I think I know what the culprit is and it's the wax I was trying to get out in the first place. It's turned into like a muck and gummed my ear right up. It seems to be worse at night when I sleep but during the day when my head is elevated it feels better. I'm going to make a doc appt to see about getting my ears flushed out with the syringe they have. Worked for me in the past.
When I tried hydrogen peroxide it felt like it just made the ear wax seep deeper into my ear, I didn't really like it.
I've heard of people using just cooking oil (peanut or olive), but idk if I trust that to not give me an ear infection.
Cooking-type oil is in the drug store stuff, but so is other stuff, and it's in an eyedropper type thing and sold as sterile so it's pretty easy to use.
Edit: just checked what's in my drops I use, it's 6.5% carbamine peroxide as the medical ingredient, and alcohol plus other stuff as the non-medical. It feels and smells like oil but there's none in it