A.C.
Well, it sounds like you are having all sorts of ear trouble. Sorry to hear that. I love swimming, and swimming is a wonderful way to exercise.
I am a little concerned by the fact that you started out with Swimmer’s Ear [otitis externa, an infection/inflammation of the skin lining the outer ear and ear canal. This is caused mainly by a microbial infection which produces pus and causes the ear canal to swell. The resulting blockage can also lead to temporary hearing loss or a sensation of "feeling" noise inside the ear] and now have a small perforation in the ear drum that is draining. And not healing.
That’s what concerns me.
If you just have SWIMMER’S EAR, there are some natural remedies you could try to heal it up:
1. White vinegar or apple cider vinegar can be used with equal effectiveness. Using an eye dropper, place a few drops of either vinegar in your ear. Wait a few minutes, get up, and let the vinegar drain from your ear. Repeat several times/day. The acidity of vinegar kills the bacteria and helps to clear the infection,
2. Garlic oil (has both antibacterial and antiviral properties) is also good to use. Follow same instructions as above. Can be bought at health food stores.
3. Rubbing alcohol helps dry up the moisture that is feeding the bacteria. Follow same instructions as above.
3. Heat can help evaporate the water in your ear, dry out the moisture that the bacteria and viruses live on. Can lay your head on a heating pad or use a hair dryer (wave back and forth over ear so the ear doesn’t get too hot).
In more severe cases of swimmer’s ear, it is best to clear the ear of any debris using a binocular microscope. This will require a visit to a doctor. If the inflammation has come to the point where the canal is blocked, topical solutions or ear drops will not penetrate far enough to affect a complete cure, and antibiotics will be needed.
However, with a PERFORATED EAR DRUM and still having drainage a year after treatment/healing and having already used antibiotics, it is imperative to find out—do you still have swimmer’s ear that isn’t healing up? Or do you have a more severe case of a middle ear infection or even an inner ear infection?
I would urge you to find another ENT and another opinion. I had issues with my one ear when I used to live in MN back in the ’90s. I had been seeing an ENT in the Cities but wasn’t getting any relief or help. So I went to the Ear, Nose, & Throat Clinic in St Cloud, MN (six locations: St. Cloud, Alexandria, Little Falls, Paynesville, Sauk Centre, Staples; http://www.stcloudent.com/) where my little sister had had her ear tubes and adenoids taken care of. I believe the doctor I saw was Dr. Todd Magnuson, MD. I went because I had horrible, horrible pain and pressure in my right ear (felt like my head was a watermelon about to explode). It was discovered that my Eustachian Tube wasn’t working.
First the doctor tried a regular ear tube, which fell out almost right away. Like, just a couple weeks later. So then he put in a permanent T tube, which opened my ear up (right after he did that my friend and I were sitting in a café eating lunch and suddenly, my ear opened and I could hear music playing. I hadn’t hardly been able to hear anything for six months).
To this day, I still have that T tube in my ear. I have to periodically put hydrogen peroxide/water mix in it to dissolve the wax that likes to clump around it, but otherwise, my ear is fine.
It is my hope that the doctors at this specialty clinic are every bit as good as they were when I went there years ago. They take a variety of insurance providers, which was one of the reasons I went to them, as they took the PPO I had for insurance at the time (I worked in the Cities).
