Update for anyone following this message board and concerned about a similar problem. The crackling and crunching sounds in my right ear (the one which had the infection) has finally disappeared! and the pressure is fine so hopefully its all back to normal now and won't return. The left ear still has small clicking and pressure problem, but I now think this should also resolve. In total since the start of my troubles this has taken 9 weeks to finally clear up completely (in the right ear), I can't help to let you know if anything specific finally cleared this up but there were 3 things in particular which helped. 1- Using the neti pot regularly - helped a lot with the pressure problems, and sometimes with the crackling, may have had something to do with the full recovery. 2- Chiropractic - I started going to a chiropractor 2 weeks ago, may have had something to do with clearing up the condition, i personally don't think so, but can't rule it out. 3- Beconase - steroid nasal spray, I used this earlier, and stopped, I started again a week ago and now my problems are gone, again not sure if it was the solution or just something i was taking at the time. Overall I think its a long hard wait and it cleared itself with time which was a tortuous 9 weeks. Now i'm waiting for the left ear to get better.