Blocked ear

I lay in bed, and felt my throat ache. I also felt how close my throat is to my ears. And I felt something not quite right in my left ear. I also heard funny popping sounds inside my ear; something was going on there. In the morning it was blocked.

That Monday I spoke with one of our PhD students; he said his ear had been blocked recently too. He had asked his GP about it, and they had recommended he drip some olive oil into it, to soften the earwax that was probably the problem. After about a week they flushed out his ear and he was fine. I started faffing with olive oil that very day. I hoped that would sort things! It didn't. I figured I may need to have my ear flushed out too.

I went to the GP surgery the next Tuesday; I was seen by a nurse. She stuck an otoscope into my ear, and said there was no earwax there. She called the nearest GP. She had a look too; she confirmed that, and said the blockage would be on the other side of the eardrum: a blocked Eustachian Tube. I suppose I could have known! If you can pretty much feel it jump from throat to ear you can bet it's not an external blockage. The GP said it would go away on its own initiative, in all likelihood. The bad news was that it could take many weeks. Oh dear! I was quite fed up with my asymmetrical hearing, and the dull feeling. I'll have to just endure that for a while more. Oh well! There are worse things. But I still hope it goes away relatively fast...