We were out of town around Thanksgiving and my dd's left ear acted the same way. Woke up fine, then around noon, it was screaming and crying like mad (something that she's never, ever done when she had an ear infection). I gave her Tylenol and ear drops, but nothing helped. Took her to ER right away (even though she didn't have a fever or anything else, but she had major pain!) Dr. said it was ear infection in both ears, but the left one was much worse. Gave her Motrin and antibiotics and also told me about the "rupture" possibility. The next day, she was all fine, but the following day, sure enough it ruptured. This never happened before and she had a few ear infections in the past. The Dr. said not to worry, but the flight home may make it worse. I put some cotton in her infected ear and the oozing finally went away after a couple days. Thank God for that b/c she was all done by the time we had to fly home. As a precaution, I made an appointment with her regular Dr. in town just to make sure both her ears are fine. She was fine, but the scare was pretty big. Good luck.