Ear Infection

Oh boy. I thought we were over the sickness.

But I was wrong.

This is sickness #4987 that we have had since Dec. 1.

It started Saturday morning. I woke up with a horrible headache and body aches. Hubby got the kids up and took care of them until he had to go to work at 1. I laid on the couch and cuddled with Jacob and fell asleep. When Bill got home I took my temp...102 and I was achy all over. Off to bed with me. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday until about 2pm in bed with headache and fever.

Sunday morning at some point my fever broke and my headache finally went away. I felt a little better and almost back to normal.....for a few hours.....

Sunday night I started feeling achy in my neck and shoulders. I went to bed early feeling icky.

About 10 pm Sunday night my right ear started throbbing. I took Tylenol and it didn't help. Hubby asked me if I wanted to go the ER. I said not in the icy weather we were having. I googled home remedies. They suggested using heated washcloths to help with the pain. I heated up a rice heating bag that I was given a couple years ago and it helped some. (Hubby even got up in the middle of the night to reheat it for me! I love that man!)

Today I went to a walk in clinic because it was my cheapest option as we do not have health insurance. It was $55 out of pocket.

Diagnosis: BAD ear infection. The doc said she was surprised that it was as bad as it was since my lymph nodes were not swollen and I showed no other symptoms. She said that my ear drum was very close to bursting as there was a huge bubble with a little bit of blood and that was what was causing me pain. She advised me not to cough hard or blow my nose really hard until the antibiotics get a chance to work and lessen the pressure.

They gave me 3 prescriptions to fill--an antibiotic pill, another pill to help with the swelling, and an ear drop that was an antibiotic and a steroid in one. I took them to our local Walmart as they are the cheapest pharmacy. When I turned them in I asked how much they were going to be...the 2 that were pills were $4 a piece...the ear drops were....$197!!!! I don't think so. I can't afford that, so they were nice enough to call the clinic and get me one much cheaper ($44).

I really hope the antibiotics help. I freaked Jacob out when I put the ear drops in and then put a cotton ball in to keep the drops in. He DID NOT like it at all.


Have you ever had an ear infection? Ever had to ask them to change your meds because you couldn't afford them and were they willing to do so?