Agonising ear pain that’s easy to cure

FoR me, the best part of a busy day was always the end of it — the chance to place my head on a pillow and dream of Daniel Craig. But five months ago, sleep became a far less enjoyable experience. I began to feel an intense burning pain on the outside curve of the upper edge of my right ear. This was followed by a tiny blister, which over a number of weeks grew to 7mm.

It was exquisitely painful for something so small: the heat of a hairdryer felt like my ear was being barbecued.

The pain was particularly bad when I put any pressure on my ear. As I have mild scoliosis — a slight bend in my spine — I am only able to sleep on my right side, which meant there was no respite for my ear at night.

I tried pushing two pillows together with my ear in the crevice between them, but during the night my head would sleepily search for the pillow, causing me to wake up in agony.

I went to my gP, who prescribed a steroid cream and said to come back if things didn’t improve.

The cream was of no help and I resorted to herbal sleeping tablets. But the pain was greater than any tablet could cope with, and I started to feel faint with the lack of sleep.

At my wits’ end, I returned to my gP. As the sore had not healed, he felt a specialist should take a look because he couldn’t be sure it wasn’t skin cancer. His words terrified me.

Back home, I did what many of us do in that situation: I turned to Dr google. My screen was soon filled with images of skin cancers. Basal cell carcinoma — with its waxy, speckled appearance — looked suspiciously like my own lesion.

Although this form of skin cancer doesn’t tend to spread to other parts of the body, it can burrow deep into the skin, causing damage that way.

I read that around 5 per cent of skin cancers are found on the ear, and I spent the next few weeks in a state of anxiety. By now, it wasn’t just the pain that was interfering with my sleep, but the worry, too.

Five weeks later, I had an appointment with a dermatologist at my local hospital. She made me lie down and carried out cryotherapy on my ear, freezing it with liquid nitrogen so she could take a sample of the tissue from the lesion for testing.

Thankfully, she was smiling when I went to get the results. ‘good news, Karen — it’s not cancer,’ she said.

It was, she told me, a chondrodermatitis nodularis helicis — a benign, albeit painful, nodule of the ear. Apparently, it’s a common condition, typically seen in men over the age of 40.

walayat Hussain, a consultant dermatological surgeon at Leeds Hospitals NHS Teaching Trust and a member of the British Association of Dermatologists, explains: ‘It results in an exquisitely tender lump on the curved outer part of the ear which contains cartilage. It may only be a few millimetres across, and there is often a central core which may discharge a small amount of scaly material or create a shallow ulcer.’

Pain is caused by the lesion pressing on nerves next to the cartilage.

‘Although the exact cause is not known, repeated frictional pressure on the ear seems to be implicated, as it commonly occurs in people who sleep predominantly on one side,’ adds Mr Hussain.

‘It can also be triggered by minor trauma, such as tight headgear or a telephone headset, or by exposure to cold. Reduction in the local blood supply of the ear by being exposed to persistent cold weather or with ageing prevents adequate healing.’

Sunburn to the ear can also aggravate the condition.

Chondrodermatitis can persist for months, or even years. Treatment may include steroid creams to settle the inflammation, but if the condition does not ease, then ‘a relatively simple procedure under local anaesthetic can remove the lesion and smooth out the surrounding cartilage,’ says Mr Hussain.

THeRe are some simple measures you can take to ease the pain. Using a softer pillow may help. Mr Hussain also suggests making an ear protector to wear at night, by cutting a hole in a sponge and holding it in place with a headband, or making a hole in your pillow to reduce pressure on the ear.

Nneka eze, an ear, nose and throat consultant based in Harley Street and St george’s NHS Healthcare Trust in London, says the ‘simplest and most effective way’ to avoid this problem is to alternate sides when sleeping — but because of my spinal condition I couldn’t do that.

So I typed ‘pillow with a hole’ into google — and up came a firm that makes exactly that (thepillowwith

ahole.co.uk). It has a square hole in the middle for people with chondrodermatitis or similar ear lesions.

Reviews seemed positive so I bought one for £40. You place it over your usual pillow and position your ear in the hole so there’s no pressure on it.

I also made a list of other things I stress my ear with — pressing my phone against my ear, wearing a tight headband to keep my hair back during yoga, and listening to Nirvana on headphones — and made adjustments to all of these things to keep further sores at bay.

Thankfully, the pillow worked a treat. After just three weeks, my ear was totally free of the sore — and I’m once again enjoying undisturbed sleep and dreams of Daniel Craig.