Poor you! The very first ear infections I got in my life were 10 years ago at Christmas. Both ears, very badly infected, flunked hearing tests, everything echoed inside my head, and I went through 4 rounds of antibiotics before it subsided. They kept asking "Are you sure you haven't used X antibiotic before, so that's why it's not working for you?" And I would truthfully answer: "I have never been on antibiotics ever before in my lifetime."

It was a fortuitous ear infection, though. The resulting hearing tests revealed a completely unrelated problem that could have eventually killed me if left undiscovered. I am now deaf on one side, not from the ear infections, but from surgery for an acoustic neuroma (non-cancerous) that was removed surgically.

I am sorry your ears are hurting you so badly. Decongestants should help. (My sister had many many ear infections when we were growing up.)