For some unexplained reason I woke up 3 weeks ago with a busted eardrum. Since then the pain is minimal to tolerable but the high pitched scream in my left ear is driving me crazy. If it had been the right ear I wouldn’t have to listen to my wife’s endless chatter in the car ;D but no such luck.
Do any of you smart people out there have any remedies for tinnitus that doesn’t require a bullet to my head or cutting my ear off with a steak knife?
Call a doctor?
Uh, yeah. Busted eardrum = go to the doctor.
Why have you waited 3 weeks?!
+1
I have it in both ears. I’m a musician and I’ve been performing on stage for the past 30 years. Unfortunately, I didn’t wear hearing protection for most of that time and developed some hearing loss mostly in my left ear.
Definitely call your doctor.
I was traveling for business when it happened so I had to wait until I got home.
Been there done that, no help whatsoever. In our town it takes a minimum of 2 weeks to see a doctor.
You can see a nurse practitioner if you sit in the waiting room all day but they just prescribe antibiotics and tell you it’ll get better.
I have an appointment with the specialist tomorrow but I’ve been down this road before and they just kind of shrug and say “You’ll get used to it”. And quit drinking coffee and cut your salt intake
How do you know it’s a busted ear drum if you havn’t been to the doctor? tinnatus can be caused by lots of things other than a busted eardrum! high blood preasure can cause it. Too much loud music. I remember mornings after going to concerts where I heard everything through a low hum for a day or two. Bet that was good for me :
Mine comes form sitting on old tractors throughout my youth and working big data centers for most of my adult life. Lots of things can cause it.
A burst eardrum is usually an ear infection gone mad. If you had an infection before you left and took a plane it probably got worse very fast. Air travel can really accelerate an infection.
That said, you need to see the doctor as you have planned. If you don’t get the infection stopped you could have bigger problems down the road.
Good luck with it.
Paul
How does air travel accelerate an infection?
Probably from the cabin pressure exerted on the inner ear. But, I could be wrong.
I have seen the NP, she verified it’s a burst eardrum and gave me antibiotics for the as yet undiagnosed sinus infection she thinks caused it. Her words, and I quote: “That’s really nasty looking in there”. I can also tell by all the blood on my pillow some mornings.
In the early 90’s I flew back from France with a bad case of allergies and nasal congestion. My eardrum burst as we landed in Houston which meant I still had to take one more flight, a flight I wouldn’t wish on some of my worst enemies. that time I had extreme dzziness-I tilted to the right when I walked and the doctors told me I had permanent nerve damage to my left ear and would be deaf in it forever. Forever lasted 6 months until my ear popped and everything was cool. For a couple of days I tilted to the left until I got equilibrium back. I’ve had problems with the left ear, sometimes both, off and on ever since but never anything like this time. Thus my utter lack of faith in the medical/industrial complex to help me this time.
My bad. I didn’t know you had already sought medical advice. I do have an method for treating Tinnitus. It involves a loooong knitting needle and a convolution of mirrors.
I can see that too, but that’s not an acceleration of the infection.
Sorry about your ear - I’ve got nothing. Not that kind of doctor. 
I don’t have any advice, but I did break the round window in my inner ear while scuba diving once. The pain after that 85 foot dive and into the next 30 foot dive were unforgiving. Antihistamines helped a lot.
air travel won’t make bacteria grow faster but what the pressure changes can cause are eustachian tubes not to equalize well and close in on the inside. the normal bacteria there can grow without draining thus it tends to lead to inner ear infections, increasing pressure and discomfort. often if you can clear your ears, the infection will drain, just kind of like draining a boil on the leg
not all busted ear drums heal well. if you are still having problems you should at see an ear nose and throat specialist to at least get his opinion. you may just need to have the debris debrided.
chronic tinnitus is miserable and i feel for bluesman.
in the meantime, if you have no contraindications, i often recommend sudafed (not the pe) prior to landings for people who have difficulty clearing there ears on flights.
One of my first childhood memories is trying to figure out what that high pitched noise was. Wasn’t till I got a bit older I realized I have tinitus. It’s so bad, it often keeps me awake at night. Many, many times, I literally cannot hear people talking to me. I know there is noise coming out of their mouth, but have no idea what the words are. The is pretty much nothing to cure it. IF you go to a health food / vitamin store, you can buy a supplement called Ringstop. It might help, it might not. Takes a good month or better to work, if it;s gonna. For me, the best thing is to have some sort of noise on all the time. Radio, tv, whatever. (I have the BN on right now) I have a white noise machine I use at night when its really bad. The spring peeper works best for me. You can also turn your radio on static. That kinda helps drown it out. I really feel for dude! IT SUCKS!!! Hopefully, yours is just temporary.
I should have stated that a bit differently than I did.
I have had minor irritations become really nasty issues to deal with immediately following flights. Many others I know say the same thing. Very anecdotal but the closed cabins, the extra dry air, the strange pressure changes and the recirculation of the air for several hours just seems to make infections harder to deal with.
Paul
I have no problems picturing worsening symptoms.
Sorry to be pedantic, I can’t help it.
I had something similar happen, not nearly as bad, but quite painful. I was developing a cold and on my flight home my ears just would not pop on the descents. And at one point the pain was so bad I almost screamed out. My ears didn’t pop open for weeks. Made me never want to fly again.
But I also have mild ringing in my ears all the time from drumming for the last 13+ years. I’ve pretty much always worn ear plugs, but sometimes that isn’t enough when you play loud. I have to sleep with a fan on at night or else it’s difficult to get to sleep.
I find it to be the worst in the morning when I’m lying in bed as I awake. I can really hear it whern there is complete silence. For the most part, I have learned to ignore it except when I’m actually thinking about it like right now. At least it doesn’t involve physical pain. ;)
it is usually the descents that cause the problems. as i mentioned i have a lot of patients take sudafed about an hour before landing and then sometime after landing for a time. (as long as there is no reason they can’t take the sudafed)