As the poster above me said, thank you everyone for your tips. I have severe ear pain in one or both ears on every descent, and thought I was alone. Now I know that I'm not, and I am going to follow a few of these suggestions for my trip to Long Beach this Thursday. I plan to start taking Sudafed now, and then having some Afrin and Earplanes on hand for the flight. I really hope this works, because I am tired of being temporarily deaf at my destinations - and I especially do not want to end up being permanently deaf.
(By the way, just noticed how old this thread was - wow! Talk about an epic bump!)