The Slimy Ear

How pleasant! Attempting to clean slime out of an ear while it keeps slipping off the q-tip. Yes, a lovely image, I know.

I've mentioned Demi's ear infection saga before, although I was surprised I hadn't related the whole story. Last month, her ear started leaking again. It thought it was another perforated ear drum. This time, we got to the Dr a little sooner, so there wasn't as much fluid in the ear. They dx'd it as Swimmer's Ear, since the ear drum did not show a middle ear infection. (Ok, that's good!) They gave us the same ear drops as before to use for 5 days.

The leakage continued as we used the ear drops but seemed to subside, so I stopped the drops. A few days later, the leakage was back. Perhaps I didn't use the drops long enough? I continued them for longer; it seemed to subside; I stopped; it returned.

Recently, I read some posts on the awesome Kabuki Support Network that I follow daily about fungal ear infections. One mother described an infection that "leaked slime down his neck constantly" which sounded exactly like Demi's issue. It certainly didn't look like any swimmer's ear that I had ever heard of, since it drained constantly, coating her hair, cheek, and neck at night (until we stuffed her ear with cotton 24/7).

After going online, I learned that the ear drops used to treat Swimmer's Ear could actually make a fungal infection worse, which also coincided with Demi's symptoms. It also said that 95% of fungal ear infections responded to standard OTC athlete's foot remedies. We'll try that for a bit, along with bumping up her anti-yeast protocol in general, and see what happens.