Why You Shouldn't Neglect that Earache

There are several different causes for earaches, and they even come in different forms. If you've never experienced one in any form, count yourself fortunate. An earache is not easy to ignore, but did you know you can have an ear infection and not even have any pain? Such an infection can lead to serious complications if left untreated.

While I don't consider myself to have had more than my share of them, I've had enough earaches to know they rate only a notch below the proverbial "sharp stick in the eye."

Like so many others, both of my children were plagued with earaches when they were younger. I remember one night when my daughter started crying with an earache about ten o'clock at night. It was a few years past doctors' house calls and a few years before after-hours clinics. The only way to get medical help that night was to drive 50 miles through icy weather to a hospital emergency room.

Having lived with earaches all our lives, my husband and I did our best to ease our daughter's pain, not expecting anything terrible to happen before morning. The next morning there was drainage on our daughter's pillowcase. One eardrum had ruptured during the night. Of course we felt terrible about it.

We rushed her to a doctor the next morning as soon as we could get there. He said the other eardrum was ready to rupture and it would do less damage to the eardrum if he punctured it. To this day, our daughter, who has borne three children and endured a kidney stone, remembers that puncture as being more painful than anything else she has been through. But fortunately it lasted for only a brief second. This procedure, called tympanocentesis, is usually performed with the patient anesthetized. I don't know why the doctor didn't anesthetize her unless he felt the eardrum was so near rupturing that there wouldn't be time to do so.