well about 3-4 weeks ago I got sick with a nasty outer ear infection..pain was terrible swelling etc. They looked in my ear diagnosed it as such (probably done by my own hands as my love of sticking Q-tips farther in my ear than i should...lol) gave me amoxicillin. After 5+ days of being on amoxicillin it was NO better, but no worse. I got some ciprodex ear drops and automatically felt better. After a couple days pain was gone, and it took a few more for the loss of hearing feeling to go away and be normal. Within a couple days it swelled up again, felt some stabs of pain but more towards the MIDDLE ear. Took the drops for another day or so, it went away, felt fine for another day or two and then yesterday its' back!! i started drops again and there's no pain but it's still a little swollen and muffled. I highly dobut im supposed to be doing these drops like this..what the heck gives???

Oh a positive note..i wrote yesterday i was down to 177.5 from 181 last week..for kicks this morning I weighed myself and i'm 176.5 (i'm on TOM too, so that could be affecting the higher numbers lol) Weight loss wise, I did great the first week at 4.5lbs! Sadly but healthily this will slow down lol.

Did they tell you to start and stop like that, or to finish out the whole course even after you felt better???

I finished the entire course of the amoxcillin capsules. As far as the ciprodex drops i was on them for 10 days and THEN off and on the last couple times it feels like it's flaring up..so now i'm back on..hoping it kicks it for good if not i'm gonna have to go back to doc, I guess. I've never had an ear infection do this!

The q-tips could be a part of the problem. Especially if you're pushing them in too deep...that can push your earwax back further than it's supposed to go and cause a clog. (Well, according to things I read just now when I googled. Though I have had doctor's tell me before that q-tips arent very good for you.)

I know when i was in 8th grade I had a very nasty ear infection that i fought for most of the year. The doctor kept trying different antibiotics with me and nothing was working.

Eventually, he had to use this (it's kind of gross, sorry) suction machine to suck out all the gunk in my ear. And I remember him using an earwash to rinse my ear....I had to hold a kidney pan up to my face to catch the gross water.

I still use q-tips, but I try and be careful as to how rough I am with them.

Do you swim a lot? That's what brought on most of my ear infections when I was younger. Now I make sure to use ear drops every time after I swim.

I hope you feel better soon! Ear infections are the worst.

Yeah i used to get swimmers ear but pretty quickly learned not to go underwater as much or use some drops for it right after swimming so i hadn't had a problem in forever. If it doesnt kick soon i'm gonna have to go back to the doc...Did the ear wash help?

The ear wash helped a TON. From what I remember, after the doctor sucked out my ear and then rinsed it, i was good to go.

(So sorry it took me so long to respond. I'm going to PM this to you too!) I didnt subscribe to the thread.

they washed out my son ears once too ,its the best way to go , nasty stuff came gushing out!