My dd (13 years old) was diagnosed with an ear infection and a ruptured ear drum 4 days ago. She has been taking her antibiotics faithfully and has been taking motrin every 6 hours for the past few days for pain. The pain is worse than ever and the motrin only helps for about an hour. The side of her face is now painful as well. There is yellow fluid draining out of her ear still. My question is do I take her to the er or to the after hours clinic?? I would have thought 4 days of antibiotics would have started to make her feel better, only that is not the case and she is getting worse!!
yes - take her right away. Antibiotics may not work on the infection and she may need a different kind. Go now.
Ear infections can be viral, and antibiotics don't help with that. This might be the case for your daughter or perhaps the antibiotics are just not working and she needs a different type.
There are ear drops that help with pain, but I don't think you can use them after the eardrum ruptures.
Her face hurting worries me. The infection might be traveling to her sinuses. I would definably take her to Urgent Care
Take her in right away... My daughter's ear drum ruptured suddenly (no ear infection... just an acute rupture). Yours should be feeling better after antibiotics... sound like something else that should be seen immediately.
good luck~
Yes, get her in there. It sounds like these antibiotics aren't working and that she is getting a massive infection. I would take her to the ER. It sounds really scary to me. I hope I'm more worried than I need to be for your daughter's sake, but I really hope you take her in.
Dawn
I would take her wherever I could. Our town has a pediatrician that has some emergency hours on the weekends, its not our Ped, but we've gone there for weekend ear infections and stuff. Unless it's an emergency (like the time she swallowed one of her toys and it was stuck in her throat) I prefer to go to an actual pediatrician and not an er, unless it's the Children's Hospital.
Good luck! My dd had a ruptured ear drum and never complained about the pain, we wouldn't have even known if she hadn't been bleeding out of her ear! (too much of a trooper for her own good sometimes)
Sometime during my bouts with ear infection and tonsilitis as a child I had a ruptured ear drum but I never had any fluid come out or any great face pain. I think the ear drum can rupture for different reasons but this sounds like it really needs checked out now.
Yes, take your daughter to the doctor - pediatrician, after hours clinic, etc. Sounds like her ear infection has not gone away and I would be concerned that the pain is getting worse. Her hearing is at risk here so better to be overly cautious than to wait to long and suffer permanent damage. Both of my ear drums ruptured as an adult. I can tell you that once they ruptured, they felt better than before and over the course of two weeks I gradually regained all my hearing. The doctor did not even put me on antibiotics. So, the fact that her pain is getting worse is a little scary.
I think I would be taking her into the ER. An after Hours Clinic may not have the ability to help her further. I know in the Urgent Care Clinic that I work at, we would send your daughter to the ER. Hope everything turns out ok...
