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Extreme outer ear pain: What can it be?
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.
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Wow! I really sympathize with you. I have an idea of what outer ear pain feels like. Strangely enough I sometimes get it, although not as severely as you. I wear hearing aids that fit over the ear and sit on top of the cartilage. Then there is a shell type of plastic that fits inside my ear but not down the ear canal. Anyway from time to time I get pain on the cartilage where nothing touches. Sore enough to feel as though there is a pressure pain or an ache. No idea where it comes from. It has always been puzzling to me. I suspect it might be what is called referred pain, that is an actual pressure or pain originates elsewhere but is felt on our outer ear cartilage. Is there anywhere that you might be able to identify that could be causing this pain? Sorry I can’t be of more help. I have had tinnitus and hyperacusis for 30 years so I know what it feels like to have a condition over many years that prevents sleep and is painful to boot. Sometimes it’s difficult to plan happy days ahead.
I am 81 and I do experience the same pain if I lay on my ears too long. I wake up in pain and turn to the other side but I soon experience pain on that side too. I have difficulties sleeping on my back because of post nasal drip. I sleep with a wedge and pillows on top of that to elevate my head but I keep sliding and wake to push myself back up again and wake up to clear my throat. Often saliva drips to my lungs and I wake up trying to cough it up to clear my lungs. I sleep very little at night from the ear pains, and coughing. I find myself sleeping often during the day upright and on a chair. Suggestions to my problem will be helpful.
Welcome @lani7673, I know it's not much fun when you don't get a good nights sleep. I believe @donnamoore made a special pillow to help with the pain and might be able to tell you how she made it. I think you can order a special ear pillow online that is fairly inexpensive - https://www.amazon.com/Piercing-Sleepers-Inflammation-Pressure-Sleeping/dp/B09W25HQRH/.
Have you tried different pillows?
...march 18 2022 along with other ear issues got a hot sore outer ear, took a photo but not bright red, overly pink, then the other started i thought from covid mask as i have to twist the elastic so snug fit... month before hot dark pink each site of neck, humn? but then with a vengeance during may and ever since it is one cheek, both cheecks, goes up to eye one side and down neck and under chin! its BURNING now for up to five hours...but heres the catch it isnt always red or dark pink, the days it is i take a selfie...even my nose gets flushed...i am up against a wall as nurse practitioner not a clue and now waiting 4 months so see dermatologist but it is so painful; i am hoping yours does not progress like mine so yes keep tabs on it, the day, how long, what you were doing, photos etc. just in case! there are severl illnesses it could be and also inside nerves but drs and nurses so busy these days looking after as they tell me more seriously ill patients! the past 4 months horrible and i have no idea what brings it on. many years ago i had what original poster here has and ear so painful after lying on it but it went away, but now have this in its place - they never did find out what caused the ear pain and i am wondering why not!! ..as they say , can put a man on the moon but not find out what's causing these types of issues while not life threatening are life affecting.. good luck everyone.
Thank you @johnbishop. I never tried different pillows for this purpose but I will give it a try. I did read @donnamooreʻs solution. It sounds intriguing but if it helped her, itʻs worth a try.
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2 ReactionsSame problem here. Lying on ears makes it so much worse. Have had some relief with the ear pillows ordered from Amazon. I would love to know what is causing it. Has anyone ever told you it may be related to gout? I read this somewhere, but you read a lot of stupid things on the web.
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1 ReactionReplying to mvandyke and samanthas...
Im new to this site, but unlike most on it, Im at my wits end. I have had this worsening ear pain going on 2 yrs & just discovered this site tonight! So like you all I have tried several things, from trying to break a 60 yr old habit of sleeping mostly on my right side & staying on my back....doesn't work too well, I wake up about every 1/2 hr, all night long...until around 4:30 am I just give up & get up. Pillows, simply do not work for me, I've tried buying them, making them, nothing works. Elevating the head does not work. Loading up w/pain killers before crawling into bed works for about two hours, then the pain from sleeping on my right side is so bad Im up & regretting the pain killers! Im at the point now I swallow & it hurts in my right ear, the fringes of my outer ear are so sensitive at night if they even touch a bed sheet its painful, no color though.Cant move my jaw at night & swallowing hurts in mt right ear as well, even moving the jaw from side to side...
I think this:
I grew up in a time that kids played in the dirt, forts etc...wash up & go again the next day. I graduated through the trades, 3 trade tickets resulting in sawdust in the ears, heavy dust from grinding welds & airborne dirt from body shop dust....all day everyday for 45 yrs...
On the internet I have seen several examples of doctors removing almost little sticks of solid wax & dirt, dust, etc coming out of a plugged ear.... as a kid my mom was famous for digging out dirt, rocks etc with a bobby pin....I used q-tips forever, probably pushing the crud in, deeper & deeper, so my thoughts are going to a Dr soon ( I'm not a fan at the best of times & now with the new Covid way of doing business, even less ) & seeing if he will do a deep clean on my right ear, I have convinced myself this is the cure & I'm hoping this will stop the pain.
Question : Has anyone gone in & done this ? How did it turn out? My ear hurts all night long, my jaw hurts, my throat hurts, I cant sleep at night anymore & I am at the point I would deep clean my own eardrum if I wasn't such a weenie....LOL.
Seriously though, it is all absorbing & I am at the end of my rope with it.....Thoughts?
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2 Reactionswas supposed to sal like " most on it" not "unlike most on it" ....sorry folks.
I have. It does help but it does get too firm after awhile for me.
Has anyone tried acupuncture for this? I feel I have exhausted every other doctor like most of you here.