Airplanes and Ears

When I fly on a plane and it's ascending or descending I'll always notice the pressure change by the annoying feeling in my ears.  Yawning has always seemed to work for me and apparently chewing gum isn't bad either.  For the first time that I can remember though, I was unable to "pop" one of my ears and had an annoying little ice pick pain in my head as we descended.  Apparently babies and young children have more sensitive ears so this is actually more common for them (and why they're crying).

What was even more weird was that even after we had landed I still wasn't able to pop my ear.  All the forced yawning in the world wasn't helping.  It's a strange feeling not really being able to tell how loud you're speaking.

After a few hours the feeling had relented somewhat but I could tell my hearing in that ear wasn't at 100%.  To the internet!  I read a few things and decided to wait it out a couple days and see if it improved.

Waking up today it was about the same and I've been trying to yawn to improve it.  Funnily enough as I've been typing this (and yawning some more) the ear finally popped!  Fortunately no drastic measures with hydrogen peroxide or doctor's visits for the time being.

One thing I did learn was that the ear is actually connected to the back of the throat by the Eustachian tube, which is why yawning and chewing gum can have an effect and equalize the pressure.  Yay learning!