Horrific Ear and Shoulder Pain

[RanchMomma]

My 12 yr old son has been having severe pain in his left ear, the side of his head and down his shoulder for about 6 months. His ear drum had ruptured twice, and he has had 6 ear infection in that time. I took him to the ER this last weekend and the ER dr. said he couldn't see anything wrong with his ear drum, but could tell he was in terrible pain. Tonight I noticed swelling behind his ear and on the side of his head tonight. I have an appt. for him with an ENT dr next week. Just wondering if there is anything I might be missing or that I could do to ease his pain. No pain meds seem to help him. Tonight we had him go to sleep with a warm wash cloth on it and it helped a little bit.

[Stacia99]

Sorry to hear that there wasn't a quick answer for your son!  Hopefully it's something simple that can be cleared up as soon as the specialist sees him.

I use nasal rinses every day, 3 times a day now, and when I blow my nose afterwards my ears pop like firecrackers.  I'm not sure if that's good or bad!

[RanchMomma]

My son called from school yesterday morning saying that his ear was bleeding again. So I got him into the Dr. ASAP. He looked and couldn't see anything wrong with the ear drum itself, he said it didn't look normal but didn't look infected either. He has the Dr's very confussed. Every thing he is telling them says it is an inner ear infection, but it sure doesn't look that way. The other thing the Dr noticed was his ear canal is bleeding in 3 spots and can see it is very sensitive. He also noticed either a growth or a tumor starting in his canal and rupturing the skin. He can feel it behind the ear now as well. So we are headed for a specialist next Friday for CAT scans and numerous other test. I sure was hoping for something simple like he needed another set of ear tubes or something like that. Hopefully it will be an easy fix for him and not a lot of surgery involved.

Have you tried a sinus wash for yourself? They don't sound great, but they are really not as uncomfortalbe as you would think. You can buy a sinus kit at any pharmacy. It would probably clean out a lot of the infection in your eustachian tubes. You would be a mazed out how much yucky stuff it will loosen up and then you can blow your nose and actually breathe pretty well after that. It might help relieve alot of the pressure in your ears and sinus area. They also have told us to use warm compresses on his ear and the shulder area, it does seem to help some. We have found out that pain meds don't seem to help much either

Good Luck and Hope you get to feeling better soon!  

[Stacia99]

Hi Ranchmomma, I wonder if he could be having eustachian tube pain?  I just posted about it myself a few minutes ago.  I had a sinus infection including bad neck and shoulder pain, and the doctor told me last week it was swollen eustachian tubes from ears that were clogged by sinus/allergies.  The pain starts about an inch below the ear and goes straight down to the shoulder and then out a bit, also toward the front side of the neck.

Sadly, I don't know what to do about the pain.  I just asked about that myself, because pain killers don't work.  You may want to call the doctor tomorrow morning just to be sure, of course, and if they give you a good suggestion for pain management, please share.  Good luck!