Right ear still muffled, hurts, and feels clogged after 2 1/2 days on Debrox
I spent most of last week thinking I had an ear infection due to sudden loss of hearing in my right ear (I can still hear out of it, just very, VERY muffled) accompanied by pain and a clogged feeling that I assumed was due to inflammation since it felt similar to the chronic Swimmer's Ear I got every summer as a kid. Early Friday evening, I finally had enough and went to a minute clinic to get checked out. I don't know if the doctor who saw me looked in my ear for a full second before she told me I had earwax build-up and suggested Debrox, which she repeated after looking in my unmuffled, painless, free feeling left ear and noticing the difference between the two.
I've taken Debrox as directed, 5 doses thus far (bedtime Friday night, Saturday afternoon and bedtime, Sunday afternoon and what was supposed to be bedtime) and, while I have noticed that "crackling" sound the box describes as well as a tingling sensation that borders on a light sting, I haven't noticed any change in hearing, pain, or clogged feeling. I'm going to keep taking it as directed until Tuesday afternoon, which will be the mark of "2x a day for 4 days" counting the 1 dose on Friday as half a day but, at this point, I have my doubts if the next 3 doses are going to make that much of a difference if 5 doses didn't have a noticeable effect. So, if I still have these feelings by the end of Tuesday, what's the recommended course of action? Should I go back to the minute clinic? Skip that and go right to trying to get an ENT appointment? Say "screw the rules" and use Debrox for more than 4 days?
tl;dr: went to a minute clinic for supposed ear infection, told to use Debrox for earwax removal, no change after 5 doses. what do