I have had this problem with my ears for years now. It actually started with my cheeks and would normally occur when I was stressed, angry, or embarrassed. Then it started in my ears and has been happening everyday for a couple of weeks now. I noticed the other day that my daughter, who is only 18 months old, had the red hot ear problem, but it was only her right ear. That's when it started to bother me. I've never worried about it before, I just figured maybe my blood pressure was up. But when I saw that my baby had the same thing, that's what made me want to start to research this problem. She has now come down with pneumonia and I am just getting over bronchitis, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it. I've never really mentioned it to a doctor because I figured they would think I was just crazy. Now that I see that this is something that happens to a lot of people, I am definitely going to mention it to our doctors. I know that I am O+, I don't know what my daughter's blood type is. As far as I know I don't have ADD or ADHD or ODD. I am 24 years old and overweight but am currently taking Phentermine to lose weight. I've never really kept track of the time of day or anything because I just assumed it was something normal thing for me. Like I said, I've had it for years, as long as I can remember. And for me it gets worse in the summer. Once I go outside my cheeks will get burning hot, and now my ears do too. But the worse part about it is that even after I go inside, I can't cool down, sometimes for hours. If I'm in the car I have to have the air conditioner on full blast and pointed directly at my face, otherwise, it burns really bad and feels like my face is tightening up. I've noticed that the sun really plays a big part in it because sometimes, even during the winter, only my left ear and cheek will get red and hot while I'm driving. But if I can get out of the sun, sometimes that helps. I do not want my daughter to go through what I have gone through with this problem so if anyone finds out anything, please let me know. Thank you.
I developed this "red ear syndrome" about 6 years ago, a month or so after returning from a mountain climbing trip to Mt.Rainier and Mt.Baker in August. It began as a hot, flushed, burning sensation on the left side of my face and forearm as I was driving home form work about 3-4pm. I thought it was just the sun shining through my car window. Next it would occur in the afternoon when I was at the gym and it was then that I noticed in the mirror how red my ear was. I am a nurse anesthetist so I immediately began to record my symptoms and when they occurred and I was also able to measure that the local skin temperature does increase when the flushing begins suggesting that this is some sort of neurovascular syndrome. I asked several surgeons about it and no one had a clue. I saw my Interal Med. MD who ran every test known to man. Then I saw a neurologist and a rhuematologist, both of which had no clue what this might be or any suggestions. The frequency of occurance and the intensity of my symptoms progressed over about 6 months to include burning along my left lateral thigh, calf and the sole of my foot. Eventually it spread to the right side but the flushing/ burning occurs only on one side at a time and only rarely on the right side. I can no longer wear socks or a hat because they are always burning to some degree and I feel as if I am overheating and might faint. The burning does not follow any nerve dermatone zones and does not appear to be linked to stress levels, alcohol intake, weather, but it does seem to occur more in the fall/winter for me and in the afternoon or night hours. But I live in SC so it might just be so hot that I don't actually notice the burning as much during the warmer months. After about a year my symptoms and flushing episodes sort of leveled off and have been stable ever since. The scary part is that I returned to Mt. Baker and Rainier the next fall with some friends and about a month after our return my climbing partner (Mark) and another friend (Pat) developed the same syndrome!!!!! We were all negative for Lyme's disease (which was every MD's 1st bet) Sojourns, Relapsing Polychondritis, fibromyalgia, carcinoid syndrome, an assortment of autoimmune disorders. You name it, we all got tested and were negative plus we are all pretty much healthy otherwise. Pat and I work at the same hopital but the mountain trips are the only common link that the 3 of us share. We all had mild flu like symptoms after we summited and then developed knee joint pain and then the flushing started. Now we all have very dry mucus membranes, just in the nose and have nose bleeds. Our MD's settled on either a chemical or biological toxic exposure (perhaps from melting snow for water) that produced some sort of neurological damage that also involves the vascular system and may involves the sympathetic nervous sytem. But if any of you out there have any thing similar to what we have then the Mountain trips can not be the causal link. Some one needs to start compiling a data base of symptoms and the onset and patterns of occurance. Pat (also a nurse with a PhD in Public Health) and I might be interested in developing a web site that would have persons with this syndrome complete a questionaire/assessment tool to be used to gather data and look for a common link. We are trying to pitch this idea to our Internal Med. Docs and maybe the local university public health department. It would be great to include a university that has a program in epideminology. If anybody out there has symptoms similar to ours or if you are interested in helping us try to launch this "data collection" project, please reply. Thanks
Have you seen your md? It sounds like sun sensitivity may be a problem. I have a few friends who have Lupus. I'm not saying that's what it is but definitely worth checking out. I have Psoriatic Arthritis and red, hot ears and facial redness. Sometimes the sun affects my skin like that too. So far I've tested negative for Lupus and have not tracked down the cause of the redness. Rosacea also can cause redness, burning etc. Keep asking and researching. It might help to journal about it so you may expose a pattern. God bless you and your little one.
Comment
I have had this problem with my ears for years now. It actually started with my cheeks and would normally occur when I was stressed, angry, or embarrassed. Then it started in my ears and has been happening everyday for a couple of weeks now. I noticed the other day that my daughter, who is only 18 months old, had the red hot ear problem, but it was only her right ear. That's when it started to bother me. I've never worried about it before, I just figured maybe my blood pressure was up. But when I saw that my baby had the same thing, that's what made me want to start to research this problem. She has now come down with pneumonia and I am just getting over bronchitis, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it. I've never really mentioned it to a doctor because I figured they would think I was just crazy. Now that I see that this is something that happens to a lot of people, I am definitely going to mention it to our doctors. I know that I am O+, I don't know what my daughter's blood type is. As far as I know I don't have ADD or ADHD or ODD. I am 24 years old and overweight but am currently taking Phentermine to lose weight. I've never really kept track of the time of day or anything because I just assumed it was something normal thing for me. Like I said, I've had it for years, as long as I can remember. And for me it gets worse in the summer. Once I go outside my cheeks will get burning hot, and now my ears do too. But the worse part about it is that even after I go inside, I can't cool down, sometimes for hours. If I'm in the car I have to have the air conditioner on full blast and pointed directly at my face, otherwise, it burns really bad and feels like my face is tightening up. I've noticed that the sun really plays a big part in it because sometimes, even during the winter, only my left ear and cheek will get red and hot while I'm driving. But if I can get out of the sun, sometimes that helps. I do not want my daughter to go through what I have gone through with this problem so if anyone finds out anything, please let me know. Thank you.
Parent comment
I developed this "red ear syndrome" about 6 years ago, a month or so after returning from a mountain climbing trip to Mt.Rainier and Mt.Baker in August. It began as a hot, flushed, burning sensation on the left side of my face and forearm as I was driving home form work about 3-4pm. I thought it was just the sun shining through my car window. Next it would occur in the afternoon when I was at the gym and it was then that I noticed in the mirror how red my ear was. I am a nurse anesthetist so I immediately began to record my symptoms and when they occurred and I was also able to measure that the local skin temperature does increase when the flushing begins suggesting that this is some sort of neurovascular syndrome. I asked several surgeons about it and no one had a clue. I saw my Interal Med. MD who ran every test known to man. Then I saw a neurologist and a rhuematologist, both of which had no clue what this might be or any suggestions. The frequency of occurance and the intensity of my symptoms progressed over about 6 months to include burning along my left lateral thigh, calf and the sole of my foot. Eventually it spread to the right side but the flushing/ burning occurs only on one side at a time and only rarely on the right side. I can no longer wear socks or a hat because they are always burning to some degree and I feel as if I am overheating and might faint. The burning does not follow any nerve dermatone zones and does not appear to be linked to stress levels, alcohol intake, weather, but it does seem to occur more in the fall/winter for me and in the afternoon or night hours. But I live in SC so it might just be so hot that I don't actually notice the burning as much during the warmer months. After about a year my symptoms and flushing episodes sort of leveled off and have been stable ever since. The scary part is that I returned to Mt. Baker and Rainier the next fall with some friends and about a month after our return my climbing partner (Mark) and another friend (Pat) developed the same syndrome!!!!! We were all negative for Lyme's disease (which was every MD's 1st bet) Sojourns, Relapsing Polychondritis, fibromyalgia, carcinoid syndrome, an assortment of autoimmune disorders. You name it, we all got tested and were negative plus we are all pretty much healthy otherwise. Pat and I work at the same hopital but the mountain trips are the only common link that the 3 of us share. We all had mild flu like symptoms after we summited and then developed knee joint pain and then the flushing started. Now we all have very dry mucus membranes, just in the nose and have nose bleeds. Our MD's settled on either a chemical or biological toxic exposure (perhaps from melting snow for water) that produced some sort of neurological damage that also involves the vascular system and may involves the sympathetic nervous sytem. But if any of you out there have any thing similar to what we have then the Mountain trips can not be the causal link. Some one needs to start compiling a data base of symptoms and the onset and patterns of occurance. Pat (also a nurse with a PhD in Public Health) and I might be interested in developing a web site that would have persons with this syndrome complete a questionaire/assessment tool to be used to gather data and look for a common link. We are trying to pitch this idea to our Internal Med. Docs and maybe the local university public health department. It would be great to include a university that has a program in epideminology. If anybody out there has symptoms similar to ours or if you are interested in helping us try to launch this "data collection" project, please reply. Thanks
Replies
Have you seen your md? It sounds like sun sensitivity may be a problem.
I have a few friends who have Lupus. I'm not saying that's what it is but definitely worth checking out.
I have Psoriatic Arthritis and red, hot ears and facial redness. Sometimes the sun affects my skin like that too. So far I've tested negative for Lupus and have not tracked down the cause of the redness. Rosacea also can cause redness, burning etc.
Keep asking and researching. It might help to journal about it so you may expose a pattern.
God bless you and your little one.
Dear friend.
Mi name is Agustin.
Could you solved this problem? i have EXACTLY your same condition.
thanks in advance!
Agustín