Of course this is a job for a doctor (or at the very least an RN). It is far more likely that it is a wax blockage rather than a puncture. That really isn't scary at all (in retrospect).
Several years ago, I got a wax blockage that completely destroyed the hearing in my right ear. An RN used a warm saline wash to remove it, and gave me some recommendations for ear care. She suggested that I gently direct warm water into my ear while in the shower to help prevent build up. This worked fairly well until I had another mishap.
Even though q-tips always advise that you not insert them in your ear canal, I know everyone (including me) does. The problem is that cleaning your ears that way forces the wax deeper and deeper into the ear canal (the nurse informed me of that when I had mishap #1). I didn't stop using them. It just feels good, you know?
Then, a year or so later, the tip of a q-tip came off in my ear. I called my girlfriend who rescued me from my stupidity. She is completely deaf in one ear, and has an 80% hearing loss in the other (a childhood illness), so consequently she knows a lot about ear care too. She knew what to do.
She poured capfuls of hydrogen peroxide in my ear until the cotton fibers lodged in there floated up. She then gently removed them with tweezers. It brought us closer together, and was one of the thousand reasons why I married her six years ago.
According to her, just using the peroxide once a week or so lifts out all the wax build-up without irritating your ears. If you get too much moisture deep in the ear canal, her doctor prescribed a different sort of alcohol (not isopropol or ethyl) to dry out the ear canal-- but she seldom has to use that. Astringents are bad. In fact, virtually any sort of fluid besides saline, water, or hydrogen peroxide is bad.
The suggestions on the forums around here really make me cringe. Using alcohol or astringents simply irritates your ear generating more wax and more problems. Q-tips are also bad, but hard to resist.
