Pop and crackle

Last week, I walked a half-mile in windy and cold temps without a hat. I don’t perceive any change in my hearing, but especially in the morning my ears crackle and pop. I got some Afrin, and am using that, and frequently pinch my nose and blow lightly.

I am wondering if my earmolds focused wind impacting on my eardrums and stretched them slightly, or is it just eustachian tube congestion unrelated to that dumb hatless walk?

No symptoms of ear infection, yet.

To get yourself some peace of mind why don’t you call your audi or ENT and see what they think. It could also be that your ears need a good cleaning.

EEW! OK. Will make appt with GP first, since transportation to ear clinic is problematic. Thanks. Very simple if that is the problem.

Hopefully if your problem is wax it won’t be as bad as Doc Jake’s video.

It does seem to be getting better. Especially when wearing HA’s. Still need to make appt with doctor, though.

That was disgusting. How does anyone let that happen?

Talk to a ENT, it happens all the time. If your wax production and ear works correctly it will work its way out of the ear, however, if you produce too much wax and it doesn’t work its way out of your ear then you will build it up and get a plug of wax.

You should have watched the other one that had a bug in his ear that laid eggs.

Good grief. Have these people never seen a Q-Tip?

That’s a classic… the one I linked was mild. Put ear wax in the YouTube search bar won’t believe what you find.

Actually Q tips are often part of the problem. They push wax further in where the natural ear self-cleaning mechanisms do not work and they add cotton fibers to the mix. ENTs do not sanction the use of Q tips or cotton buds of any kind.

I can only imagine that pushing an ear mold and leaving it in for 18 hours a day would be similar to a Q tip minus the cotton.

I know that. I also know (from my own doctor) that the regular and proper use of Q-Tips can, for a good number of people, prevent the type of wax build up seen in the YouTube videos. (n.b. I did not say all people) They don’t have to be shoved down the center of the ear canal packing wax like stuffing a wad down the barrel of a muzzle loader. Maybe instead of Q-Tip they should be labeled IQ-Tip 100+ :cool:

Got to wonder how long it’s been since those folks have been to a Doc even a GP will check your ears and no way they would have missed any of those. Wonder if the ENTs yelled can you hear me now after they dug those out.

, You missed the best one Jakey. There was one with such a mass and a fly that had laid eggs.

If you would read all the post you would have noticed that I’m aware of it but choose not to link it because of the tender nature of this forum.

Here a good one… https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=1EPPnxwKuFM

Well, by the time I got to the doctor, I already got a diagnosis. Evidently, that athletic endeavor triggered a fibromyalgia flare. Fullness in the ears/ eustachian tube dysfunction is yet another part of the constellation of fibro symptoms. Now I am wondering about the overlap between fibro and Meniere’s. I notice a small subset of that overlap on a fibro forum. Many of the same triggers.