I just returned from a trip to see the advice nurse, which turned into a visit with my doctor. Seems I have scarring on my eustacian tubes, which combined with allergies and drainage (I know, gross) has caused me to have severe ear pain. Pressure changes, which happen all the time apparently, are causing searing sharp pain in my ears throughout the day. They asked me what I meant by that and I said it felt like someone was shoving a hot poker into my ear with a lot of force. My doctor, who has a great sense of humor, then said to me… is someone shoving a hot poker into your ear when you feel this pain? I laughed. She asked me if I had hearing loss because the scarring was bad enough she suspected I did. I said… huh? Then she laughed. I told her I had no idea if I had hearing loss. I didn’t think I did, but then maybe it was about to go suddenly, kind of like my eyesight did a couple of years ago. We both laughed. Other than the searing pain I told her my ears are just nicely a bit sore and full feeling. Still not good, but not searing pain… which equals good in my book. I am not whining here. OK, maybe I am just a tad. But seriously, I’m not really whining. It’s just that I hate going to the doctor, already really knowing what’s up, and then having them tell me what I thought all along. Though they said it was good I came in because I might have had an infection. They don’t want this to turn into one so they have given me something to try and clear them up and then told me to take stuff to take the swelling down. Yay… they are swollen too. They asked me questions like… did you have tubes in your ears when you were a kid? No. Did you ever have them lanced? No. Do you get dizzy once in awhile. Yes… I get vertigo occasionally. Do you know you have scarring in there? It’s obvious you’ve had some sort of ear trauma. Do you shove q-tips in there really deep to clean them? Uh… no. I do use them, but I don’t shove them way in there… that would just be silly, and painful. I had no idea I have scarring my ears. Like I said above, scarring has caused my tubes to be a lot smaller than normal. I’ve had a lot of problems with my ears over the years. Had stuff as a kid a lot. Had vertigo on and off all my life. And the culprit of all of this is… scarring and the resulting small tubes. I left with a smile on my face… which, let’s face it, is me anyway. Regardless of what’s going on I am usually smiling like an idiot. Smiling or not though, I’ve had about an ear full of this right now. This ear pain can go it’s own way any time soon. Yes it can.