Ear ache

As the mother of three children, I expect to have ear aches in this house. We've been fairly fortunate though, that the last ear problem was almost two years ago. However, as a thirty-five-year-old, I never expected to be dealing with an ear ache myself! I woke up at 5 this morning with this terrible pain in my left ear. I was able to eventually doze back to sleep, but it hasn't really gotten better today. In fact, I've also started fighting a sinus headache and the left side of my neck is getting stiff, which leads me to believe that my lymph nodes are swelling. I have a doctor's appointment at 9AM tomorrow morning. I really don't like going to the doctor. Not that anyone particularly really enjoys it, but I really, really, really don't like to go to the doctor. I'm a firm believer in letting things try to take their course, but this pain has just got to stop! I was 11-years-old the last time I had an ear ache and I vividly remember the pain. Of course, part of my problem that time was that my ear drum ended up bursting so that was a big part of the pain. At this point, I just want to take some heavy duty painkillers and go to bed, but homework calls first!