Perforated/Torn Eardrum From Being Struck

[Nebulus1986]

Hello all.  3 days ago I was struck, open palm, directly on my ear, very hard.  I immediately had a seeming loss of hearing with consistent ringing/muffled hearing and tones.  No blood or fluid discharge from the ear at any time.  I slept on it for the next two days, until yesterday, when it had not gotten any better, I went immediately to an ENT.  He could not see anything with the normal scope so he ordered a hearing test from an audiologist.  They could not form a seal on the first part of the test with the earplugs (where they test pressure to the eardrum) on the struck ear, so he assumed microscopic tears.  The remainder of the test was fairly normal (with the hurt ear performing a little less than the other).  He checked me with a microscope and still could not conclusively determine if there were holes or not, but still assumed there were afterwards and said there is nothing he can do, just to let it heal on its own and see him again in a month.  

The last day or two since I saw him have been unbearable.  I've noticed the same muffled sound in the hurt ear, while the OTHER ear has become EXTREMELY sensitive to any sort of rumbling, bass, or low tones.  I could not even drive or get through the gym because the workout machines bothered me so much....what should I do?  Go back to the doctor now?  Keep trying to wait for it to heal itself?  What could explain the other ear now bothering me so much?  Thank you all so much.  I'm terrified at this point.

[D93]

I got slapped in the hear. The day it happened there was a ringing sound and a little sound loss.. No Pain. Day 2 Fluid is coming out of my ears still have sound loss no pain. Today still got fluid (Doesn't Smell) and still a little sound loss again no pain. is that the fluid making it hard for me to hear ? or am i in trouble. ??. will the fluid stop the fluid is clear no smell nothing. just comes. ?? i would like to use the F word. but seriously will it stop and is there things out there apart from going to the doctors that i can do myself to stop it ??.

[hula89laoui]

also - forgot to ask. Does anyone know what side you should sleep on? on being punched in ear, perforate ear drum?

is it better to lie on that side ear down? or other side?

all my eustachian tube hurts to the back of the throat and i'm scared of infection

do i put a large cotton ball in the outer part of my ear to prevent germs getting in?

[hula89laoui]

i got punched hard right on the ear tonight. I saw stars. got  massive ringing that faded,  instant deafness to about 1/3 of the hearing i had before.

it happened at 730pm but i could not leave the family gathering till 10pm. Then at Emergency i waited until 2am when they told me to go home and made an appointment for an ENT tomorrow.

They said i have a perforated eardrum

I am worried because the registrar shoved that pointy thing with the light on the end into my ear quite hard and jiggled it around a lot to see what was going on. It hurt, it went in a long way. He didn't put a sterile cap on it and i don't think it was sterilised

so now i'm worried i will get an infection

[snowflake2015]

I just had a similar thing happen to me where I was hit in the side of the head/ear & have the exact same symptoms described. No pain, thank god, but muffled hearing, sensitivity to loud sounds in other ear, & loudness of my own voice in injured ear & it's driving me CRAZY! Like everyone else, I have been freaking out & worried to death about if/when it will heal but after reading your post I feel much calmer & reassured that it will eventually return to normal. You make a lot of sense & I just wanted to thank you for posting such a thorough & detailed explanation. People going through this temporary but awful experience know how it feels & how the time seems to drag so at least we know there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you again!

[6452]

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[emmaleenmenzies]

Hi last night my ex boyfriend hit me over side of my face n my ear and it was really hard and painfully now i cant hear so good out it and m hearing ringing nosies n when somebody talks to me its muffled and cant hear them right i have to tell them to talk loader what has he done to me its so painful.
Emmaleen