Trapped fluid in ear after bad cold- any suggestions?

[HuntressMother]

Hi Ladies.

Im now recovering from a very nasty cold (along with DS ) that involved fever, lots of coughing, weezing and chest congestion. Im still coughing quite a bit but it has gotten much better. At the end of last week, I woke up to put DD on the bus and the cold seemed to have migrated to my head. My nose was ( and still is! ) stuffy and my ear started collecting fluid.

Ive always had lots of trouble with my left ear retaining fluid after an ear injury back in high school. It gets so bad at times that ive even considered having a tube placed in that ear just to give me some relief...now is one of those times. I already couldnt hear much out of that ear thanks to that injury, but now that its super full of fluid im about 95% deaf. I can hardly hear anything and the 'loud', full, hear-your-own-heartbeat feeling is driving me crazy! Thankfully, there is no pain as of yet, but of course that could change if that fluid stays in there for much longer.

Ive tried my best to keep my nose 'unstuffed' so that the ear can drain, but even in those breif unstuffy times, it doesnt feel like its even attempting to drain.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to naturally get those fluids to start draining? If so please share with me. Your advice will be greatly appreciated.

[heatherdeg]

Yup... first, you can make a kick-butt decongestant tea with 1 bay leaf, 3 shakes of thyme, 1 Tbl. lemon juice (or 1/4 lemon squeezed fresh) steeped in tea-hot water with some honey to taste.  Kicks in before the 20-minute mark and as useless as the ingredients sound, it has actually cleared head congestion that kept me from driving.  :)

Also, some warm oil in the ear.  You can use 1 Tbl. of olive oil with 1-2 drops of lavender (or ditch the lavender if you don't have it).  That should also help it along.

I'm sure someone else will pop on with more.  :)

[HuntressMother]

Thanks for the advice Mama! Im making up a batch of that tea right now. I cannot wait to get some relief.

[sbgrace]

You can try massage. A cranial sacral or good chiro could show you. I don't know how to explain what we were taught. I will search and see if I can find a description online.

This isn't exactly what i was taught but includes much of it and some additional too. It looks good in other words. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAs9uFYvcrk

[HuntressMother]

Thank you for that awesome suggestion, Sbgrace! I will be giving that a try as well.

The tea that Heatherdeg suggestion does an amazing job with decongestion but I still have a large amount of trapped fluid in my ear and it doesnt feel like its gotten any better yet. I will give your suggestion a try right away.

I have also been using alot of garlic/lavender oil in my ear to help fight of any infection that might be developing. My (about to be ) 7 year old loves to help me with putting the drops in my ear.

[HuntressMother]

SBGrace: I went right over to youtube and watched the video that you suggested and followed her directions and it helped relieve ALOT of pressure! It was amazing how quickly I could feel a difference. I willl repeat this massage on myself a few times throughout the day and hopefully it will continue to help my ear drain a little at a time. Thank you again!

PS: I uses a few drops of warm almond oil on my fingers and hands while doing the massage and I think the warmth along with the massage really helped as well.

[rainbringer]

I had this happen to me  last year - I can't remember where I found this remedy, probably on this site somewhere, but I cut an onion in half, warmed it up a little in the microwave and then held it to my ear.  It felt so good!