Strep Throat and the Clinics from Hell: I'm at my wit's end.

[alt_f13]

(I'm sorry if this develops into incoherent babbel by the time I've finished, as I have just taken a slew of drugs I know will nearly have me hallucinating by the end of this.)

 

I've had what I now know to be strep throat since Wed, the 11th. In the morning, what felt like the flu came on in such a way that at 10:00 I was the best I had felt in days and by 10:30 I was naucious, weak, had a sore throat and headache. By 15:30 I was dizzy and had what I can only describe as mental tunnel vision. I left work early on that day and the following two, but did not see a doctor until Friday, the 13th.

 

Luck, it seemed, was not with me, as the doctor diagnosed me with the flu... incorrectly. He seemed very off-handed with me, as if I had been the 20th person complaining of a sore throat and headache etc. etc. to come in that day. I probably had been.

 

By the night, my throat had become so swollen I could barely speak and swallowing became a chore. I checked my tonsils and they were covered in puss and sacks of bacteria, so I knew it had to be strep throat.

 

It was late by that time, so I called the national health line to find out whether it would be prudent for me to visit the emergency room that night, or if I could wait until the following morning and go to a clinic. We determined over the phone that I could wait the night out.

 

So the next morning, this morning, I visited a new clinic and explained the events of the previous day. The doctor checked my throat, and only my throat, said "yep, that's strep" and prescribed me some antibiotics. She also seemed very off-handed with me, except this time, she told me she'd seen four patients already that morning with strep. That's all well and good, but what if mine was the ultra-rare man eating strep, or whatever; either way, that visit was even shorter than my first.

 

Well, by the time I had my prescription in my hand, something else developed. My left ear had become clogged, started hurting, and became nearly inoperable. Not wanting to visit the clinic for a third time in two days, I tried my own brand of home medication. I put my head over a bowl of hot steam and vics vapo-rub, and then stupidly, tried to flush my ear from the inside by filling my mouth with warm water and tilting my head until I could open my eustachian tube to let the water in, not even considering that, had it not been infected with the strep bacteria already, that I might unintentionally be doing it then.

 

Either way, I don't think I succeded. I gave up and visited the clinic again at 19:45. With the new doctor I relayed my story for the second time, including the presciption and days events. She checked my ears, decided the left one was too full of wax to see into, and BEFORE even flushing it to get a better view, chalked my discomfort up to pain being referred from my throat.

 

I said that could not be so, as my throat hurts when I swallow, and my ear hurts when there is an air pressure difference between the inner ear, and outside, as when I burp, cough, yawn or hiccup. She shrugged at me, and waved her hands in the air at some unknown deity of health and well-being professionals, apparently angered that I would dare imply I know more about an aspect of my own body than she.

 

My ears were flushed, slapped with a clean bill of health and I was sent packing, feeling humilliated and betrayed by a health care system our fat, pompous government calls "one of the best in the world."

 

Since then, the condition of my ear has not improved in the slightest, and my other ear now seems to be infected, and will not stop ringing. I am on a great deal of over the counter drugs, without which I would be crying in agony on the ground.

 

I don't know what to do at this point. My hearing is more important to me than life, and I would rather die of anaphylactic shock than lose an ear. I have visited privately owned clinics three times in the past two days, and have been misdiagnosed two of those times.

 

 

Should I wait it out, and hope the anti-biotics deal with both problems simultaniously, or should I again seek medical advice, from someone else who might misdiagnose and mistreat me?

 

Had I been a less skeptical or more naive indevidual, I would be going on my fifth day of untreated strep throat, and there's a good chance I would have lost my hearing, as while it's beeing treated, the condition is not improving. Had I listened to the first doctor, the bacterial infection would still have spread to my ears. I am sick of clinics and am at my wit's end.

[YT2095]

I`ve had the ear problem ecatly the same as you`ve described a few times before in the past, it`s not nice

 

but here`s what Can help more often than not, you`ll need some bubble gum, a lit candle, some cotton wool and a teaspoon of olive oil, and maybe someone to help you the 1`st few times.

gently warm up the teaspoon of olive oil over the candle flame, Warm NOT HOT!

then with your head tilted bad ear upwards, pour in the olive oil and plug with cotton wool, stay in this position and chew the bubble gum on the Opposite side of your bad ear for a while.

 

it`s sound rather horrible while your doing this and for some time after you`ll hear cracking and gurgling sounds, keep chewing the gum though.

do this twice a day, and it`ll start clearing up on it`s own

I`ve actualy had it work within 20 mins of doing this in the past, it`s well worth a try!

[alt_f13]

It's really warm enough to melt the gunk in your inner ear? I already have a fever; I should be hot enough!

 

And how do you get the olive oil out when you're done? Pour in some other nasty concoction?

 

Might there be a water based alternative to olive oil? Perhaps something more familliar to the human body... like salt water? Frankly, that part doesn't sound all too appealing...

[YT2095]

you don`t "get it out" it comes out on it`s own and is perfectly harmless (you can even eat the stuff! *shocker*).

but when it comes out so does the "Gunk"

 

anyway, It`s your call, it`s not my ear ache! why should I care?

you either trust me, Or you don`t

[clarisse]

alt_f13: If I were you I would seriously reconsider going to the doctor again... yes yes I know you've had the bad luck to encounter incompetent doctors but you can always soo them for negligence later... but I seriously think you lose more by not going than by going... I've had pretty nasty ear infections too and I know how painful they are... The doctor had to take all the horible stuff with a needle and it hurt like f..k but it was well worth it since I could at least drift in and out of sleep... But yeah the point is go and see another doctor before it becomes worst... and if you don't like the olive oil idea you could at least warm up a little water and use it to rins your ear carefully...

[JasonMichael]

Every doctor I've seen typically doesn't take any chances. They always get the throat culture to rule out strep throat. I suppose if someone didn't have insurance, there would be some extra costs involved, but if you're feeling so sick that you actually want to see a doctor, its worth going the extra mile. With insurance, it doesn't cost anything extra at all - typically such a lab test is mostly covered, if not 100%.

[alt_f13]

I'm covered completely. I don't know what the doctors were thinking but I've had a culture taken and blood tests now.

 

What I'm really worried about at the moment is tinnitus. I cannot remember exactly when ringing in my ears started, but I'm almost certain I woke up with it and clogged eustachian tubes on the same moring. If it is permanent, I'm suing the first clinics I visited, because they misdiagnosed without even going through all the steps.

 

I've been taking antibiotics religously for 8 days and I've only gotten worse.

[Destroid]

Last time I had an ear infection (I've had both my eardrums rupture 3-5 times) I was told by the doctor that antibiotics are thought to be of dubious effectiveness in treating inner ear infections, and mostly you just have to stick it out. Hurts like hell but you will get over it. (with hearing intact, despite my eardrums blowing so many times I have 100% hearing in one ear and maybe 70% in the other)

[Glider]

There is nothing wrong with YT's suggestion. Warm olive oil is better than warm water as ear wax is...er...wax, and so is not easily disolved by water. The principle of using a lighter oil to disolve a heavier one is sound, and warm olive oil won't do you any harm.

 

However, it sounds like your problem is not due to a build up of ear wax. It sounds more like an infection and the problem with ear infections is that, depending on the precise location, antibiotics can be of limited use.

 

Antibiotics taken orally or tnravenously are in the blood and so any infection in tissue perfused with blood will be helped by this method. However, if you have an infection in your middle ear (between your timpanic membrane and your inner ear), this is a space and so blood-borne antibiotics won't be of much use.

 

Infection usually gets to the middle ear through the eustachian tubes and often the best course is to just let the infection drain the same way. Usually the infection sorts itself out in a few days. Sometimes grommets have to be fitted in the timpanic membranes. These provide a passage through the membranes which allows the infection to drain that way (this is often done with children).

 

In any event, you should check with a doctor (again), just to be sure. If there is an infection, you want it watched so it doesn't get out of hand and risk your hearing.