I started having a sore throat about a week plus one day ago. It wasn't all that bad, just sore to swallow. I went home for the weekend hoping that my parents care would heal me up over the weekend, but we tried multiple things and the sore throat wouldn't go away. It only kept getting worse. The most frustrating part was that since my throat was obviously inflamed it made it really hard to sleep because it made it feel like my neck was hurting badly and I could hardly sleep for very long before waking up. On Sunday, the day before I saw my Doctor on Monday, I started to have earaches in both my ears. All the while I haven't been coughing or sneezing, just been congested in my nose, leading to drainage into my mouth which I was actively trying to cough up most of it. It was a dark brownish green and streaky but sometimes it was almost like the brown was reddish, making me think maybe there was a touch of blood in it, but I am not sure. I went to the Doctor on Monday and he prescribed me an antibiotic which I was to take once a day for three days. It seemed to be working right off the bat, I was feeling better. But later on Monday, I was eating lunch and all of a sudden my right ear started to hurt badly. Well, it wasn't so much hurting as it was pressure in my ear, making sounds muffled and it felt like I had cotton shoved deep inside my ear. I tried popping my ears by holding my nose and blowing, and my left ear popped and suddenly my left ear felt fine but my right ear will still not pop and it is Thursday. It has been three days and I am now out of the antibiotic. Yesterday I was being very persistent on trying to cough up mucus and all of a sudden I coughed up something that had a little more substance than mucus. It was almost completely blood with a little bit of mucus and it felt spongy as if there was some sort of material to it. I probably should have examined it further but for the sake of my girlfriend's grossed out factor I let it go down the sink. Then for about another 5 minutes all the mucus I coughed up had significant amounts of bright red blood in it. Then I suppose whatever was bleeding clotted and there was no more blood in the mucus. The reason I was being persistent at coughing up mucus was because I felt like there was a bit of mucus in the back of my throat that was being stubborn. I could feel it hanging there and it was on the left side. I tried coughing up mucus as hard as I could even to the point where my gag reflex was making me nearly throw up. Then suddenly the mysterious red glob came flying out projectile style and I caught it on my hand. After that occured, for a number of hours yesterday I felt superb and thought I must have coughed up the culprit, or the infection. Then my symptoms started to come back, my right ear, sore throat, etc. Now my right side feels exactly the same way as when I was coughing hard. I can feel something that feels like a glob of mucus in my throat that will NOT come loose. The left side of my body (ear, nose, throat) is consistently fine with the exception of slight switching of congestion in my nose but it always ultimately ends back up in my left nostril. I am taking Ibuprofen around the clock for the pressure and slight pain in my ear. I have had to take Nyquil to sleep the past few days. Most sources I read say that ear infections will almost always go away on their own. Another thing worth noting is that the pressure in my right ear sometimes seems to coincide with how congested my right nostril is. Oh and the antibiotic I was given was called Azithromycin (500 mg). I know this was long, but I felt it was important that I be as thorough as possible. Will this go away eventually? I know I should probably see my doctor again but there are a few issues with my health insurance right now and I do not want to burden my already burdened parents or myself with another medical bill. Is there ANYTHING I can do on my own to help this go away? I have been taking Ibuprofen consistently so that I can fall asleep through the pain and I have been sleeping as much as I can to let my body focus on fighting this infection. Please help. Thank you. Oh yea, while tagging I thought it would be important to note that throughout this, I have not had a fever, except for like one morning and the fever subsided almost instantly after waking up and showering. Oh, and also I am not an expert but where I think my lymph nodes in my neck are...they are swollen on the right side and not on the left.