If you have mild pain or discomfort in your ear, or it feels like it’s got some kind of backpressure buildup in there, you probably have an ear infection. While ear infections are usually not serious and over-the-counter ear drops can help clear them up, they are still very uncomfortable and can get worse enough to become an on-the-job threat.
In extreme cases, a serious ear infection can, if left untreated, cause hearing loss up to total deafness in the affected ear. A more common problem that occurs with a bad infection is your inner ear cannot properly do its job of orienting you in space. In this condition, you may suffer from vertigo and lose your balance — and then fall.
If it’s a bad infection, you also may feel nauseous. Vomiting is not unusual; it leads to dehydration, which leads to further health consequences. Your vomiting from an elevation might also be bad for the poor guy who’s been bucketing up parts and tools to you from the ground.
Causes and prevention
Ear infections are often caused by foreign elements deliberately introduced into your ear. This is why doctors say you can stick anything you want into your ear, as long as it’s at least as big as your elbow. What they mean is don’t stick anything into your ear. Digging the wax out with a cotton swab may feel good, but that swab may shove the wax deeper and compress it, causing other problems.
The Mayo Clinic says if you have a wax buildup, you can use an eye dropper to soften the wax with some hydrogen peroxide. Give it a day or two to soften, then use a rubber bulb syringe to squirt some warm water into there and irrigate it out. They also caution against trying to dig ear wax out, noting that can cause an ear infection.
An ear infection can be caused by a bacterial invasion or a viral one. The infectious agent doesn’t need to be in the ear to cause an infection there; for example, spinal meningitis can spread to the inner ear.
Excess nasal discharge is another risk factor for an ear infection. So is a blockage that prevents the discharge from draining. Having either condition even without the infection is unpleasant. Normally, this discharge doesn’t enter the ear. But if you’ve ever blown your nose really hard and felt your ears pop, you’ve just experienced at least the transfer of pressure from the sinuses to the inner ear but probably also some nasal fluid. You can damage your eardrums by doing this.
If you have a persistent nasal blockage, use a Neti pot (water and saline solution) to move it out of there. Note that if you have a blockage, you will have to do this process slowly. So a short tip of the pot and then wait a few seconds with your head upright before repeating. Else, you may dramatically increase the pressure on your eardrums.
If the nasal blockage is persistent due to allergies, antihistamines can be used. But they have side effects such as dryness and (for most of them) drowsiness. In electrical work, which is inherently dangerous and is typically done in an environment with additional non-electrical dangers present, that drowsiness should be avoided.
So instead of antihistamines, you can use a nasal steroid. However, it takes time (e.g., several days) to show any real effect. And you must follow the directions precisely to avoid damaging your nasal septum. Even though these products are over the counter, have a conversation with your medical care provider about these products, their proper use, and their pros and cons.
Reducing allergens
Fairly inexpensive HEPA filter units that you set on a floor or tabletop and plug into a wall outlet are also available. You can clean at least your bedroom air to reduce allergy symptoms dramatically.
You can eliminate one major source of allergens simply by washing your sheets in hot water once per week. This seriously holds down dust by removing mites and the dead skin cells they feed on. And avoid fabric softeners. These products typically contain damaged lipids and petroleum-based fragrances; they “soften” by coating stiff fibers with fats that feed little critters and result in aggravated allergies.
To get soft sheets, use less than half the recommended detergent, add a half cup of white vinegar to the prewash and rinse cycles, and dry on low heat until merely damp. Never dry sheets completely in the dryer; this damages the fibers and makes them feel scratchy.
Many people with a 1-in furnace filter will buy a high-filtration replacement filter to help clean their indoor air. The problem here is unless you change those as soon as they start to look dirty, you are seriously shortening the life of your expensive blower motor.
To prove this, just pull a filter out after it’s been in use for one day. It looks about like it did yesterday. Wait one week, and then remove it. Now the filter is bowed. And why is it bowed? Because that poor blower motor is sucking air through a filter clogged by all those tiny particles. So this is not a solution unless you enjoy shelling out hundreds of dollars for blower motors and also going a day or two without HVAC.
On the job, you probably don’t have HEPA filters. In fact, you may work around a lot of dust. But you can use a Neti pot to relieve your stuffy sinuses and you can avoid breathing dust. An N95 mask can help because it filters out 95% of particles 0.300 microns or larger. While it won’t stop a virus, it will stop dust, pollen, bacteria, and many other particles. Be sure to change it when it gets dirty, and avoid mouth-breathing while wearing it. Having a box of these handy is smart when, for example, there is also drywall work, cement coring, or grinding being done near your work area.
Foam earplugs are great because they not only block out excess noise, they also keep things from getting into your ear (if swimming, wearing swimmer’s earplugs will also keep pathogens, etc., out of your ears). A caution in using foam earplugs: don’t jam them into the ear. Roll up and insert until you feel some (mild) resistance. Go no further.
Getting treatment
If pressure is no longer merely mild or you feel sharp pain, what’s next? The wrong answer is “wait for it to go away.” At this point, you need to contact a medical care provider. That could be via telemedicine, a non-urgent care center, or a physician you already see.
If you have a bacterial infection causing this, they will probably want to treat you with antibiotics such as antibiotic ear drops. If it’s a viral infection, they will have a different treatment. In the meantime, ensure you are getting plenty of Vitamin D3, Vitamin C, and sleep; doing this will improve the efficacy of medical treatment.
But doing this cannot replace medical treatment. And while you can improve your environment with many of the previous suggestions (such as the air filters) and you can self-treat a mild ear infection, don’t try to self-treat a serious ear infection.
