Snap! Crackle! Annoying!

For the past couple days, I have had this “crunching” or “crackling” sound in my left ear. It is driving me crazy. It isn’t constant, but it is there when I am eating, or when I move my jaw. It sounds like I have water in my ear or something.

Naturally, everyone I have told is telling me it is a bug in my ear, to try to gross me out. I’m sure that if it were a bug, it would be more of a constant thing.

I didn’t what most people do after a couple days of this – I Googled it. The first thing that came up was something from WebMD:

Crackling in your ear is an annoying sound that may remind you of a fresh bowl of a certain puffed rice cereal. It can be a symptom of normal seasonal allergies. It may also be a sign of something more serious. Here are the most common reasons you might notice crackling noises.

Earwax. The simplest reason for crackling noises in your ears is earwax. Too much earwax buildup in your ear canal may make “crackling” noises as you move your jaw. This may happen naturally. It can also be caused by using cotton swabs to clean your ear.

That’s as far as I got, because it really sounds exactly like what is going on. I do use Q-tips to clean out my ears and the noise is very prominent when I move my jaw. I suppose I need to figure out how to clean it out without using a Q-tip.

In the meantime, I will keeping crackling and crunching…