What do you do for clogged ears?

[keenercam]

I had a sinus infection and upper respiratory infection and did a course of zithromax. Unfortunately, when the worst was over, my left ear was completely clogged; the doctor said the eustachian (sp?) tube was blocked, and prescribed a course of steroids. Well, here I am a week later and both ears are clogged. It feels like I am under water, I have almost no hearing on both sides and the right one keeps crackling. It definitely feels a lot like the painful swimmer's ear I had so many times when I was younger.

Have you had these symptoms? If so, what did you do that helped? I have tried zyrtec, over the counter decongestants, and drops for swimmers ear, and nothing has helped.

 

[BadRomance]

Mucinex Decongestant- It is the red box. That always works for me! You have to take the little paper to the pharmacist and I think you can only buy one box of it. But yeah, that always clears me up..

 

[kimmar067]

....remove my fingers from them....

 

[Zandy595]

Sudafed usually works for me. Have you tried resting your ear(s) on a warm hot water bottle or heating pad?

 

[purpletiger]

My doctor as always prescribed Rescon GG along with the antibiotic. It states right on the bottle that it opens up the eustation tubes. If not they can perform a procedure that can open them up.

 

[720L]

Sudafed and chew lots of gum. I get plugged ears a lot and this is what helps, it usually takes about 3 days.

 

[bookgirl]

What ever you do, don't blow your nose or at least blow it very very softly. You can cause a back pressure when you blow out hard and your nose is to swollen inside to handle it and blow out you eardrum. I know because BTDT. Decongestants, warm heating pad/water bottle and as stinky as it is you just have to wait it out. Hope it goes quick.

 

[golfgal]

Sudafed usually works for me. Have you tried resting your ear(s) on a warm hot water bottle or heating pad?

I use a wet wash cloth warmed up in the microwave (in a ziplock bag). I had terrible problems with my ears as a child and this was the only thing that helped me. When our kids were having awful problems with ear infections he put them on Dimatap as a preventative-1/2 dose 2x's/day. In your case I would use the full dose as prescribed on the bottle. There is some NASTY form of sinus infections going around right now. DD's best friend has had one for 3 months and is scheduled for surgery, my SIL has a horrible one, DD came home with an awful headache and I am afraid she may be coming down with one too.

 

[RNMOM]

Yep, mucinex and sudafed or the combo mucinex decongestant.

Sudafed reduces the swelling in the sinus/eustacian tubes and mucinex helps make the mucus thinner. Drink lots of water like hot tea and such too. If you have humidifyers use them or take a nice warm bath or a couple showers to get lots of humidity in your system.

Keep using this for several days, like a pp said. It might take a couple just to get it started.

 

[dcentity2000]

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Rich::

 

[keenercam]

Thank you so much for the suggestions! I also spoke with a pharmacist last night who said Mucinex D is the best choice. Hadn't tried warm compresses, but will try that tonight. I am really worried because I am scheduled for outpatient surgery on Monday with general anesthesia, and I think if I show up there with clogged ears they might turn me away.

 

[damo]

I always do some gentle massaging dragging my finger from my face towards my ear to help relieve the clogging. It seems to help a lot.

 

[escape]

Thank you so much for the suggestions! I also spoke with a pharmacist last night who said Mucinex D is the best choice. Hadn't tried warm compresses, but will try that tonight. I am really worried because I am scheduled for outpatient surgery on Monday with general anesthesia, and I think if I show up there with clogged ears they might turn me away.

OMG, Cam! I'm having the same problems. I'm still in the middle of my Z-pak. Wonder if I can take the Mucinex D now or if I have to wait until I'm done with the antibiotics. I'll call my pharmacist. I cannot hear out of my ears. I'm hard of hearing anyway; this just makes it a lot worse.

ETA: Wishing you a successful surgery on Monday. {{{Hugs}}}

 

[Cloggedears78]

I had a sinus infection and upper respiratory infection and did a course of zithromax. Unfortunately, when the worst was over, my left ear was completely clogged; the doctor said the eustachian (sp?) tube was blocked, and prescribed a course of steroids. Well, here I am a week later and both ears are clogged. It feels like I am under water, I have almost no hearing on both sides and the right one keeps crackling. It definitely feels a lot like the painful swimmer's ear I had so many times when I was younger.

Have you had these symptoms? If so, what did you do that helped? I have tried zyrtec, over the counter decongestants, and drops for swimmers ear, and nothing has helped.

I know this is an older post but I would like to reply as I am Googling right now about clogged ears and Came Upon This Thread. I was diagnosed with small eustachian tubes about 15 years ago, and the ENT said he wanted to put tubes in my ears I declined because I swim a lot. I too have always suffered from swim ear and my ear has actually felt like it exploded three times descending on airplanes. Flights are a nightmare for my ears! I don't know if it was my eardrum someone told me my eustachian tube probably collapsed, I don't know but it was very painful and always load up on sudafed, mucinex, afrin and gum when flying now. Anyway...About two weeks ago I got a really bad sinus respiratory infection after a cold and I too was given azithromycin. I take this antibiotic often when I get sick. At the end of the course which was a four days I awoke and my right ear was completely closed. The next morning my left ear was closed. Everything sounded like it was under water, I had ringing in my ears, it was very painful sharp pains actually. A lot of pressure in my head also. I tried warm bath compresses blowing my ears to try to open my eustachian tubes nothing helped. After about 5 days of battling this I went to the doctor and he prescribed me amoxicillin. I didn't know that until I went to Costco to pick it up and that was really upset because I do not respond well to amoxicillin. I looked online and saw that Ciprofloxacin, and cefdinir we're good antibiotics for middle ear infections. I happen to have an bottle.of of cefdinir in my medicine cabinet and took that. It has been about 4 days, along with Cipro drops for my ear and my right ear has finally started to open up. My left ear is still clogged. This is a pretty bad infection I think and I'm so glad I had the stronger antibiotic. And I'm actually going to switch doctors. This is only the second time I've ever seen him I was very disappointed in his dismissal of how much pain I was in due to my clogged ears, and prescribing me amoxicillin when I told him that I did not respond to that. I was prescribed amoxicillin a lot when I was a kid because of my ear infections and I seem to have grown a tolerance to it. The cefdinir 300 mg twice a day for 10 days, Cipro drops, Mucinex and Sudafed and flonase the combination of these are relieving my symptoms. Just thought I would give this information out because I knew how frustrating it was and painful. Hope this helps somebody.Weird so many of us were on Zpack and got clogged ears...