When we went to the beach on Saturday, so July 11, I had a rough time in the water and got a lot of it in my ear. On Sunday, we went snorkeling which didn't help the situation. I am leaving soon, so I need to get this out of my ear before I fly!! I tried everything that I read about online, and I asked my Facebook friends for advice too. I tried a lot of things: sleeping on one side or the other, pulling my earlobe, yawning, tipping my head and jumping (and not jumping), blowing the hairdryer both across and directly at my ear, everything except adding anything INTO my ear, because my long-time competitive swimmer friend said not to.
Finally, it was TUESDAY, this had been happening for days, and it was starting to hurt! I finally went with the alcohol in the ear. Still, I didn't want to buy a whole bottle of alcohol to use-at most- a tablespoon. I asked the coordinator at school what to do, and she disappeared. She went to ask the janitor for it! We got a cup and poured it into a water bottle which we then labeled with "XXX" all over it. That would be a terrible thing to confuse!
As soon as I got home, I went to another fellow's room to have him help. I laid down and he poured some in me ear. He was really nervous about it. I counted to 10 then rolled over on a towel to let it drip out. It was amazingly effective! I had to do one ear again the next day, but this will be my go-to trick in the future! I did get a bit of a head cold which I assume was related. Luckily, the other fellows were well-stocked with vitamins and cold medicine. We made it through!
In the airport in Rio, before I came home, I talked to another American who was heading home. She told me that she also had problems with ocean water in her ear, so she always took an ear-cleaning kit with her when she traveled. I've seen these in the pharmacy and scoffed at them in the past, but will certainly grab one to take on the honeymoon in October!
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