What is wrong with my ear (blood in wax)?

Quite a while ago I had gone into the doctor’s when I was sick. The doctor was doing a routine check-up and noticed a build-up of wax in my ears, so she had her assistant clean my ears out. When the assistant did so, she broke my right eardrum because they noticed afterward that the right ear had somewhat of an infection.

I went to a specialist to assess the damage afterward and he said their was not one, but two tears in the eardrum. I was supposed to go back a month later, but couldn’t afford to because I lost my insurance.

Fast forward to now and every once in a while I get shooting/stabbing pain in that ear and ever since my initial doctor visit I haven’t been able to hear as well out of that ear. I never stick Q-tips too deep when I’m cleaning – especially on that side – because I don’t want to cause more damage. But when I was cleaning out that side after a shower, I noticed that there was blood mixed in with the wax.

I know it’s a possible infection, but could it be something worse? Do infections like that ever go away on their own? Because… I’m really broke. But I’ll go in if I absolutely should.