When I was a little girl, I had a lot of ear infections, ear aches, and tonsil issues. In fact I think my tonsils were nothing more than gigantic satanic germ catchers—once they were removed, my health dramatically improved. Today, I generally don’t get colds, I never get a sore throat and I’ve never had the flu.
However I’m pretty sure I have utterly inadequate Eustachian tubes because my ears clog up exactly as though I’ve changed elevation when I haven’t. It’s not a wax issue, I produce hardly any of that, but it’s very uncomfortable. Plus it affects my hearing. So I pop my ears the way you would when you’re on a plane and it helps a little bit but not for long.
This past weekend, I got uncomfortable enough to look online to see what the heck causes this. Of course I found lots and lots of non-scientific articles about candling and various theories about wax build up and ear clogging. Then I found this article about barotrauma and bingo! It lists all my symptoms—although thankfully my nose hasn’t yet bled—and confirmed my anecdotal observation that blowing out my ears helped temporarily. I also realized this bout falls more toward the severe end of the spectrum. I started taking a decongestant on Monday and I'm finally getting some relief. I don’t like taking them because they make my head tingle and I feel weird. But I’d rather feel weird and be able to hear than not take them.
Did /do you have ear issues? How about your children (if you have kids)? Sadly I did pass along my ears and tonsils to my older son. He ended up having four sets of tubes and his tonsils and adenoids out at age four.
4 comments:
I never had those problems as a kid though I have really bad allergies only recently fixed by a daily Zyrtec. Since 2004, my right ear is often clogged - or feels like it does when you're on a plane and can't get it to unstop itself. The ENT found nothing amiss but noticed my severely deviated septum he wanted badle to fix. I have so far declined nose surgery which sounds particularly awful.
Dusty is the one with all these problems. She had ear infections as a small child and eventually had tubes put in her ears. Then, last year, her tonsils and adenoids (a persistent problem leading to numerous bouts of strep) were removed. She hasn't had more than a mild cold ever since.
I know removing tonsils has fallen out of fashion and I'm sure it was done too frequently. But as with Dusty, my health dramatically improved. I didn't get really sick for like 10 years after that, and the only reason I think I got sick then was because I was in the Army living in the barracks. That's enough to make anyone sick!
As I just said on FB, Eleanor didn't get sick as much after getting her adenoids taken out at age 6, and by about 11 she'd succumbed to so many of the local germs that she didn't get really sick (as in with a fever) after that. She does get colds a lot.
Jake's tonsils and adenoids were removed when he was five. He'd battled strep throat off and on for 6 months (4 rounds of antibiotics). Since the surgery, he's not had strep ONCE.
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