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I live in Los Angeles (originally from Australia) and ha...

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Guest
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I live in Los Angeles (originally from Australia) and haven't had any problems with my ears since I was 7 and had my parents had my tonsils removed because I kept getting tonsilitis and related ear infections. The infections also affected my hearing and my school work suffered. The Aussie doctor took out my tonsils and inserted grommets in both ears which eventually fell out after a while and I had no probs until now! I'm 40 yrs old and have had a bacterial middle ear infection for approx. 1 year now. Not sure how I got it, but I've been to 3 different well respected ENTs here in Beverly Hills and they all refused to give me antibiotics to properly kill the infection. Just like all the GPs here in America, they won't give patients antibiotics even if you beg! I've had them offer me much more potent drugs, even addictive drugs, but they refuse to write a script for antibiotics for some reason. Anyway, they cleaned out my ear and prescribed antibacterial and dermatological ear drops which didn't kill the infection. If anything the dermo drops aggravated my ear and blocked it so I couldn't hear anything cos the drops blocked my ear and I had glue ear. I was very distressed cos I need my hearing for my job as an attorney! Now I'm on my last week of a much anticipated vacation and I've had an excruciating ear ache since before the week-end and have been bedridden. I can tolerate a lot of pain, but this has been the worst pain ever! I have to wait until tomorrow to see another ENT for help cos I don't want to wait in the Cedars ER for hours! My right ear and face are double the size they normally are. I did some research on the internet and I'm sure I have AOM (acute otitis media) which is fluid in middle ear, PAIN, red and bulging eardrum, & fever. I am DEMANDING the doc give me (i) a ceftriaxone injection & vicodin for the pain; (ii) Augmentin to kill the infection (luckily I had some at home which has helped me a bit), and (iii) Ibuprofin for my fever. I almost feel like suing these so-called specialists for prolonging my agony for so long. I may even have permanent ear damage cos they didn't treat my infection a year ago when I first saw them all! I understand how patients must feel so let down by their physicians, especially when they're in PAIN! My advice is to not treat doctors as Gods, like they know everything, but to educate yourself thru research and tell them what to prescribe and be very aggressive about it.:headhurts:

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  • Guest
    Guest

    Posted

    I hope by now you have found a doctor to help you. I had some of the same problems. Have had ear infections in right ear since age of 7 after tonsilectomy. Finally when I was in my 50's doctor decided ear drops (non antibiotic) were not helping. He removed a lot of bone and debris and closed my ear off entirelly. Still have infections and can't hear in that ear. 2 years ago got infection in left ear..doc treated with antifungal powder I had to blow in ear with syringe. That didn't work and he gave me mecurachrome which I found out was thimerisole to drop in my ear followed by peroxide every day. After 2 months of that he decided he needed to do a biopsy to rule out cancer in that ear. Now I have to wait 7 more days to find out. Wouldn't an antibiotic have worked in the beginning?

    [i:770f942c6c]This message was automatically imported from the original Patient Experience[/i:770f942c6c]

  • Guest
    Guest

    Posted

    Antibiotics will not work if the infection you have is not bacterial. If you have a viral or fungal infection then antibiotics will NOT work!! If you take antibiotics when you don't have a bacterial infection all you are doing is allowing the bacteria to build up resistance to the antibiotics, which means that eventually the antibiotics wont work at all against bacteria. This is already a problem and there are a limited number of antibiotics that are restricted for use in special cases. I suspect that this is why all the Dr's you've seen are unwilling to prescribe antibiotics!! Good luck in sorting it all out though!

    [i:02616b9873]This message was automatically imported from the original Patient Experience[/i:02616b9873]

  • Guest
    Guest

    Posted

    well 1st of all how old are you? well ive been in practice for 4 years now. in the state of wa. i am a cranial surgeon which is head and neck specialist. well here is how we fix the middle ear. well i make cut behind the ear. then i take a graph of tissue from behind the ear. and i do the tempenoplasty. i repair the tissue into the eardrum then i will give some meds for internal infection. it is very common. but in your case i think your gonna need to seek other professional's for your problem. they are not doing something right in the middle ears or ear. if i did your surgery it would be corrected the 1st time. i hope the best for you.

    cranial surgeon

    [i:383951a236]This message was automatically imported from the original Patient Experience[/i:383951a236]

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