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Bubbles, need to pop, and glue ear all describe middle ear problems.
Vertigo is an inner ear problem.
The outer ear connects to the world through the ear canal. Outer ear is the part that goes from your "ear" (the thing you see on the outside) to your ear drum (tympanic membrane).
The middle ear is everything from the tympanic membrane to the oval window, inside that space are your teeniest bones, the hammer, anvil, and stirrup. Their fancy names are incus, malleus, and stapes. The middle ear connects to the outside world (kind of in your throat, really) via the eustacian tube which opens (pops) to equalize pressure and keep the middle ear happy. When the eustacian tube tissues get irritated, then it doesn't function properly. Complicated mechanism, but middle ear infections result, and fluid can build up, and the fluid can get infected...in short, you have a ghastly mess. It can hurt, or impair hearing (usually temporarily), or just feel like your head is in a bucket.
Middle ear infections can produce either positive or negative pressure in that little space. Somtimes the pressure exceeds the stretchiness of the ear drum and The ear drum ruptures and releases middle ear fluid. The fluid is also called "effusion."
Looking through an otoscope provides a health care provider with a view of the tympanic membrane (ear drum). When healthy, it is "pearly gray" (if you just say gray, you may lose points on your exam); because the membrane is translucent, the "crescent shaped" shadow of the malleus (hammer) bone can be visualized.
If the middle ear is infected, the TM may be red, visually bulging, and/or bubbles may be seen in the middle ear fluid.
Amazing what I can remember from graduate school!
I have some really gory pictures that I show parents sometimes when they are reluctant to take their kid to be seen...
Here's a pretty drawing of a normal ear: http://www.uptodate.com/patients/con...Key=PEDS/19566
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malkin
Thanks Malkin-my dr drew me a pic of my ear & the area affected. It's where my nasal passage meets the ear if that makes any sense.
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Yep, that would be your eustacian tube.
It's pretty hard to visualize where it is in your head, sometimes it helps to yawn, make faces, or experiment with moving your velum (back of throat) around.
