These little 'Post It Noteholders' sure are getting quick to do! A friend of my Mother-In-Law supports 'North Melbourne' Football Club - another club that we won't talk anymore about - *grin* - and so here is one for her!
On the health side of things . . . I took myself back to the doctor today - whilst there's no pain in my ear, it's still blocked and feeling the whole time like it should 'pop' BUT it just won't do it! He believes that whilst the middle-ear infection has cleared itself, my Eustacian tube is blocked . . . here's some information I found online from THIS website . . .
Your middle ear is connected to the back of your nose by a narrow tube called the Eustachian Tube. This tube acts like a pressure valve and opens to make sure the ait pressure is the same on both sides of your eardrum. When it opens you feel a pop.
Normally, each time (or each second or third time) you swallow, your ears make a little click or popping sound. This occurs because a small bubble of air has entered your middle ear, up from the back of your nose. It passes through the Eustachian tube, a membrane-lined tube about the size of a pencil lead that connects the back of the nose to the middle ear. The air in the middle ear is constantly being absorbed by its membranous lining and resupplied through the Eustachian tube. In this manner, air pressure on both sides of the eardrum stays about equal. If and when the air pressure is not equal, the ear feels blocked.
The Eustachian tube can be blocked, or obstructed, for a variety of reasons. When that occurs, the middle ear pressure cannot be equalized. The air already there is absorbed and a vacuum occurs, sucking the eardrum inward and stretching it. Such an eardrum cannot vibrate naturally, so sounds are muffled or blocked.
How To Unblock Your Ears
How To Unblock Your Ears
Swallowing activates the muscle that opens the Eustachian tube. Yawning is even better.
BUT - if yawning and swallowing are not effective, unblock your ears as follows:
- Step 1: Pinch your nostrils shut.
- Step 2: Take a mouthful of air.
- Step 3: Using your cheek and throat muscles, force the air into the back of your nose as if you were trying to blow your thumb and fingers off your nostrils.
So . . . the doctor suggested that I take another course of the antibiotics - just to be sure that we have got all the infection AND to try and 'pop' my ears - try the pinching nostril technique described above AND by inhaling eucalyptus vapours (putting a towel over my head and then leaning over a bowl of hot water with a little eucalytus oil added to it) I have my fingers crossed that this will work!
Until next time . . .
