I’ve had a cold for the last couple of days, with a bad sore throat and ear pain. I tend to get colds this way…the sore throat and ear pain is bad for a couple of days, and the runny nose and cough that follows is relatively mild (the stage I’m in now, thank goodness). I was talking to my sister about it, and she said she gets mild sore throats, no ear discomfort or pain, and bad coughs. I rarely hear people complain about ear pain with a cold…is there something different about my ears/eustachian tubes that causes this?
Not looking for medical advice…I have had my ears checked during such episodes in the past, and have never needed antibiotics. The discomfort only lasts a couple of days, and goes away as the cold improves. I’m just wondering why I get this particular symptom. Can anyone help?
I don’t know, but IME, the same cold can manifest itself differently in different people. For example, when my sister gets a cold, her eyes get runny and watery, although nobody else in the family who got the cold around the same time will get that symptom. I’m very thirsty for the day or so before the cold really hits, which again nobody else in my family gets, and sometimes I’ll hyper-salivate as I’m getting sick as well, which I’ve never heard of in anybody else (let alone a relative.)
Semi-WAG: Probably eustacian tube inflammation. The lining is not much different from pharyngeal lining, and just as susceptible to infection by most upper respiratory viruses. So it hurts up to and into your ear(s).
One could also have some middle-ear pressure gradients due to the eustacian tube inflammation, if the tubes are blocked. Sometimes I look in and see the eardrum is stretched tighter than a drumskin due to pressure changes; no fluid or redness, just differential air pressure.
Actual suppurative middle ear infections are much less likely a reason.
Isn’t that funny? You would think the same virus would affect everyone the same way, wouldn’t you?
Thanks, Qadgop! I think the pressure is part of the problem, because eating/drinking sometimes makes it pop & relieves the pain for a few minutes. Do you have a semi-WAG as to why my tubes would have a tendency towards inflammation? Are they defective? I thought maybe the problem might be that they are unusually small and/or don’t drain well, which might cause the pressure problems, I think?
When I was a kid, I got lots of ear infections, and ‘swimmers ear’. I’ve found that whenever I ‘sniffle’, it puts pressure on my ears and they tend to get plugged up. I can’t tell exacly what is happening, but I’ve learned very to be very careful to only blow my nose, not sniffle. (Is there a better word than sniffle?)
It often isn’t the same virus, for one thing. There are dozens of different viruses that can cause “the common cold.” There are virus-killing drugs, but they are very expensive. Most doctors can’t justify spending that much money for a “mere” cold.
Even if it were exactly the same virus, we aren’t all the same. We aren’t turned out like identical shovels in a factory. Even two kids from the same parents don’t always react the same way to the same disease.
Now, one more thing. My doctor told me the sore-throat and the ear-ache sensations share the same nerves. In some people (me, for example,) a sore throat will be accompanied by an earache, even when nothing’s wrong with the ear.
I don’t know how much better this will make you feel, Sarahfeena, but I usually get earaches with colds, too. When my doctor peers in there, she just says that it looks irritated, but that it’s nothing to worry about or unusual. So you’re not alone in the cold with an earache area.
Eh, be glad you don’t have it almost 24/7. I’ve got pretty bad chronic post-nasal drip, with the lovely bonus of my freakin’ Eustachian tubes being constantly blocked up. I don’t know if it’s fluid/mucus in them, or if they’re inflamed, but there is always pressure in my ears, sounds are usually muffled, and I get little “mini-pops” in my ears every time I swallow. It’s like it’s trying to relieve the pressure difference, but then it comes right back again.
The two times I’ve been flying since I’ve gotten this have NOT been fun. :mad:
Probably that’s just the way you’re put together. Tho the problem may be more frequent for folks who smoke/live with smokers/get exposed to lots of aerosolized pollutants.
Poor design of the eustacian tube contributes too. Take it up with the manufacturer.
Sorry to hijack, but–you too? Has your doctor been able to tell you anything about how to get rid of it permanently? Mine insists it’s allergies, but no meds have ever helped.
Not only has this been driving me nuts for the past few years, but I have to take a transatlantic flight in August and I’m worried that I’ll have terrible pain the entire time.
Nope, nothing. I’ve tried standard allergy meds and nothing. I went to the student health center and the PA suggested eliminatying lactose and gluten…I did that for a few months, and still nothing (though I AM lactose intolerant…but that only manifest at the other end of the body, if you catch my drift…) Went back again and was referred to an allergist. Found no allergies (although he was the one who actually finally diagnosed my GERD… ) Went back to the health center and got a script for nasal corticosteroids and they only made things worse.
So here I am…still with what seems like gallons of mucus going down the back of my throat constantly and my ears all plugged up.
Sometimes taking some pseudoephedrine (ie, REAL Sudefed, not that fake crap they’ve been peddling ever since the whole meth scare’s been going) before a flight can help eliminate some of the symptoms, I’ve found.
I tell my patients that it’s worth a try, and won’t do any harm. One just uses lots of water (buffered with salt and bicarb to make it similar to the osmolality of the normal nasal secretions) to flush things out.
About half my patients love it and won’t give it up, a quarter say it doesn’t help, and another quarter look at the demo video and refuse to even try it.
It helps me a lot when I’m either congested or drippy.
I’ve always had problems with my ears, including multiple ear infections as a kid. I’ve pretty much learned that if my ears stay plugged up for more than about four days, I’m going to get an ear infection.
Or did.
I had my tonsils out about five years ago, and it made an amazing difference. My allergies got significantly better, my ears stayed open almost all the time, and I didn’t catch upper respiratory infections nearly as often. While I’ve been fighting a very long term sinus infection/inflammation, I really hope that’s a fluke, and my head won’t give me as much trouble as it used to.
First I have a thing or two to ask him about my lower back pain!
I’m lucky enough to have never spent much time around smokers, so I guess I just have bad tubes. Sounds like I’m lucky not to have the post nasal drip problem, so I’ll stop complaining now.
I was making the rash assumption that if everyone in the house has a cold roughly at the same time, that it’s probably the same virus. Though, of course, that may not be the case.
That’s true, because as I said, my colds pretty much always give me the same symptoms in the same relative severity, so I figure it has to be something about my physiology that makes it so.
Yes, I’ve heard that, too, but it still doesn’t answer the question…why do some people get the earache with the sore throat and some don’t? We may all not be turned out like identical shovels in a factory, but I’ll bet our nerve networks are pretty similar.
It DOES make me feel better that some of y’all have the same thing. Makes me feel less defective.
I’ve had ear aches several times when I’ve had colds or bad allergies. Both times I had them checked out by doctors and they were eustachian tube inflammations. Now I can detect when there is going to be a lot of pollen in the air by my ears.
I often get an earache in my right ear that leads to a sore throat and then bronchitis. I can feel the day-to-day progress of discomfort from that ear moving towards my throat. After 3 days, soreness in my throat begins only on that side. My left ear always feels okay throughout this. But oddly, when I see my doctor about this, he always says the right ear looks normal but the left is inflamed.
I thought maybe the problem might be that they are unusually small and/or don’t drain well, which might cause the pressure problems, I think?
) Went back to the health center and got a script for nasal corticosteroids and they only made things worse.