Yesterday I was a the swimming pool and got water in my ear. I’ve been trying for nearly 24 hours to get it out. I’ve been hearing waves in my head all day and I have a headache from hitting my head on the side to get the water out. I can’t take it any longer.
So, what if I fill up my ear with alcohol and then see if the water comes out with it. Or should I just get a fine drill from my toolbox?
Trepanning is so much fu… oh, look! Shiny!
Hydrogen peroxide mgiht be a better choice than alcohol. A bit safer, at least, and I can tell you from experience that it does work.
I get water in my ears every day because I don’t have a shower so I lay back in the bathtub to rinse my hair. I find that if I have water in my ears when I sit up, I take the hair-rinsing bucket (my husband’s rinsing tool of choice) and pour water over my head. It creates a mini-vacuum or something and the water usually clears.
I feel for ya! Water in the ears can drive you nuts.
You basically need to fight fire with fire–or, in this case, water with water. Go to your local pharmacy and get one of those squeeze bulbs or an ear-cleaning kit if they don’t have the bulb things. Fill it with warm water, stick it a short distance into your ear, and squirt the water in your ear. Chances are you’ve got some wax partially blocking the canal; it wasn’t enough blockage to keep a whole bunch of water out, but it’s enough to keep a single drop in. Once you clean out the wax, the water should be able to get out.
I second this method: it works like gangbusters for both my girlfriend and myself.
Yeah, I though of giving myself a Unilateral Intra-auricular Trepanation.*
*Just came up with the name.
Some people just have waxy ears. Sadly, I’m one of them. Occasionally, it would get bad enough to go see my GP to get them flushed out, where they’d use the hydrogen peroxide squirt water method.
Those OTC ear cleaning kits don’t use hydrogen peroxide; they use something similar that isn’t as drying but is much weaker. (Not nearly the satisfying rice krispie sound.)
One time it got really bad; my home hydrogen peroxide squirty bulb trick didn’t work, and the GP couldn’t clear them up either, (both ears!) so he sent me to an ear, nose & throat guy. That guy subjected me to a quite painful vaccuum torture, and still no luck. So he prescribed me some drops, which after a couple days softened up the wax and I was fine.
I tell you all this because of the conversation I had with the EN&T guy:
“What did you put in your ears?”
“Hydrogen peroxide, then flushed with water.”
“That’s the worst thing you can do.”
“But my GP did it before sending me to you.”
“The hydrogen peroxide dries out the wax, and it looks like you managed to squirt some water behind the wax. So no water in your ears until the drops work; keep them covered in the shower.”
That little bottle of drops lasted me about 5 years; it worked like a charm every time. But then I ran out, and I was bummed, until I read a NYT article that recommended mineral oil.
So I picked up a bottle of mineral oil, and filled up the little dropper bottle with it, and it works every bit as well as the prescription stuff.
So I strongly recommend against using hydrogen peroxide or water. Drip seven or so drops of mineral oil into the ear and then lightly place a cotton ball (or half of one) in your ear and let it chill for 20 minutes. (You can keep your head upright.) Do this twice a day and you’ll be good to go after a couple days.
The hydrogen peroxide works much faster, of course, but if you’re unlucky you could wind up sitting in a chair in agony with a vaccuum torture device drilling into the side of your head.
I once had some water in my ear that didn’t come out for - no exaggeration - a few years. Yep, I spent all that time listening to (and feeling) the irritating scratchy noise that water made when I moved my head. My parents (I was around 10 when it first got in there, and I think 12 when it came trickling out one day, to my great joy) refused to do anything about it.
I feel for ya - good luck.
That would have worked, if you hadn’t stopped her.
What?
Three days and the damn water is still there. I guess I’ll have to see a doc on Monday.
I used to get water stuck in my ear for days after trips to the pool. Now when I get water in my ear at the pool I do this; it gets rid of the water immediately.
Dunk your head in the pool with the affected ear pointing up, so the water runs in and fills the ear. Turn your head without lifting said ear out of the water so that the ear points down. Lift your head. The water should come out.
Obviously, it won’t work now, but it’s something to keep in mind for next time.
Finally, it went out this afternoon. It was sort of anticlimatic, I didn’t even notice when it happened, all of sudden I went “hey, I can’t hear the ocean anymore!”. It’s a good thing it didn’t come down to having a quick homemade surgery.