Help: swimmers ear
 

I was being stupid yesterday and decided to clean my ears with the cotton swabs things, well i managed to push the wax even further and then i used some warm water to clean it out, everything worked out ok except that after a few hours my ear canal swelled up, so i put some ear medicine my mom had which in fact made things worse. i cant hear too well out of the ear and it's pretty inflamed i think and theres also water or something in it, what should i do besides going to the doctor?

If it's swimmer's ear, there's a great product called Aqua Ear you can get in Australia. I'm not sure if it's available in Canada, but if it is, get some. It worked a treat when I swam a lot.

But you should definitely go to the doctor. They'll probably just give you some drops or flush it out or something, but don't muck around with your ears. They're fragile.

Don't do anything to your ear until the doctor checks it out. It's not worth it.

yeah, i know now but the damage has been done. i went to the doctor and got some anti biotic drops but the thing is is that when i put them in my ear, the ear gets all stuffy and i'm not sure if i should take the medicine out of my ear or just let it stay in the ear..help??

I swam competitively all thru high school and college, I had swimmers ear frequently. Leave the drops in your ears, it's uncomfortable for a while, but it will work.

Oh, and for future information for you, NEVER EVER put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear... Those cotton swabs are used for cleaning the outside of your ear, never put it in your ear...

It's been a while, but I think it was boric acid drops that I'd use when I got out of the pool, that was good for drying out the ear a bit...

thanks, answered my concern prefectly