Hello and welcome to HealthcareMagic forum! Inability to pop your ears is a common feature during the course of any infection of the upper respiratory tract, like cold and sore throat. Normally, there is a tube connecting the throat to the middle ear, and during infection, the tube gets partly blocked. So it would be difficult to pop the ears on applying pressure. So do not attempt to pop them, instead try to swallow, whenever you feel as if your ears are blocked. You don t have to swallow any food or liquid, just swallowing air alone would be sufficient. Ear wax color ranges from light to dark brown, so if you are sure that your ear wax was dark red colored, then it means that there is a very small amount of bleeding. Did u scratch your ear with some instrument in the recent past? If you did, the bleed could be because of a small cut in the skin of the ear canal. Anyhow, if your infection doesn t subside within a week, then its better to consult an ENT doctor. Best regards and wishes.