Last week I got an earache. No big deal, but it didn’t go away with warm compresses and other conservative care. I went to see a primary provider, who concurred that it was otitis externa and started me on a course of amoxicillin+clavulanate. After the visit, while I was waiting for the pharmacy to open after lunch and fill the prescription, the pain started getting worse. No problem, though: definitive treatment was at hand.
Except it didn’t get better. Last night, after over two days on antibiotic therapy, the pain became the worst pain I’ve had in my life. From an earache!! I had some old oxycodone+acetaminophen tablets (5/325) left over from a surgical adventure long ago, and though they were a low dose, I tend to be quite sensitive to opioids. It wasn’t helping. I took a second dose. It almost made it tolerable for a couple of hours. By this morning, I was wiped out. My teeth and tempro-mandibular joint were throbbing. The side of my face was swollen and tender. I had developed a low-grade fever. I couldn’t hear, couldn’t eat, and almost couldn’t talk. I thought there might be something sneaky going on (mastoiditis? paritonsilar abscess?) so rather than just go back to the primary, I went to the ER in a nearby town where they have a CT scanner.
The ER doc wasn’t impressed. He assumed it was likely that I just happened to have a bug that was resistant to Augmentin. He added oral ciprofloxacin and some trimethoprim/polymixin drops. I immediately started the new treatments, went home and added ibuprofen (I’ve been avoiding NSAIDS as I have kidney disease) and a double dose of the oxycodone.
Five hours later, and the swelling is diminished, the pain is down to tolerable levels, the fever is gone, and it generally feels as though things are getting better instead of worse. (It still could just be the opioids, but I really do think the underlying condition is improving.)
I feel silly going to the ER for an earache, but then there was that time that I ended up in an ER for a sore throat and got admitted to the intensive care unit.
—2p