured him I was putting them into my right ear per the instructions. He immediately looked into my ear and lo and behold, my ear drum was perforated. He recommended that I go on oral antibiotics and to not get any water inside my ears. He suggested I wear ear plugs when showering. Fun! Not!

Recheck With My New Doctor

I had called to schedule an appointment with my primary care physician, but she was fired. My new doctor told me that I wasn’t the only patient of her’s that she grossly misdiagnosed.

Anyway, my new doc was awesome! He looked inside my ears and asked me if I cleaned my ears out. I let him know that as far as I could remember, my ears are pretty clean. I never see wax but they’re always itchy.

A & D Ointment

He told me that for whatever reason my ears were not producing wax which helps keep debris out of our ears. And because my ears weren’t producing wax, I was to apply A & D ointment to both ears using a cotton swab. I was to do this twice daily.

I started adding the A & D ointment and finally my ears were not itchy anymore. Yay! I also continued to wear the ear plugs in the shower.

Fast Forward Ten Years

My ears are finally producing their own wax. I don’t need the ear plugs anymore and I don’t apply the A & D ointment except for when I’m cleaning my ears.