Hi,
i'm wondering if you could perhaps shed any light on what might be going on for me.

In the last 2 years now, i have been getting painful and at times completely crippling ear infections. Every time they have resulted in anti biotics, and twice i've ended up in A&E

I only use q-tips to clean the OUTER part of my ear.

Symtoms are:
Ears so swollen the exam torch could not be inserted to examine properly on more than one occation
Extreme pain resulting in dizziness nausea and vomiting
Ears so tender they're unbearable to touch and obvious pain in/from? eustation tubes

For history:
i'm now 20 y/o, i never had any problems with ear infections as a child. i had 1 ear infection in my young childhood- they were that infrequent i remember it vividly. i had a couple in adolescence, neither of which were quite as severe as the ones i've been getting recently.


in the last 2 years i must have had at Least 20 infections. Often each infection has resulted in more than one type of antibiotics because the 1st weren't enough alone. Also i've had steriod, antibiotic etc eardrops,of different kinds over time.
Although they help, i've gotten to the point now where its not if i get another but when, and i expect it to be not long after the last has left...
Nothing has changed really, which is why i don't understand why these have started happening in the last couple of years but nothing before.

I always dry my ears out. - when my ears have been unswollen enough to examine, the one dr said swimmers ear...which is fair enough, but why is it happening so frequently when i'm so careful to avoid it?

any help welcome
thanks