First some background. Last Wednesday I had an ear, nose and throat doctor put a tube in my right ear for drainage. I have had problems with my ears my entire life. However this is the first time he has ever used a topical anesthetic before the surgery. I was warned that it would burn a bit, but it did not burn, it hurt like…well you know. Anyway, after the tube was inserted the pressure was immediately gone and my hearing was restored. But the pain I felt when the anesthetic was applied did not go away. I have never had a tube put in where it continued to hurt for days afterwards. Well my ear started to drain clear yellow fluid on Saturday night; it was so prolific that it would drip down my neck, if I didn’t plug the ear with cotton. My thinking at this time was; oh well maybe its just all the built up fluid finally draining. It continued to hurt although it had been days since the incision. It also continued to drain. I would place a clean cotton ball in my ear at bedtime and within 4-5 hours at most it would be totally soaked with a yellow fluid. Yesterday by ear canal started to hurt more and it swelled up. I finally called the Doctor today, and I was prescribed a topical antibiotic (Cipro). The swelling is so bad that any drops I add to my ear will just pool there and do not ever totally make their way down into my ear canal (why the fluid can still drain out is baffling) I was told this is okay, and to just lay with my head tilted for about 10 minutes and then to place cotton in my ear.
This finally brings me to my questions. Is it possible I have both an inner and outer ear infection? If so what would cause this? Did the doctor cause the infection, or did bacteria trapped behind my eardrum possibly cause it? If it is only an outer ear infection, how could the fluid that was draining out of my ear cause such a bad infection in such a short period of time? I really have no clue how I got this stinking infection, and any theories would be appreciated, so I can avoid ever going through this again.
Oh yeah, one more thing. Any sympathy would be welcomed. I feel really, really lousy.
My daughter got a “swimmers” ear infection this summer that escalated from “oh my ear’s sore” on Friday to us going to the er early sunday morning. The beauty of that situation was the lack of help afforded by the er physician. The er physician merely prescribed some stop gap drugs and a referal to an ear/nose/throat specialist for Monday. The specialist had to place a wick in her ear to allow the topical medicine to get in, additionally she had to take prescription anti-b’s to treat the internal aspect of the infection at that point. Let me point out that I have two kids that, not to mention their friends, swim in our pool and I have never seen a ear infection escalate to that level that quickly. It might be a physical characteristic problem, ie the ear canal doesn’t drain properly, that leads to these problems. You have my sympathy and {{}}. Hope you’re better soon.
And to stay on topic, check your local drug store for ear plugs and after swim ear wash. Prevention is truly the best medicine.
Yes, it is possible to have both. I hope you feel better soon. If you aren’t satisfied with your doctor taking the fluid serously :), ask another doctor. I had one doctor not take my complaints of an earache getting worse after I started treatment and went to another doctor. He found that not only did I have an ear infection, some gland near my jaw was infected and i needed an oral antibiotic. I am not saying that is what you need, but a second opinion only hurts your pocketbook, and it could save your ear.
Does the clear yellow liquid dry as a sort of clear dark yellow crystal? Sort of reminiscent of amber?
If so, I had the same sort of drainage from a very bad poison ivy breakout on my leg. It drained that stuff constantly.
If you’re getting it out of your ear, I’d definitely second the opinion of finding a new doctor, and soon. My stuff went away, but it took weeks, and was very uncomfortable. Maybe it’s the result of an infection, or maybe you had a bad reaction to that type of topical anesthetic. Either way, it isn’t good.
Good luck, and while I don’t know the pain of an ear infection, I do sympathize with the feeling of not knowing what the hell’s going on, medically.
i suggest you go to doctor and request that the fluid be cultured. you need to know what you’re dealing with here. if it’s actually FLOWING rather than oozing, it doesn’t sound too good.
it could be that the topical antibiotic isn’t reaching the main site of infection, see if they will prescribe something oral. and make sure it’s specific to the bacteria from the ultured fluid!
i also hope that someone has made sure you’re not leaking CSF!
not really, i think you’d have noticed if you were.
(by “noticed” i mean died)
You need to read up on “ear tubes aftercare”. Never fear, Google is here.
I’d have the doctor check to make sure the tube hasn’t shifted. Sounds like the discharge is par for the course, take Tylenol or something for the pain, keep water out of the ear. If the pain gets unbearable, call the doctor because it probably means something’s wrong.
And it sounds to me like maybe you need to get a little better communication going with your doctor. If you feel like he’s fobbing you off with absent-minded easy answers, you have the right to demand that he explain things to you a little better.
You have my deepest sympathies–when I was a kid I had a middle ear infection every time I had a cold. Earaches–blech.
There’s a good chance that you infection isn’t bacterial at all, and in fact it’s viral. This would explain why you’re having no luck with the antibiotics. You didn’t mention that your doctor did a culture of the discharge, so you very may be wasting you time with the antibiotics.
I’m with irishgirl. Go to your doctor (or preferablly a different one) and have the fluid cultured to make sure that you are being given the proper treatment. If it does turn out to be a bacterial infection, you should probably be taking oral antibiotics as well as topical ones.
An Update. Well my ear feels a little better today, but it is still swollen shut.
Unfortunately I can not afford to go to another doctor, and my insurance will not send me to one. The bad news is that I have been nauseous all day, and have thrown up about eight times in about two hours. I’m sure it has something to do with my inner ear. If I’m not better by tommorrow, once again I will spend the day calling the doctors office untill I get a satisfactory response.
I appreciate all the responses,but I’m still not sure what would have caused an infection after getting a tube place in my ear. I’m fairly sure that the doctor would have somehow sterilized my ear before making the incision.So I can still only conclude that there must have been a nasty bacteria in the fluid trapped behind my eardrum. I wouldn’t think it was a virus, because that would be to coincidental happening right after surgery.
** WARNING: I’M NOT A DOCTOR, AND I DON’T PLAY ONE ON TV **.
I once had a massive ear infection that did not clear up with a month of penicillin. Finally in frustration I started pouring rubbing alcohol into my ear. The first week gave new dimension to my understanding of pain (and made me wish I still drank so I could pour alcohol down my throat), but after that it was interesting, and in another month the infection was gone.
