TMI

Did you know… that you can get eczema in your ears?

Gross, I know.

But true.

Background: I have had seasonal allergies for a very long time. I’m allergic to a few different trees (spring), and really allergic to grass (summer), with milder weed allergies in the fall. (I am allergic to the most charming of weeds — in moderation — tumbleweed.)

If the allergies are well managed (thank you, Allegra, Zyrtec, Zaditor and Flonase), I’m a reasonably happy camper: both completely functional and mostly happy. Big win, thanks to modern pharmaceuticals.

(This is after five years’ worth of immunotherapy. So everything is better than it used to be, but when plants are having their sexy times, I’m still pretty miserable.)

This year, though. This year has been miserable, and long. It started in mid-March when the trees came up, and the season has proceeded with gusto until now. In addition to my usual, runny, itchy, watery eyes, and unpleasant sinus symptoms, my ears started weeping… this has never happened before. I’ve always had itchy ears, but this is the first time I’ve ever had any sort of discharge associated with it.

I’m telling you, every part of my head was leaking.

My eyes improved as we transitioned from trees to grasses. My sinuses are starting to become less reactive as grass season winds down. My ears? Still very itchy and leaky.

I mentioned it to my doctor during my check-up. I told her that I was pretty sure my ears had started doing what every other part of my head was doing in response to all the growy things, but that this was a new thing for me… so I asked if she could please check it out.

After ruling out a host of bad stuff (any dizziness or vertigo? no. blood in the discharge? no.), she let me know that allergies in ears are rare. But eczema is not, and I had a decent case of it, both in my ear canals and the pinnae (the outside parts). She prescribed antibiotic ear drops to treat the inflammation and irritation. When I’m done with that I’ll switch to something more emollient, to (hopefully) better manage irritation..

(I’m two days into my 10-day treatment, and my ears are much less itchy and weepy, thankfully. It’s a relief.)

Eczema in the ears is more common in people with allergies (check) and asthma (also check, though it seems weird to me that a respiratory issue would correlate to a skin irritation in the ears, but I am not a medical professional, so sure, whatever, I guess).

Now you know what I just learned: ears don’t normally exhibit symptoms of allergies… but the skin in and around them can be irritated in the same way as skin everywhere else on the body.

Gross, I know.

But true.