Dr. Don Paul Setliff, M.D.

Your best option is to consult an ENT physician. I don't think there is a way for us to have a dialogue on this website, but I would need to know the answers to several questions before I could figure out a probable diagnosis for your problem and recommend a treatment. If your pain is constant, the most likely diagnosis is external otitis, for which the best treatment is antibiotic ear drops. (General doctors and nurse practitioners commonly prescribe oral antibiotics for external otitis, which are unnecessary and ineffective.) If the pain is intermittent (only a shooting pain a few times a day), it could be caused by spasms of your jaw muscles, which have the same innervation as the ear. If it's your right ear, and you are right-handed, and you use Q-tips, the likelihood of it being external otitis is higher. Q-tips are the #1 cause of ear infections, even though there is a warning on the package not to insert them into the ear. Hope this helps...

If you’ve had multiple meals and drinks of liquid since then, it would be very unlikely. The end of the hair would have to have penetrated the mucosa of your tongue and be anchored there firmly enough to resist the swallowing movements. That is extremely unlikely. Throat doctors see patients every day who have the sensation of something stuck in the throat. Probably one in several thousand actually does. The problem is it that once you become overly conscious of your throat and the swallowing mechanism, it has a way of snowballing into persistent anxiety over the possibility of something being there. My advice is to relax and concentrate on other things. I have never in 50 years of practicing EMT had to remove a hair from someone’s throat.

The child needs an in-person exam, preferably by an ENT physician, who will
determine the type of ear infection it is, if any, and prescribe the
appropriate treatment.

It dePends on whether the hearing loss is due to damage to the eardrum, The middle ear bones, or the inner ear. Most often, hearing loss following an upper respiratory infection is due to fluid in the middle ear, and it resolves on its own within a few weeks. Consult an ENT doctor.

The great majority of patients with tinnitus have it because of damage to the high-frequency hair cells in the inner ear(s). Occasionally patients with tinnitus are found to have wax pressing against the eardrum(s), and/or fluid within the middle ear(s), both of which are treatable conditions. There is no known routinely effective treatment for tinnitus coming from the inner ear, usually caused by noise exposure. However, there are plenty of "caretakers" who pretend to have effective treatments maskers, drops, pills, physical therapy, whatever... !

You can use a free sound meter app on your cellphone to know the exact decibel level of any given sound. You should use two or three of them, though, because some are inaccurate. Any sound that is 85 db or higher is hazardous to human hearing.

Of course, you can. General clinicians, and sometimes even some ENT specialists, give opinions as to whether tonsils are "enlarged." There is no science to that judgment, unless the tonsils are grossly infected, in which case they do swell, as does any other part of the body that is infected. In truth, you cannot judge the size of something that is not completely visible, and tonsils are never completely visible. Only part of the tonsils are seen, and size is judged by the size of that part that is visible. If you could see the entire tonsils, you would see that the ones that appear to be "enlarged," or "swollen," end just under the mucosa, whereas the ones that look "small" extend farther (under the mucosal throat lining) to the sides of the throat where they can't be seen. So it's truly NOT a question of SIZE, but a question of LOCATION. Some people's throats develop with the tonsils toward the middle of the throat; others develop with them to the sides. Where they are located is of NO CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE! At least 95% of tonsillectomies constitute unnecessary surgery, in my opinion. The very unfortunate, really tragic fact is that some patients die from the procedure.

That depends on the type of ear infection it is. Infections of the ear canal are treated with antibiotic eardrops. Infections of the middle ear are treated with oral antibiotics. If your child has NOT had a recent cold (runny nose, cough, lethargy, possibly low-grade fever), the infection is
most likely one of the ear canals. If the child has a cold with an ear infection, it is most likely a middle ear infection. Another feature of ear canal infection is that the ear is tender to touch or tender to be pulled on. Studies show that general doctors and nurse practitioners
arrive at the wrong diagnosis and prescribe the wrong medication for ear problems in 2/3 of the cases. You should take your child to an ENT specialist if your insurance allows it.

Sorry, pictures are no help.

"Decongestants" are decongestants in name only. Clinical trials were never
done on them. There is no evidence whatever that they "decongest"
anything. But they can cause side effects, such as feeling like a zomby,
drowsiness, rapid heartbeat, and others. I do NOT prescribe them at
all, much less for long periods of time. A multi-billion dollar industry
built on desperation! Your description of the illness is a textbook
description of a VIRAL upper respiratory infection (URI), which is fancy
nomenclature for a simple cold. The antibiotics were most likely
unnecessary, but many caregivers prescribe them to impress the patient that
they care and to encourage their return for the next cold that you get.
That said, I did not do a history and physical exam on you at the time of
your illness, so that's why I say "most likely."

You need an ENT appointment, the sooner the better.

Your photo is one of the palates. Strep throat affects the pharynx, which is the back wall of your mouth, not the palate. Its being out of focus renders it useless.

I’m not sure what you mean by “an open wall“unless you’ve had mastoid surgery. I don’t recommend alcohol or apple cider vinegar and ear. The air canal normally contains a small amount of wax. It does no harm, and it dries and flakes out the ear, only to be replaced by the glands that secrete it near the opening of the ear. If you have a mastoid cavity, it should be cleaned once or twice a year by an ear doctor. Otherwise, ears that are left alone do much better than those that are manipulated. One never sees dirt in ear canals, and wax is not dirt. Ear canals are self-maintaining in most people and need no maintenance whatever.

Time.

I would need more history from you, namely how you acquired a hole in your eardrum and how long you had it. I see patients almost on a daily basis. Have been told they have holes in their eardrum and/or infection when they have neither. Studies show that general doctors and nurse practitioners are wrong about ear diagnoses more than 60% of the time, a result of their limited equipment, knowledge, and training in this field. If you truly do have a hole in your eardrum and you have a bacterial middle ear infection, then you would have pus coming out of your ear. You would have no pain in that case since the pressure pain of middle ear infections is completely relieved by rupture of the eardrum. Lastly, a hole in the eardrum provides a path to use antibiotic ear drops instead of oral antibiotics, which delivers many times more antibiotics to the middle ear than a pill that is distributed all over your body. Bottom line: Don’t waste your time and money. See an ENT doctor. A correct diagnosis is the shortest path to understanding and recovery. In the meantime, there’s no reason you can’t play in the orchestra.

Generally, no. But be aware that rhinoplasty, especially in women, usually involves performing osteotomies, which is using a chisel to create a fracture line along the junction of the nose and the face on each side, then pushing on the sides of the nose to narrow it. This can noticeably narrow the nasal airway, even though airflow takes place mostly through the lower portions of the nose. ENS almost always is a consequence of overly aggressive excision or reduction of the inferior turbinates.

I suggest you consult with an ENT physician. There is no substitute for a face-to-face interview and medical examination.

A dizziness work up is complex due to multiple types and possible causes. It is commonly a side effect of medication(s). If it lasts only seconds, it may be of little medical significance. A thorough history and physical exam are where to start. If you have difficulty walking straight, It should include a serum B12 blood test. If it’s low, you need B12 solution injections, 1 cc daily for 7 days, then 1 cc each month for life. Don’t take B12 supplements before getting the test.

You didn’t mention the age of your child, but that would be an important thing to know. In general, a child should be seen for throat symptoms with fever, difficulty breathing, swollen lymph nodes in the neck, difficulty swallowing, significant change in voice quality, or an associated rash.

The photo looks normal. (Not a substitute for a complete head and neck exam). You need a blood chemistry panel, to include thyroid function tests. You could start with an appointment with a good family doctor. Be sure you see an M.D.