Oh, well, you won't see improvement in your ear for two or three days
yet, even if the antibiotic works.  It takes that long for enough of it
to reach the sinuses.

Be patient.  Close your eyes and think of warm summer!

Of this, I have no doubt.

Day six for me.  While the fever may have broken, the cough is a
nightmare.  I've turned to codeine to calm it a bit.

Sadly, my wife--away for a few days for work--came home only o have
her legendary immune system let this one get by.  She's on day two of
pretty much the same thing, including the (in her case) 103 fever.

We're a lovely couple right now.

The sad thing is: with a/our subclass deficiency, we're probably
vaccination candidates, generally, but ... I'm not too big on vaccines
these days ;-)

'Scuse me.  Back to bed now.....

TLB

Okay first try sniffing rather than blowing.  Your sinuses have what
is called in the boiler business a
dead head. The air path takes a 90 degree turn from your windpipe
going into your sinuses, and the sinuses
void is shaped something like an upside down golf wood with no opening
at the top but rather around at tip of the club.
Bottom line there is a good chance of driving mucus into your e tube
as well as out of your nose if you blow.

To get the mucus to let loose so that you can sniff it out try holding
a couple of packets on any artificial sweetener
in you mouth. Splenda works very well. Hold, sniff and spit.  The crud
likes sweets, artificial sweeteners seem to puzzle it and it will let
go to latch on to them.
Your estation tubes empty into the back of your throat, what you put
in your mouth diffuses into your e tubes.

Another thing that works the same way is pepto bismol tablets.  I
think the crud tries to use the bismuth as in place of iron.
It will also turn your stool black, so be prepared.

Strong tannins seem to srink or hydrolyze the mucus, I would recommend
that you hold a center membrane from between the nutmeats of a pecan
in your mouth to experience this effect.
Or make a VERY strong 4 bag cup of black tea with a bit of lemon and
several packets of the articical sweetener of your choice and hold
that in you mouth for a few minutes before sniffing and spitting the
crud out.

Happy hearing.

Almost any gym will sell you a day pass.  The only question is how
hard they'll work to sign you up while you're there ;-)

For what you're after, I'd recommend steam (wet heat) 10 to 1 over the
sauna (dry heat).

I'm a big believer in that as a therapeutic AND palliative (feels
good) treatment.  Sadly, I haven't made it out of Ye Olde House once
since this all started.

Glad you're on the mend!