Barotrauma... ugh.

[Lopaka]

and I hope that you don't think that I was suggesting one approach or another over the Internet..!

Of course not. I'm here for the education,

Interesting audiogram. My loss showed up at low-mid frequencies, compared to a test done for a hearing aid about a month previous. Already had high loss.

 

[swinchen]

Alright, so I just had another follow-up with the ENT. It seemed (subjectively) that the ringing was much quieter this morning. It is back pretty loud now but that might just be part of the healing process.

Let's cut right to the meat and potatoes of my question....

He said "If you were my brother, I would tell you to never dive again" Now I am not looking for medical advice, no doctor-patient relationship here, all rights waived, etc etc...

What is your opinion? Here are the facts:
#1) I damaged one of my ears (most likely due to improper equalization) while skin diving NOT scuba diving.
#2) For me descending has almost no discomfort when scuba diving, and a great deal of sinus/ear pressure when skin diving.
#3) I no nothing is for certain and I could risk further damage to either ear with continued diving.

So.... if I equalize early, often, descend slowly, don't push myself into the region of discomfort, etc. The risks should be minimal correct? The only thing that would make this injury more annoying would be having it prevent me from diving again.

I know some of you are medical doctors WITH diving experience so I respect your opinion (non-medical advice) greatly. My current ENT is certainly not up on diving so I think he looks at it as being silly.

So anything you have to suggest, add, etc would be greatly appreciated (especially if it is good news!)

Thanks,
Sam

 

[doctormike]

He said "If you were my brother, I would tell you to never dive again" Now I am not looking for medical advice, no doctor-patient relationship here, all rights waived, etc etc...

OK, I think that I contribute enough here for people to realize that I am always happy to help as best as I can. Therefore, I hope that you aren't frustrated because I don't give you a simple answer.

First of all, I really can't tell you whether to dive or not - no one can, but certainly not over the Internet. For legal reasons, for ethical reasons and for common sense reasons. That doesn't mean that I won't try to help by giving you background and context...

Unfortunately, there is no calculation that you can make that says "If you dive within X limits, then your chance of permanent hearing loss is Y%, you make the choice". As you realized, you got your first - likely permanent - injury diving in a pool, not doing an uncontrolled ascent from a technical dive... You may have stressed your ears more than you would during easy diving, I don't know. But remember that even if you "equalize early, often, descend slowly, don't push yourself into the region of discomfort" there is always the risk of a reverse block. Descents are optional, ascents are mandatory. So there is no real way of telling you that the risk is minimal, even with CT scans, surgical exploration, etc..

Now let's look at this from your doctor's point of view. We are all so immersed (pun intended) in the diving world, that it is sometimes hard to take a step back. For most of the people in the world, SCUBA diving is an arcane activity that they know very little about. And if there is a non-zero chance of serious injury, most people would say "OK, so I won't do that, of course!".

Suppose you were told that you have an allergy to turtle brains, and that if you ever eat any you have a 1% chance of a fatal allergic reaction. I guess most of us wouldn't think of that as a big lifestyle imposition, right? We wouldn't think twice about it..

Your doctor realizes (correctly) that you almost certainly have some non-zero chance of further (possibly complete) hearing loss if you continue to dive. In your case, the risk is more than the normal background degree for someone with no history of ear disease. All of us have that minimal background risk, to be frank - it could happen to any of us, even after years of diving. Just like the "undeserved DCI hit" that lurks out there, it is part of the risk you take when you dive. You do what you can to minimize it, but the only way to make it go away completely is to not dive.

So it is not reasonable for you to expect your doctor to reassure you that it is OK to dive. He is giving you his best advice. A doctor who dives might well tell you the same thing. You are the one who has to put it all together... and as much as it would hurt me never to dive again, I would think long and hard if I had any sort of hearing loss after diving... I can't comment on your specific situation, but I hope that you get what I am saying...

Mike

 

[swinchen]

*sigh* thats sounds a lot like "if you were my brother I would tell you never to dive again"

I wish I could take that day back

Thanks Mike,
Sam

 

[doctormike]

*sigh* thats sounds a lot like "if you were my brother I would tell you never to dive again"

I wish I could take that day back

Thanks Mike,
Sam

Well, actually... the logic here is that if you had a pre-existing weakness in your otic capsule, you might have been destined to get this injury. What happened in the pool might not have caused the problem so much as it might have unmasked it.

One way of putting a brighter face on this is that if it DID happen on a deep technical dive, you might have had worse problems than a hearing loss...

I hesitate to interfere with what is probably a good doctor patient relationship. I'm guessing that your doctor is empathetic with you, even if he doesn't dive. The problem is that there just isn't enough understanding of these problems, so people are forced to make their best guesses and take their chances. There may be people who specialize in this situation - a call to DAN would be a good place to start if you are interested in tying up loose ends..

I just finished reading "The Last Dive", in which Bernie Chowdhury talks about going back to diving after a near fatal DCI episode. He got a similar talk from his doctor that you were given, and had to make some hard decisions. It's an interesting read for that reason only, if you haven't read it yet... he goes into some detail about the psychology of these high-risk choices.

Feel free to keep us posted...!

Best,

Mike

 

[rossinger]

My big question is...what is the possibility of diving again after this "packing" surgery. I am undergoing a CT scan to determine if I indeed have a fistula or leak, but I am also a very active CD and need to dive...

 

[DandyDon]

My big question is...what is the possibility of diving again after this "packing" surgery. I am undergoing a CT scan to determine if I indeed have a fistula or leak, but I am also a very active CD and need to dive...

Why don't you start a new thread on this forum with the whole story...?