Aa
Blood red Ear infection that wont go away
I have been tolerating a bad ear infection for many months now. And believe it to have originated about over a year ago. At the time I was completely unaware since I cant see into my own ear to notice whether it was red even back then, but i certainly remember having lighter yet similiar symptoms as I do now.
Alot of these symtoms seem to involve a throbbing sensation of the jaw and temple region as well as severe migraines from time to time. However I can go for months were I feel none of the symptoms aside from the occassional heaviness that sets in before a mini migraine takes hold. The one constant symptom is some heavyset saliva and the need to swallow constantly this has been ongoing for over a year if not close to two.
I approached my GP after my symptoms worsened 2 months ago, I woke up with chills and the final straw was when I had a few bouts of severe migraines that did not subside for 3 days, on top of that I felt drowsy and my right side of my face was partially numb not to mention increased nausea. I also became increasingly dizzy and for 4 days running I almost fell over when climbing out of bed with extreme vertigo.
My GP checked my right ear noticing what he called a severe blood red infection put me on soframycin drops for a week, this did nothing but aggravate my ear and migraines tremendously, I relayed that info to him and he told me to continue that the meds were taking effect on the infection. I returned after a week and when he checked again was surprised the blood red ear was unchanged. Prescribed me 500mg of cephalexin for another week. Again the symptoms worsened, my whole temple region and jaw hurt excruciatingly and my migraines worsened. After that week, he looked and told me it was slightly better and that he wanted me to remain on the meds for another week. I felt that it was torture the 1st week so I asked to get some bloodwork and other tests done instead to see what the hell it was. This took 2 more weeks to process. So when my tests returned I was clear for sputim and urine results. But my bloodwork was showing 3 enzymes in my liver.
He told me that I had tested positive for Hep A but that since I had gotten a combined vaccine for Hep A and typhoid recently for travelling overseas, that it may be within reason, and not a Hep A infection. Told me that another retest was necessary after 4weeks minimum or 8 weeks recommended. In the meantime he put me on more antibiotics, this time doxycycline tablets 100mg for another week.
I am now taking these but feel terrible, the migraines are intense and my jaw hurts to my temple and feels it penetrates into my brain. Last night I dreamt I was having a seizure, and was surprised that I couldnt wake myself, when I did I was still shaking for a few seconds and couldnt think and felt like I was not in control of my body. It was so brief that I cant be sure what it was, but my whole body felt odd for minutes after.
Anyways I have no idea whats going on, but I feel that from the material I have read that my ear infection could be fungal, and I have had a persistent nail infection that I took 4 months to cure. I also read that antibiotics actually aggravate the infection. But my GP doesnt seem too interested in my suggestions.
Hope you can shed some light on this.
Alot of these symtoms seem to involve a throbbing sensation of the jaw and temple region as well as severe migraines from time to time. However I can go for months were I feel none of the symptoms aside from the occassional heaviness that sets in before a mini migraine takes hold. The one constant symptom is some heavyset saliva and the need to swallow constantly this has been ongoing for over a year if not close to two.
I approached my GP after my symptoms worsened 2 months ago, I woke up with chills and the final straw was when I had a few bouts of severe migraines that did not subside for 3 days, on top of that I felt drowsy and my right side of my face was partially numb not to mention increased nausea. I also became increasingly dizzy and for 4 days running I almost fell over when climbing out of bed with extreme vertigo.
My GP checked my right ear noticing what he called a severe blood red infection put me on soframycin drops for a week, this did nothing but aggravate my ear and migraines tremendously, I relayed that info to him and he told me to continue that the meds were taking effect on the infection. I returned after a week and when he checked again was surprised the blood red ear was unchanged. Prescribed me 500mg of cephalexin for another week. Again the symptoms worsened, my whole temple region and jaw hurt excruciatingly and my migraines worsened. After that week, he looked and told me it was slightly better and that he wanted me to remain on the meds for another week. I felt that it was torture the 1st week so I asked to get some bloodwork and other tests done instead to see what the hell it was. This took 2 more weeks to process. So when my tests returned I was clear for sputim and urine results. But my bloodwork was showing 3 enzymes in my liver.
He told me that I had tested positive for Hep A but that since I had gotten a combined vaccine for Hep A and typhoid recently for travelling overseas, that it may be within reason, and not a Hep A infection. Told me that another retest was necessary after 4weeks minimum or 8 weeks recommended. In the meantime he put me on more antibiotics, this time doxycycline tablets 100mg for another week.
I am now taking these but feel terrible, the migraines are intense and my jaw hurts to my temple and feels it penetrates into my brain. Last night I dreamt I was having a seizure, and was surprised that I couldnt wake myself, when I did I was still shaking for a few seconds and couldnt think and felt like I was not in control of my body. It was so brief that I cant be sure what it was, but my whole body felt odd for minutes after.
Anyways I have no idea whats going on, but I feel that from the material I have read that my ear infection could be fungal, and I have had a persistent nail infection that I took 4 months to cure. I also read that antibiotics actually aggravate the infection. But my GP doesnt seem too interested in my suggestions.
Hope you can shed some light on this.
Thankyou for your reply Carol.
It may in fact be what you are describing. Another thing... I often find that my constant swallowing turns to occassionally feeling like im choking at night. I have suffered from migraines since I was a 19yo, but now at 31 I realise that if I have in fact had lyme disease or whatever that it might explain certain other occurences. My migraines have always been in the same right corner side of the temple and eye socket region until as recently as 1yr ago when I had a terrible episode one night where a really odd thing happened. I remember I couldnt shake a excruciating migraine for 6hrs and didnt sleep all night (usually my migraines always subside with sleep) Anyways I felt an odd sensation like I was having a mini stoke (I usually feel this way when my migraines are severe) To cut a long story short after much drama and worry I felt a popping sensation in my brain then like a tingling feeling but the oddest thing was that my migraine subsided in that very instant, which never happened to me ever (they usually take hrs to subside) I called the ambulance thinking the worst, as this sensation was also accompanied by a sudden rush of pins and needles in my face and right arm.
Since that time I have never had a migraine in the eye socket region and in fact almost went completely for 6months (id regularly get them every 5weeks or so), but now my migraines have now shifted completely to my ear and temple region.
Another thing worth mentioning after you hinted Lyme, and autoimmune problems, is that I did have an episode of severe rashes in 2002, I got them all over my limbs, and this is when I began feeling nausea and fatigue since that time. My rash persisted for 9 weeks, and slowly went away. Accompanied with this was a slight prostate inflamation, which seemed completely unaccounted for. My urologist never found out why I came down with the rash and prostatis. Even now my bladder and urinary tract are tender and sore to press down on, but I have put up with that since I noticed that losing weight alleviates my discomfort. I am not fat since I am about 83kg at 180cm, but when I drop to 72kg I feel alittle more relief around that region.
My rash returned after 10months, and the doctors at the time seemed quite baffled and refered me to a dermatologist, which in hindsight was a complete waste of time and money, as nothing eventuated from that. Another noteworthy thing was a development in my knee of arthitic like symptoms. My knee was never a problem before but the cartilage now pops out quite abit and it causes me pain whenever I stretch it out or flex it. It also feels weak and compromised.
I notice that when my nail was infected with a fungal growth that the antifungal tablets actually relieved my knee pain and I had some very sore arthritic-like pains in my feet which felt extremely tender, they actually subsided completely and never returned.
From what I can recollect in 2002, I did have bloodwork done to explain my rash. And I came back clean, altho my blood showed elevated signs of sensitivity to allergies, in his words I was many times over the normal range.
Im going to suggest temporal arteritis as a possible route to investigate. Since all other leads have turned up nil. Im still curious if it is lyme, personally I had a gut feeling it might have been blastomycosis, because of my bout with the fungal infections, and the reason behind my severe reactions to antibiotics. Although my chest xray revealed no compromising plueral abnormalities in my lungs. Despite sometimes feeling like an asthmatic.
It may in fact be what you are describing. Another thing... I often find that my constant swallowing turns to occassionally feeling like im choking at night. I have suffered from migraines since I was a 19yo, but now at 31 I realise that if I have in fact had lyme disease or whatever that it might explain certain other occurences. My migraines have always been in the same right corner side of the temple and eye socket region until as recently as 1yr ago when I had a terrible episode one night where a really odd thing happened. I remember I couldnt shake a excruciating migraine for 6hrs and didnt sleep all night (usually my migraines always subside with sleep) Anyways I felt an odd sensation like I was having a mini stoke (I usually feel this way when my migraines are severe) To cut a long story short after much drama and worry I felt a popping sensation in my brain then like a tingling feeling but the oddest thing was that my migraine subsided in that very instant, which never happened to me ever (they usually take hrs to subside) I called the ambulance thinking the worst, as this sensation was also accompanied by a sudden rush of pins and needles in my face and right arm.
Since that time I have never had a migraine in the eye socket region and in fact almost went completely for 6months (id regularly get them every 5weeks or so), but now my migraines have now shifted completely to my ear and temple region.
Another thing worth mentioning after you hinted Lyme, and autoimmune problems, is that I did have an episode of severe rashes in 2002, I got them all over my limbs, and this is when I began feeling nausea and fatigue since that time. My rash persisted for 9 weeks, and slowly went away. Accompanied with this was a slight prostate inflamation, which seemed completely unaccounted for. My urologist never found out why I came down with the rash and prostatis. Even now my bladder and urinary tract are tender and sore to press down on, but I have put up with that since I noticed that losing weight alleviates my discomfort. I am not fat since I am about 83kg at 180cm, but when I drop to 72kg I feel alittle more relief around that region.
My rash returned after 10months, and the doctors at the time seemed quite baffled and refered me to a dermatologist, which in hindsight was a complete waste of time and money, as nothing eventuated from that. Another noteworthy thing was a development in my knee of arthitic like symptoms. My knee was never a problem before but the cartilage now pops out quite abit and it causes me pain whenever I stretch it out or flex it. It also feels weak and compromised.
I notice that when my nail was infected with a fungal growth that the antifungal tablets actually relieved my knee pain and I had some very sore arthritic-like pains in my feet which felt extremely tender, they actually subsided completely and never returned.
From what I can recollect in 2002, I did have bloodwork done to explain my rash. And I came back clean, altho my blood showed elevated signs of sensitivity to allergies, in his words I was many times over the normal range.
Im going to suggest temporal arteritis as a possible route to investigate. Since all other leads have turned up nil. Im still curious if it is lyme, personally I had a gut feeling it might have been blastomycosis, because of my bout with the fungal infections, and the reason behind my severe reactions to antibiotics. Although my chest xray revealed no compromising plueral abnormalities in my lungs. Despite sometimes feeling like an asthmatic.
Marcopolo,
The next time that you see your doctor, ask him if he thinks you might have "temporal arteritis."
This is an inflammation of the arteries in the temples, and can cause ear pain and pain in the jaw when chewing.
It can be quite serious, as there is the possibility of losing vision.
This condition is treated with steroids to reduce the inflammation.
You can do a google search for this...the wikipedia article is informative.
Several years ago, I also had an ear infection that would not clear up.
I was taking a decongestant, which reduced the congestion in the ear, but it always returned.
My doctor said that he could see fluid behind the ear drum, and gave me antibiotics, which did not help.
After five months of this, a friend told me that a simple one week course of steroids could possibly clear this up, so I asked my doc for it, and he accommodated me.
The treatment worked very well, and also stopped my migraines and joint pain for a while.
Later, I found out that my migraines and joint pains were due to Lyme Disease.
In researching Lyme, I found out that it can cause autoimmune problems.
Temporal arteritis is an autoimmune reaction.
So, see if your doctor can rule out temporal arteritis for you.
If he thinks it may be temporal arteritis, he'll prescribe steroids.
If it is temporal arteritis, he should do bloodwork to test for autoimmune problems.
If you do have autoimmune problems, you need to read up about tick borne infections.
I hope this helps.
Carol
The next time that you see your doctor, ask him if he thinks you might have "temporal arteritis."
This is an inflammation of the arteries in the temples, and can cause ear pain and pain in the jaw when chewing.
It can be quite serious, as there is the possibility of losing vision.
This condition is treated with steroids to reduce the inflammation.
You can do a google search for this...the wikipedia article is informative.
Several years ago, I also had an ear infection that would not clear up.
I was taking a decongestant, which reduced the congestion in the ear, but it always returned.
My doctor said that he could see fluid behind the ear drum, and gave me antibiotics, which did not help.
After five months of this, a friend told me that a simple one week course of steroids could possibly clear this up, so I asked my doc for it, and he accommodated me.
The treatment worked very well, and also stopped my migraines and joint pain for a while.
Later, I found out that my migraines and joint pains were due to Lyme Disease.
In researching Lyme, I found out that it can cause autoimmune problems.
Temporal arteritis is an autoimmune reaction.
So, see if your doctor can rule out temporal arteritis for you.
If he thinks it may be temporal arteritis, he'll prescribe steroids.
If it is temporal arteritis, he should do bloodwork to test for autoimmune problems.
If you do have autoimmune problems, you need to read up about tick borne infections.
I hope this helps.
Carol
You are reading content posted in the Undiagnosed Symptoms Community
Discharge often isn't normal, and could mean an infection or an STD.
In this unique and fascinating report from Missouri Medicine, world-renowned expert Dr. Raymond Moody examines what really happens when we almost die.
Think a loved one may be experiencing hearing loss? Here are five warning signs to watch for.
When it comes to your health, timing is everything
We’ve got a crash course on metabolism basics.
Learn what you can do to avoid ski injury and other common winter sports injury.
