Published on June 16, 2025 12:43 PM GMT
I have what I think is a chronic inner ear infection. Since March of 2021, I've had subjective obstructive Eustachian tube dysfunction in my right ear, as well as oculomotor problems that as far as I can tell must be caused by some kind of inflammation in my semicircular canals. [ The vestibular problem was confirmed by a videonystagmography, but I moved cities before I could follow up with the ENT who ordered the test. ]
[ Best photo I have left of my VNG results, from June of 2024. The red scatterplots show my labyrinths' response to warm water, blue cold. The purple highlights [ drawn by me after the tester's description ] show where my vestibular heat reflex should be; the red parts of the scatterplot show that at the time my left oculomotor reflex was OK but my right was deficient. ]
[ illustration of how the 2 oculomotor reflexes of each eye rely differentially on input from the semicircular canals of each ear, which can be tested with a caloric reflex test [ part of my VNG ] -- the rapid nystagmus to the right side is simulated by application of warm water to the right eardrum, while the slow nystagmus to the left side is simulated by application of cold water to the right eardrum ]
In July of 2024 the problem spread to my left ear. I've gone to about 8 medical professionals about it, and they've consistently prescribed Flonase/Nasacort and otherwise refused to treat it.
The Flonase/Nasacort does anything [ Nasacort works better ], but since March of 2025 [ when the dizziness had gotten really bad and I decided I'd Try Anything ] I've found that eating 3-4 cloves of strong garlic a day, plus Nasacort, works vastly better than that.
Since garlic is supposed to be an antibiotic as well as an anti-inflammatory agent, the garlic working so well [ plus reading up on the common causes of ETD that has my symptom profile ] made me suspect it was an infection. I tried ordering ofloxacin from TelyRx and it seemed to help a little but didn't end up curing the problem, and it rebounded when I ran out of ofloxacin. I'd been worried this would happen. Unfortunately ofloxacin is centrally for when your eardrums are perforated, so the solution can actually penetrate into the inner ear cavity. My eardrums aren't perforated, and actually look normal to otoscopy most of the time, which is part of why I can't get treated. I tried taking about 5 leftover doses of very-high-dose amoxicillin and that seemed to help even more but frustratingly I only had a few doses and can't get more [ the course of amoxicillin was about 20 pills ].
I would write off the apparent partial effectiveness of antibiotics as placebo, especially given that I've seen 8 doctors and none has brought up the possibility of an infection. But this spring, I got a fairly bad bacterial skin infection [ a coworker said it looked like I'd fallen off a bike ]. I know it was bacterial because it responded very slowly to copious amounts of Neosporin patiently, meticulously applied over the course of several weeks. In the middle of that, hoping to get something stronger that would work faster, I saw a doctor -- who was overwhelmingly confident it looked fungal, and prescribed antifungals. I thought "I've had fungal infections before, and it doesn't really look like that; also, the Neosporin is working really slowly and I'm having to use a lot, but it does appear to be working". I didn't take the antifungals and kept using the Neosporin; a week or so later the infection was gone. That shifted my priors both about [1] how good doctors are at clocking baterial infections, and [2] how patient one may have to be with antibiotics.
I've thought about doing self-myringotomy in the hopes that giving the fluid an opportunity to drain will cure me; since realizing some of the inflammation must actually be in my labyrinth, to be causing the balance problem, I'm somewhat glad I didn't try this -- at least not without having some ofloxacin on hand -- because I doubt that draining alone would solve a labyrinth infection.
I tried using diluted garlic juice as a nasal spray a couple times in May [ your Eustachian tubes connect to your the upper parts of your nasal cavity ]. That seemed to work better than just eating the garlic, but I stopped for fear that the sugar from the garlic juice would sit in my sinuses and cause worse problems.
IIRC I was prescribed a less-than-strong oral antibiotic when the problem started in 2021, but I don't remember for sure, and I definitely don't remember if I finished the course. If I did take one, I know it didn't do anything perceptible. That's part of why I've been hesitant to expend marginal effort obtaining less-than-strong oral antibiotics. If I currently had the money, I'd try ordering strong oral antibiotics from an online pharmacy now; unfortunately, I don't.
Other than garlic, are there any ways known to LessWrongers of killing bacteria in your inner ears which don't require a prescription or much money?
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