Suggest Treatment For Severe Ear Pain While Treating Ear Canal Infection

Yesterday on 10/5/10 I saw a nurse practitioner for a terrible earache. She looked in both my ears, and she said I had ear canal infections in both ears. She could see one eardrum clearly, and she said it was inflamed. She said she could only see a little bit of the other eardrum due to the excess drainage, but she said from what she could see, it also looked inflamed. However, she said the eardrums did not look ruptured. She referred to my infection in both ears as swimmers ear, and she prescribed Neo/Poly/HC 1% OTIC 4 drops 3-4 times daily into both ears. She also prescribed Ibuprofen 800. As of today (10/6/10), my ears are still in terrible pain. The only thing that lessens the pain is the Ibuprofen 800. My questions are the following: 1) how long should it take for me to get pain relief from the ear drops? I don t want to have to take Ibuprofen 800 for the rest of my life. 2) Do you think I may have an inner ear infection as well since my ears are still in terrible pain unless I take the Ibuprofen 800. Thank you for your help!