Extreme outer ear pain: What can it be?

Posted by ellienewfan @ellienewfan, Feb 4, 2013

Please....someone help me.

I’ve visited my allergist, an ear-nose-throat specialist and my own internist.
None of them have ever heard of my problem and don’t know how to help me.

Started approx 20 yrs ago, Every couple of months I would get an awful pain on one of my ears if I had been laying on it during the night. It would happen to either ear, whichever one I laid on.

To describe the pain. It is so intense that it wakes me. Pain is NOT inside the ear but around the edges of the entrance of it. It is so painful, I can’t touch it. It will be throbbing. It also hurts tremendously behind, towards the bottom back of the ear. Can’t touch that either. The only thing that will make it go away is when I then get up and stand and within approx 30 min it is gone. I even tested it by massaging behind the ear (once I could bear to touch it) and it seemed to make pain go away faster.

The last approx 3 years, I have no longer been able to even lay on either ear when in bed because now the pain will come every time. I have learned to sleep on my back. Sometimes I would still move onto my side during night, and wake up with pain.

For last 6 months, I’ve been having pressure and achy feeling around one of the ears, even while laying on my back. Then I started getting the pain even while sleeping on my back.

I am very much afraid that the day will come when I will no longer be able to lay down in my bed to go to sleep.

I am desperate to get to the bottom of this and perhaps for first time in 20 years be able to comfortably lay on my side in bed.

My ENT doctor said my ears are healthy .... i have no hearing loss.

This ear pain, however, is starting to affect my daily living, since I don’t seem to be able to get the restful sleep I need.

I will be forever grateful if someone could pinpoint this. thanks.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Support Group.

@ellienewfan

at least i'm not alone in this. no redness, no swelling, etc. Doctors i saw (ear, nose, throat doc.; my own internist; had exrays and MRI) looked at me funny when i tried to explain my situation. thanks @bearylynn,i also have been bunching up a pillow so there is least amount of touching my ear. i seem to be able to somewhat lay on my left side, but my right cannot abide it. in fact if i even lay on right side even without anything touching my ear, i'll still get it.terrible pain. i am currently 72, and think that perhaps i'll never get rid of this and must suffer with this for rest of my life.

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Treated with steroids.

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@ellienewfan

at least i'm not alone in this. no redness, no swelling, etc. Doctors i saw (ear, nose, throat doc.; my own internist; had exrays and MRI) looked at me funny when i tried to explain my situation. thanks @bearylynn,i also have been bunching up a pillow so there is least amount of touching my ear. i seem to be able to somewhat lay on my left side, but my right cannot abide it. in fact if i even lay on right side even without anything touching my ear, i'll still get it.terrible pain. i am currently 72, and think that perhaps i'll never get rid of this and must suffer with this for rest of my life.

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Motrin does help. If you want diagnosis see an ENT. Possible Relapsing Polychondritis.

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@jennyt

I've had this same problem for over 10 years and spent hundreds of dollars on different pillows. I get headaches in the morning because I don't get enough sleep. I finally found an article that makes sense and I plan to go see my doctor to get tested for "relapsing polychondritis". I think I have a mild case of this and hopefully my doctor can prescribe something. I am really tired of the sleepless nights and pain

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Why would i treat it with medication when my pillow has worked for 7 years?

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@ellienewfan

at least i'm not alone in this. no redness, no swelling, etc. Doctors i saw (ear, nose, throat doc.; my own internist; had exrays and MRI) looked at me funny when i tried to explain my situation. thanks @bearylynn,i also have been bunching up a pillow so there is least amount of touching my ear. i seem to be able to somewhat lay on my left side, but my right cannot abide it. in fact if i even lay on right side even without anything touching my ear, i'll still get it.terrible pain. i am currently 72, and think that perhaps i'll never get rid of this and must suffer with this for rest of my life.

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I have seen all kinds od Doctors in 18 years. Why take medication when i found my cure. Are you a robot, or a doctor pushing medication. I dont get it. I try to let people know fluke accident of a pillow i bought for a different problem.

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@ellienewfan

at least i'm not alone in this. no redness, no swelling, etc. Doctors i saw (ear, nose, throat doc.; my own internist; had exrays and MRI) looked at me funny when i tried to explain my situation. thanks @bearylynn,i also have been bunching up a pillow so there is least amount of touching my ear. i seem to be able to somewhat lay on my left side, but my right cannot abide it. in fact if i even lay on right side even without anything touching my ear, i'll still get it.terrible pain. i am currently 72, and think that perhaps i'll never get rid of this and must suffer with this for rest of my life.

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Sorry! Not robot or doc. This is what happened to me and doc said she treats with steroids.

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I've had outer ear pain for about 20+ years. I've tried bunching the foam chip pillow and rolling up a cloth to place at the front of my ear in order to lie on my side without pain. I've had the blood on my pillow in the morning, which my doctor adamantly stated that it couldn't possibly have come from my ear. I even tried to make my own doughnut pillow that I could place on the side of my head so that my ear wouldn't touch anything when lying down. It's so frustrating to never get any answers about these problems. But my experience of getting no answers for the origins of my pain go back more than 40 years. I had unexplained pain in multiple areas of my body since I was about 10 years old. In recent years, because there never seemed to be anything "wrong" with me, my doctor finally diagnosed me with Fibromyalga. I have many pressure points that pain when I lie on them including my hips, neck, shoulders, knees, ears, and the heels of my feet. Not sure if anyone else who have left comments here have other pressure areas but Fibromyalga might be responsible for the ear pain. I also suffer from muscle spasms in my lower legs and feet that usually hit at night, another symptom of Fibro.
However, even with the diagnosis, there is no solution to the pain. I've always been a believer that if you get to the root of a problem, you can find a solution, but there just doesn't seem to be one for this constant aggravating pain.

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I bought this pillow 3 weeks ago from mediflow.com– and the ear pain stopped the first night I slept on it and has not returned. I didn’t put water in it, just use the air filled pillow.

Mediflow Waterbase Travel Pillow × 1 $29.99

Discount (Welcome10Off) $-2.99
Subtotal $27.00
Shipping $10.00
Total $37.00 USD

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@danavs

I bought this pillow 3 weeks ago from mediflow.com– and the ear pain stopped the first night I slept on it and has not returned. I didn’t put water in it, just use the air filled pillow.

Mediflow Waterbase Travel Pillow × 1 $29.99

Discount (Welcome10Off) $-2.99
Subtotal $27.00
Shipping $10.00
Total $37.00 USD

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I wonder if it is the filler of there pillows. I had to stay somewhere unexpected the other night. Did not have my pillow, woke up 3 times in pain. Its crazy!

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I wondered if it is the air or water filler instead of something that moves around as it touches your ear, shoulder, face, etc.

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Doesn't sound like what's going on with me. I did have biopsy of cartilage of ear and it showed inflammation.

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