Fixing an Earache

So late last week I began to develop a cold, I took some meds and extra vitamins and decided to go on with my day to day life. On Friday afternoon my ears kinda popped and my hearing was a little muffled, I didn't worry too much about it at the time.
Come Saturday afternoon both my ears are killing me. I forgot what having an earache as a kid was like and it isn't fun at all! Seeing that it was Saturday there was no Doctors office to visit and I was thinking the only thing that could help would to decongest a bit. I looked up symptoms and solutions online and found a few tips on making it better, as well as a comment that going to an emergency room was of little help. So at that point I realized there was something I must do to take some of the pressure off.
Tips online said to take a hot shower, put a warm compress on the ear, sleep with the ear down, and take a few aspirin. I tried the compress and it helped a little but not nearly enough. I got to thinking and for some reason really wanted to somehow put some sort of suction on my ear, maybe for the strange psychological reason I wanted to see if anything would come out.
I came up with an idea as I was in the kitchen re-warming my compress. I decided to put my compress in the bottom of a small drinking glass. Because the compress was at the bottom of the cup, it didn't touch my skin so it could be much hotter and steam. Then I figured I might as well take the advice of putting the ear that hurt the most at a downward angle and hold the rim of the glass against my ear. It worked! After a few minutes I really was in a lot less pain!
This is only a temporary solution though because as soon as I removed my ear from the cup within several minutes my ears would pop and hurt just as much as before. It was a long weekend with a pair of cups, paper towels, advil, and hot water. I finally got in to the doctor late yesterday afternoon to find that my congestion had indeed caused two ear infections (something I had never really thought about before this incident) so now I am on steroids, antibiotics, and decongestants. I am feeling better today but they still hurt. Good news is the cup trick seems to have a longer lasting affect than it did before. So if you ever get a bad earache and can't go to a doctor, maybe try a cup with a hot compress at the bottom.