Had what is believed to be a middle ear infection for about 10 days now. Been to Doc, was given antibiotics due to ear drum being swollen and sore throat issues.

Next day ear drum must have holed as water like fluid leaked out intermittently for a couple of days. I have remaining about 20% of the hearing in that ear.

Now the other ear is going, and I can hear less to day than yesterday. I cant make out a lot of what people say if its in a normal voice. No fluid leaks. Cant speak to the same doctor until next Monday evening, then only by phone.

Not sure if this is all par for the course as never had an ear infection before, or if I should be pushing harder for someone to take another look.

On the NHS site it says these things are usually over in 2 or 3 days. Elsewhere I have seen ear drums take a few weeks to heal over – but they dont say how much that changes or effects hearing.

Anyone got any experience? Thanks.

Pardon?

I perforated an ear drum once an I think it was a couple of weeks later that I had to go back to see if it had healed, I think that in some cases they don’t heal themselves and some intervention is needed, but 2-4 weeks sounds about right for that.

With regard to the infection, I would not expect it to last that long in my experience, I think when my ear drum burst I was given stronger antibiotics than usual.

Not an expert, just have dodgy ears and like swimming

No kidding Julians. My housemate is getting bored of it now, so is either not bothering to speak to me or does that exaggerated speaking to the deaf stuff. He also keeps turning up, trying to help, with stuff saying hearing loss is permanent if its misdiagnosed. I can just hear videos on my laptop now if I turn its volume up to full.

On the more interesting side, some of the internal sound effects were interesting and weird. The shopping centre (my first trip out yesterday since this started) was much improved by being less noisy, but was too worn out to stay for more than just a coffee.

Steve G, how did sound change for you with the perforation?

You need antibiotic drops not tablets. My ENT consultant says tablets dont work on the ear because there isnt much blood in there. I see them every 6 months as I am very susceptible to ear infections post an ear operation I had a few years ago

You need antibiotic drops not tablets.

This.

Go back to doc, ask for Otimize spray.

I think I might try to get another medical appointment tomorrow instead of waiting until next Monday, given what people have said above (thanks folks), though getting any appointment is good going around here, service is well over loaded.

The Monday appointment is only a phone call anyway, so they can’t take a look or anything.

I very recently got an outer ear mild infection that for some reason escalated to having infections in both middle ears..ended up taking optimise (steroidal ear drops) for a few weeks. Probably took four/five weeks to clear up. Had to keep ear dry for the whole time and put ear drops in lying down (so drips would soak in using gravity).

Infection came from swimming (I think) and i have just returned to swimming. However, whilst the ear with the initial infection feels completely fixed, when it gets water in it now, it seems to hold water for a day or too which it never did before…ears are sensitive things.

Hope it doesn’t move to labyrinthitis. That sucks big time…