★★★★★
Day 1: Ears itch slightly. I use a dry q-tip to clean/scratch my ear.
Day 2: I wake up with my left ear feeling a little clogged and the right is burning slight. Pain Level is 2 but I know something bad is about to start and we are leaving for a trip in a couple of hours. I pack everything I can think of. I don't ever recall having an ear infection but I had fought it when my son had it 10 years ago. I pack: hydrogen peroxide (3%), grapefruit seed extract, rubbing alcohol (70%), lavender oil, q-tips in a zip lock, advil, net pot and salt. I mix a solution (per label) of Grapefruit seed extract (4 drops in 1 oz of alcohol)
Before I leave, I put a few drops of Hydrogen peroxide in one ear and let it sit with my head on a pillow. It fizzes so much, it comes out of my ear. I flip my head and let it drain. I do the same with the second ear.
For the 5 hour drive, I alternate soaking a q-tip in alcohol/GSE solution and dabbing it in each ear (every 3 hours), and lavender oil (every 2 hours). Pain is about a 7 when touched, hearing is getting worse. I can feel the canal of my ear is swollen. When we get to the hotel, I soak a small strip pf TP with Hydrogen Peroxide and allow it to drip into me ear as before. Again, it bubbles out. A very violent reaction but I do get relief from pain. I feel like I won't get healing without reducing inflammation so I begin advil - 1 every 6 hours. It reduces the swelling by that evening but pain is about 3 and I can tell the infection is not subsiding. I continue this regimen for 2 days
I decide to begin internal GSE. 15 drops in 8 ounces of water. I drink this every 4 hours for 2 days.
Day 3: Pain subsides and remains at 3. Hydrogen Peroxide continues to bubble. I continue the regimen as I did when driving, with q-tips since we are continuing to drive and do things on vacation. I keep everything in a bag with me and always get bottle water so I can mix up GSE. This was a miserable situation but I was not going to let it ruin our vacation. I made sure to only use one end of a q-tip in a particular ear - never to reinfect the other ear.
Day 4: I add using a net pot to my regimen (I happen to have a travel net pot and we happen to be staying in a hotel with a kitchenette so I could boil water and let it cool). I add GSE, in addition to sea salt (1/8 tsp per 1 cup water) to the Neti water per label instructions (4 drops per cup water). I do a net 2x per day. I also begin baking soda regimen (1/4 tsp in water every couple of hours) taken internally. Pain level is subsiding (2 when touched) and hearing is still affected in one ear but improving slightly. I feel like I'm healing so I cut back on GSE internally to 2x/dy, reduce baking soda to morning and night and stop advil, and stop hydrogen peroxide.
Day 5: I'm back home now. By morning, my pain level is back to 7. I was not better. Hearing in one ear is severely diminished. Ear canal seems almost swollen shut. I have to tug on earlobes gently to get canal open enough to allow hydrogen peroxide drops. I immediately start everything back up again, except advil. I want to be able to judge swelling and pain levels.
My ears feel so inflamed, I don't want to make them worse so I decrease frequency of alcohol/GSE, lavender oil and hydrogen peroxide drops to one every 3-4 hours. I alternate to a different one each time.
I come to Earth Clinic and read about garlic oil in the ear. I warm some old and thinly slice one garlic clove. I soak a cotton ball with warm oil and put one in each ear. It is very soothing, not burning at all. I sleep this way.
Day 5: I seem to notice improvement in the morning and spend all day and night with garlic oil cotton balls in my ears. I change the cotton balls morning and night and do hydrogen peroxide drops, followed by the alcohol/GSE drops in each ear (I find this helps to get the ear dry after the hydrogen peroxide)when I change the cotton balls. Pain and swelling continue to diminish but not gone. I take GSE in water morning and night.
Day 6: Morning and night I do hydrogen peroxide drops, followed by the alcohol/GSE drops in each ear. I sleep with garlic oil cotton balls in my ears. Pain is down to 1. Hearing is improving but not back to normal.
Day 7: I wake with pain in one ear (5 when touched) and a swollen lymph node under that ear. This is it. I'm trying one last thing. I look in my old herbal healing book. I take a fresh, uncut onion and cut a little section off. I run it across a microplane grater (any grater will work) until there is a watery pulp (about 2 TBS). I tilt the bowl and press the pull so that a pool of clear onion juice gathers at the bottom. I take a cotton ball and unroll it. I cut it in half and re-roll both sections so I have 2, tighter, more cylindrical cotton pieces. I soak one end of each in the onion juice and shove the wet portion in my ear. I wad up the remaining part on the cotton so it holds inside the ear. I do this to each ear. There is enough onion juice on the cotton so I can feel it running in my ear. There is no burning, and it feels soothing but I do feel SOMETHING...a warming of a sort?
I sleep and wake to 100% pain free and the lymph node is much smaller.
Day 8: I grate fresh onion and change the cotton morning, noon and night. The pain is completely gone, hearing has returned to normal.
Day 9: completely normal ears.
Now, did the onion juice do it? Had I weakened it already? I can tell you that if this happened to me again, I would have all the same things on hand but I would START with the onion juice and only add things, one at a time if I felt like I needed more "punch" to fight the attack. I would not use q-tips unless it was an emergency (like I'm on the subway or something). The GSE internally, really helped me fight it as well as I believe I would have gotten a fever, otherwise. I would use the advil sparingly as I feel like it gives a false sense of healing (maybe use it for kids more and in intense pain).
This was a highly aggressive attack. I feel like I may have had a yeast infection that turned into a bacterial one.
Onion
★★★★★
Alcohol and White Vinegar
★★★★★
Garlic
★★★★★
Starting last night (Thursday night) I began taking a TON of Vitamin C. Then I came to this site and read about garlic, and this morning I bought some 2, 000 mg garlic tablets. I took two right away, and some more Vitamin C. Within an hour I felt my inner ear begin to drain into my throat, which I took as a good sign. I am continuing my antibiotic drops, but they hurt so bad when I put them in that I have to blow-dry my ear afterwards (which REALLY helps).
Long story short, I've only had to take a minimum dosage of over-the-counter pain medicine (ibuprofen) today, because I can absolutely feel the infection clearing up. It's still a bit painful, and every once in a while it will throb for a few minutes, but I can generally deal with it and it's not the nail-biting, leg-cramping, stomach-twisting agony I've been experiencing for the last two days.
I definitely recommend it! It can't hurt, after all. And of course I'm not discontinuing the medicine I was given by my doctor.
Honey
★★★★★
Nature is so wise; my personal belief is that bees are absolute angels of health and well-being on our planet. One can often find Manuka honey from NZ in health stores worldwide. It's usually a very dark amber color. (And, of course, being honey, it's delicious! )
Cayenne Pepper
★★★★★
The next day another 2 glasses of the magic stuff later I was laying on my right side and I felt a sudden sharp pain in my ear, like a pop, like someone stuck a screwdriver in my right ear and a strong sensation of relief.... Then..... Nothing.... Absolutely nothing. It was 2 weeks ago. I've not had pain since, not even once. I can't believe it!!!!!! It was ruining my life, I was grumpy the whole time, and not to mention very scared that it was something much more sinister than some infection. In my opinion it was an infection getting out of control, like candida or something. I was very stressed out at the time it started 5 months ago, so it can easily be stress related candida symptom. I do get an occasional itch in my ears, but small itching is normal now and again. I also take a glass of water with 1 tbspoon of ACV and 1/2 teaspoon of soda bicarbonate twice a day now, I can honestly say that I've never felt better. Thank you EarthClinic! THANK YOU! Good luck and good health everyone x
Olive Oil
★★★★★
Cayenne Pepper
★★★★☆
I did not have fresh organic cayenne measured by strength; it was Morton's brand and fairly new, but I suspect it wasn't as potent or fresh as could be had.
Coconut Oil
★★★★★
One day after reading about the anti-bacterial properties of virgin coconut oil I decided to put vco drops in my ear several times a day, it cleared in 3 days, so now before I go swimming a few drops of vco will stop me getting an ear infection.
Dietary Changes
Hydrogen Peroxide
★★★★★
My vertigo, had not subsided completely yet, so I went to the emergency, the doctor having checked everything said, she doesn't see any infection in my ears, so she referred me to an ENT. By the time, I got to see the specialist (according to the appointment) few days went by, but I didn't stop the application of my home remedy. In the meantime my dizziness got cured, by the grace of Almighty God.
The specialist checked my ears and put me through several tests, finally discharged me saying everything was clear. THANK GOD!
Olive Oil
★★★★★
Garlic
★★★★★
I've also used olive oil to soothe ear pain. Heat the oil a bit and dip cotton and make into a little ball to pout in the ear. The warmth and something in the oil immediately eases the ear pain and often is enough to cure the problem.
Hydrogen Peroxide
★★★★★
Olive Oil
★★★★★
Dietary Changes
★★★★★
I did feel there was a connection but did realize it till i read a french book on allergies. Ear infections can be caused by milk... same for swollen tonsils.. I have no tonsils anymore.. i wish i had been old enough to stop them from cutting them out...
Anyhow we had free cheese at work.. didnt seem to affect me then one day i wanted milk...
i dont usually cause well like cheese... it contains mucus and is mucus forming... (at the time in camp, i had to eat cheese for protein cause some of the cooks thought pasta was food)
i drank 5 tiny cups like almost those bathroom cups of milk.. then that the evening my eardrums popped. i havent touched milk since. unless to test.where as a cup of chocolate milk made my throat glands on the sides sore...
The only other thing to make my throat swell like that is mcdonalds beef burgers and orange juice.
