“Ah,” she said. Her voice was a faint murmur. “Your Eustachian tubes are completely locked shut. Negative pressure. The mucus has thickened like glue.” She wrote a prescription for a stronger decongestant and a steroid nasal spray. “It can take days. Sometimes weeks.”
: A cold, sinus infection, or allergies can block the tube with mucus or inflammation. ears blocked after flight
A torrent of noise flooded in. The hum of the hotel’s air conditioner, which had been an inaudible ghost, roared to life. The distant wail of a siren, real and clear. Elena’s breath, no longer a ghost-tide, but a soft, rhythmic shhhh-shhhh against the pillow. The world snapped back into focus, loud, bright, and unbearably beautiful. “Ah,” she said
Try the "Toynbee Maneuver":