Over the past two years, I've had something like 8 ear infections. I don't know what the normal rate of ear infections is for adults in this world, but it seems like a lot to me. Before I turned 21, the only other ear infections I had was from when I was a little kid.
Anyway, I got ANOTHER ear infection on Wednesday. It's been three days. I've been trying to decide what to do, because I'm going out on another vacation with my own family (as opposed to Carl's family) on Monday, and I don't want to spend the whole time, you know, deaf and unable to think from having a throbbing ear.
While I was out in Oregon, my interest was rekindled in essential oils. I've been using them for a while, mostly for cleaning products--409 and Windex give me headaches, so I started making my own eco-friendly and non-toxic alternatives using some antimicrobial, antifungal, and antibacterial essential oils (they also smell awesome: win!).
I did a bunch of research and read that melaleuca, or tea tree oil, can be used to help with ear infections: you mix 10 drops of it with 1 tbsp of carrier oil, and drop a few drops in your ear a few times a day. Alternatively, you can put a few drops on a cotton ball and stick that in your ear (you would never pour essential oil directly into your ear because it is too potent for that).
So anyway, I did that yesterday. It just so happens that of the 5 essential oils I have, tea tree oil is the one I have the most of, since I use it for practically everything. I mixed some of it with coconut oil and have been dropping it into my ear, and right now I have a cotton ball with it in my ear.
I had high hopes for the treatment, because I didn't want to go through ANOTHER set of antibiotics to treat this. But yesterday, I was feeling dejected: I still had a lot of pain and swelling, and I was starting to doubt the idea.
BUT the good news is that this morning, I woke up realizing that my ear was less than half as swollen as it was yesterday. Pain is significantly diminished and the interior of my ear seems to be healing up.
Maybe this was not such a terrible idea after all!
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