Earache

I have a double earache. Not too bad, but there, and irritating.

I have always had very sensitive ears. My ears hurt in the wind, unless the wind is very warm. If I get a sinus infection or any kind of bug in my head, my ears are effected. Much of the time I can just tell that there is fluid in my ears. I'm kind deaf, and my ears pop a lot. Once in a while, it hurts a little. Like now. So what better opportunity to play around with all-natural treatments? ;)

Trial 1: 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of warmed olive oil with one drop of lavender essential oil and one drop of tea tree essential oil. A small piece of knit fabric (in place of cotton balls, which I don't have) soaked in this blend, and placed in the ear. I did each side of 15 minutes.

Results: Hm. About 3 hours later I noticed my ears feeling irritated again, so I guess I can say this didn't really work. Or if it did, it was pretty short-term. Hours later my ears were still leaking oil - bleh.

Trial 2: I read about this online. I made some garlic-infused olive oil. The drops are placed in the ear, and according to this website, it works great for relieving the pressure that causes earaches. I postponed using it a day because we had some friends over. Although I was dying to try it, I thought it might be socially unacceptable to walk around with garlic-smelling oil oozing out of my ears. (grin) As soon as my ears start to irritate me again today, I'll put the oil in. They don't ache this morning, but they are fluidy and popping still, so I figure the additional discomfort will come. I'd like to make it a fair trial by waiting until I have something to compare, ya know? If I don't get aching at some point today, I'll go ahead with the trial and see if it makes a difference with pressure.

Well, I guess I'm grateful that my ache has not come back today. I put infused oil in one ear with a fabric plug for about 20 minutes. I can't say I've noticed a big difference either way. So really, I can't say whether this trial has been helpful or not. I don't know whether the treatments have been helpful or not. My ears are not back to normal, but they could be a lot worse, so................ we'll see how it goes. If they get worse again, I'll try the treatments again.

I did end up putting more oil in both ears. This time I used more. I could feel it. I don't know what difference it made, but my ears feel pretty good tonight.

Next morning: No pain, no pressure. Icky, itchy and generally blik, but no pain. I'll take it. =)