It's been 10 weeks since I finished treatment and this week I've started getting annoying ear pain. It's on my left side, which is not the side I received radiation although I did have my left tonsil removed. I went to the PCP yesterday since it had been happening for four days. She said my ears and throat appeared fine. Of course, I wasn't having any pain when I saw her. I get quick jabbing pain that lasts for seconds and repeats about every 10 seconds. If I take Advil, it goes aways for up to 12 hours. If the pain continues I'll go to my ENT next week. I've started back to work part-time and want to be sure that it is not related (e.g., I talk more now, sleep a little less...) before I return full-time. I figure the more I learn before I see my ENT, the better my questions will be. Maybe it's not even related to my cancer treatment, but I have no other symptoms to associate it to.

Thanks!

i have jabbing ear pain all the time,my doc says i'm having muscle spasms.i take advil all the time it's like eating candy.maybe when u go back to the doc's they can check it all out and see.it bothers me some times but then i just try to forget about it.my doc told me to put a heating pad on the side i had surgery on for about a half hour 3 or 4 times a day so far it has helped maybe u could try that and see.good luck to u.

a friend
lynn

Thanks. I think I'll call the ENT on Monday as it will be a week tomorrow that I had the random ear pain. Last night I noticed I had swollen lymph nodes on my right side (bottom of ear to top of collar bone). All my swelling was gone (at least to the eye), so it seems weird that this would appear now.

Please don't take chances with "ear pain" if it's lingering. Get it checked out. It could be due to your treatment, but it shouldn't be a constant, consistent pain. My ears seem much more sensitive to "touch", glasses sitting on them, etc., and I still get ear aches on the oppisite side as well, but they aren't consistent. My Dr.'s said that can be a "normal" (whatever normal is) occurence, but if it's consistent they want to know about it, so share your concern with your medical team.

Best Wishes,
Steve