So, just what does an ear infection feel like?

I know you all are just dying to read more about my ear infection.

Okay, okay, I promise will be the last post about my puss-filled ear. In the meantime, kick back, grab a bag of popcorn because this is going to be just like an episode of Grey's Anatomy, minus the sex and angst.

Being naturally curious and also since I am attempting to be a mindful mother, I generally try to see the world through Annika's eyes as much as possible and it occurred to me that in some ways it might have been a blessing that I had this ear infection, in case Annika ever has one, I will know how she is feeling.

First off, I gotta say, if your kid has an ear infection, keep the pain medication coming! This is not one of those times that you should skimp on the ibuprofen thinking that it's not that bad.

It is that bad. Hell, it's worse. I was wishing for some Vicodin during the worst of it.

So here goes:

I started to feel a buildup of pressure on Friday afternoon and by the evening, my ear felt like something had crawled down inside it and was growing, it was clawing around inside my ear canal and scratching me, making me feel highly uncomfortable.

By Saturday, I felt achy, nauseous and had tremendous pain in my ear, and also along my jaw. My outer ear was swollen and red hot as well, but the worse part was the pain that was traveling up and down the left side of my face and shooting me in the gums. I also felt feverish off and on throughout the day. I never took my temperature. I think I only ran a low-grade fever off and on. The infection was sitting hard and clumped up right inside my ear canal. I could feel it in there. It felt like a big ball of gunk that needed to come out so like a little kid who can't stop picking at her scabby knees, I kept picking at it around the edges until Toyin threatened to take away my Yugioh card collection.

This whole thing started because I used some ear candles, and the jury is still out on whether I think that was a good idea. See, I had some ringing in my ears for several months and the ear candles were the second thing I tried, after using colloidal silver drops, which didn't seem to help.

I mention this because my ear infection was clearly brought on by something that a child would likely not do, and so some of my symptoms might be irregular.

My theory on this ear infection is that I had something infectious deep down inside my ear canal and the ear candles loosened it up.

By Wednesday the pain was completely gone, but the ringing is still there, it is localized right inside my ear canal where I could feel the infection sitting.

For several days every time I swallowed my ear popped and it felt like I was landing after a three-hour flight to nowhere.

If you didn't read my previous post about my trip to the pharmacy, I started taking Congaplex last Monday and started feeling tremendously better the next day. The pain is gone and now I just have this damn dead bug ringing in my ear. 

So there you have it. That's what an ear infection feels like. A big hot ball of dead bug that won't shut the fuck up.

It has now been 10 days and my ear is still plugged up but I am still waiting for all the gunk to come out.


It has been the most annoying and also the most painful thing that has happened to me in a long time. However, if the ringing goes away, which I am keeping my fingers crossed that it does, it will have been worth it.