Barotrauma symptoms lasting more than a month -- help!

[ceeturtle]

On August 6th, I completed three days of diving (three dives each day). On probably three of those dives, I felt excruciating pain in one or the other ear and eventual relief after madly attempting to equalize. Two days after my last dive I flew on a three hour flight and upon landing experienced the muffled ears sensation (like cotton balls were stuck in my ears) and diminished hearing. I got on five days of 24 hour claratin, traveled back to Los Angeles from Malaysia (where I dived) and equalized during the final flight descent. Low and behold, my ears cleared when I landed back in Los Angeles.

I saw an internal medicine doctor, who inspected my ears (one week after my last dive) and saw no perforation to the ear drum. He saw alot of redness in there so he gave me antibiotics and Flonase.

More than a week later and now almost three weeks after the last dive I finally saw an ENT (gotta love US healthcare). He concurred that there was no injury to the ear drum and gave me an anti-infammatory, Prednisone to take for seven days. He told me I had swollen Eustachian Tubes.

I took the prednisone and... nothing. I called him him up and he said that he did not want to operate on me and that the best be could give me were more decongestants.

Since the muffled ears cleared up I have not experienced any pain. I have tinnitus (but I had that before I dived anyway) but principally when I swallow I hear a pop or a click in one or both ears. I may be experiences more headrushes when I stand up or some diziness but nothing that serious.

It is now approximately a month since I dived. (1) Is it normal to still feel symptoms? (the popping and clicking when I swallow) (2) At this point is all I can do is just wait this out? (3) Is continuing on decongestants or anti inflammatories crucial to recovery? I would prefer not being on anymore pharmaceuticals and junk.


Thank you all of you for your responses.​

 

[doctormike]

Hi, Ceeturtle...

Sorry that you are having such a problem!

There are a number of different things that can be going on here, and I really can't tell you that much over the Internet, but perhaps the most important questions are (1) did you have a recent full audiogram (hearing test)?, and (2) what exactly did it show?

Best,

Mike

 

[ceeturtle]

On August 6th, I completed three days of diving (three dives each day). On probably three of those dives, I felt excruciating pain in one or the other ear and eventual relief after madly attempting to equalize. Two days after my last dive I flew on a three hour flight and upon landing experienced the muffled ears sensation (like cotton balls were stuck in my ears) and diminished hearing. I got on five days of 24 hour claratin, traveled back to Los Angeles from Malaysia (where I dived) and equalized during the final flight descent. Low and behold, my ears cleared when I landed back in Los Angeles.

I saw an internal medicine doctor, who inspected my ears (one week after my last dive) and saw no perforation to the ear drum. He saw alot of redness in there so he gave me antibiotics and Flonase.

More than a week later and now almost three weeks after the last dive I finally saw an ENT (gotta love US healthcare). He concurred that there was no injury to the ear drum and gave me an anti-infammatory, Prednisone to take for seven days. He told me I had swollen Eustachian Tubes.

I took the prednisone and... nothing. I called him him up and he said that he did not want to operate on me and that the best be could give me were more decongestants.

Since the muffled ears cleared up I have not experienced any pain. I have tinnitus (but I had that before I dived anyway) but principally when I swallow I hear a pop or a click in one or both ears. I may be experiences more headrushes when I stand up or some diziness but nothing that serious.

It is now approximately a month since I dived. (1) Is it normal to still feel symptoms? (the popping and clicking when I swallow) (2) At this point is all I can do is just wait this out? (3) Is continuing on decongestants or anti inflammatories crucial to recovery? I would prefer not being on anymore pharmaceuticals and junk.


Thank you all of you for your responses.​

 

[ceeturtle]

Hi Mike:

The aforementioned ENT put a handheld device in my ear which beeped three different types (or registers) of sounds and asked me if I could hear all three. I could. I said yes and he said "your hearing is excellent."

 

[doctormike]

Hi Mike:

The aforementioned ENT put a handheld device in my ear which beeped three different types (or registers) of sounds and asked me if I could hear all three. I could. I said yes and he said "your hearing is excellent."

OK, that's not really a formal hearing test, but it is a basic screen. If you are still having symptoms, you might want to get a real audiogram. In Los Angeles, this is a very well known ear specialty group: House Research Institute

 

[ceeturtle]

Is this to make sure that I did not injure my ear drum?

 

[doctormike]

Well, that's just one part of it. You can usually determine if the eardrum is intact by just looking at it (sometimes using a microscope), and even if you did perforate it, it usually heals quickly. An audiogram would tell you if you have a conductive hearing loss or a sensorineural hearing loss (temporary vs. permanent), and would tell you about the pressure and/or presence of fluid in the middle ear, behind the eardrum.

 

[ceeturtle]

Doctor Mike, thanks for getting back to me but I posted the same message in the Diving Medicine category and closed this one up for some consistency. Can I get back to you over there?

 

[doctormike]

It's OK, I just merged the threads with a redirect...

 

[ceeturtle]

Would it really matter if I got permanent hearing loss? Is there anything that can be done about it at this point?