Hi

My mum cleaned her ears lastnight with a normal earbud (cuetip), after cleaning both ears the first time everything was ok, then she wipped around the inner edge of her left ear again and noticed there was blood on the earbud.

It has been almost 24 hours now since the bleeding started and if she uses an earbud, there is still fresh blood in there, but the blood is not leaking out like a nose bleed or anything.

She says she feels fine and has no trouble with her hearing, but her left ear does throb sometimes like when you have cut or banged something.

She doesn't seem to be bothered about it at all saying that she probably just pushed the earbud a bit too far down and scratched something or maybe she popped a spot in her ear, but i am freaking out a bit cos bleeding from any cut or anything for 24 hours cant be a good thing.

From the earbuds, it looks like its trying to clot over and heal becuase she left it about 6 hours today before checking again with an earbud and there was a lump of clotted blood first then just fresh blood on the earbud.

I have had a look down her ear with a tourch and you cant see any blood at all which is weird, but whenever she puts an earbud in there, its comes out covered in fresh blood.

Is she right not to be worried and possibly just scratched or burst a spot or something or should she goto see the DR asap ??

She has never had any hearing/ear problems before at all, she is 51 years old but she does have an underactive thyroid which is kept stable on thyroxine, she has rayernards syndrome (bad cerculation to her hands and feet) and arthritus in her lower back.

Any replies or adivce would be gratefully received

Thanks

Max

Max,

If she punctured her eardrum she would know it because it would be followed by a severe episode of vertigo.

If it is only little spots of blood on the Q-tip then she probably just has dry cracked skin in her ear. This is very common if you live in a typical winter climate. If she is feeling fine I'm sure that is all it is. If it is a lot of blood or feels ill, she should get it checked out.

There are prescription drops for dry cracked ear canels, but they are cortisteriod. My suggestion is dabbing a very small amount of plain petroleum jelly on a Q-tip and gently massage is on the ear canel being careful not to stick the Q-tip in too far as you really shouldn't stick anything bigger than an elbow in your ear (doctors don't recommend the usage of Q-tips).

Take care - Gloria

Thank you for you reply gloria.

Dry or cracked skin does sound very possible because of all the dry and very easily split skin on her hands and feet plus it is very cold here at the moment, but its not just drops of blood, there is no blood dripping out of her ear (she can lie on her left side and nothing leaks out) but when she put the Q-tip into her left ear, it comes out full of fresh red blood, like a bit of tissue when you plug your nose after a nose bleed.

Thanks again

Max

Your ear canal has skin it just like any other part of your body. If you read the Qtip box, it clearly says that you should not use this to clean your ear canal, but we all do it.

In any case, sometimes you rub too hard and the skin breaks... just let it heal, it will continue to bleed and clot over and until you leave it alone, it will just continue happening. Let it be, try not to stick anything in there and it should be fine.

Tummy

Thank you for the reply Tummy .

We will take both yours and Gloria's advice and see what happens.

Thanks again for helping to put my mind at rest

Max