violakat03
Contributor
I hate to post yet another new thread about ears, but I'm in an interesting situation.
To start, a little history: When I was younger (6 to 10) I had very common ear infections, once every couple months. It was never recommended for me to have tubes in my ears, the doctor said it was because antibiotics cleared it up easily so it would have been unnecessary surgery. I've never thought of it since they stopped coming back all the time. I also had viral meningitis at 6 months old, with a fever so high that it permanently damaged my eyes and ears - I can't focus from near to far very quickly and I have difficulty discerning nearby sounds (such as a person talking on the phone) from background noise. Anyways.
All through the confined water portion of OW, I never had a problem clearing my ears, even if I dropped straight to the bottom of the deep end and stayed there. 13' of water was just not enough for me to not be able to clear. Then during our second (of four) checkout dives (water temp around 70°), I couldn't get it to clear at depth - went down slowly, cleared every few feet from the time I hit the water, and at around 30', it suddenly wouldn't clear. I ascended too fast because I panicked and it was hurting badly, and it made all sorts of painful popping and crackling. On the third dive, I couldn't get below 10' no matter how hard I tried. The next day, I had to take it slow but I could get down to 30' if I was careful and equalize almost constantly.
I started into AOW the next week, and in our first confined water session, it was a slight problem getting down to the bottom of the deep end. Second confined water, I couldn't at first but got it after taking it very slow, and then when doing 'ditch and don' drills, it got too painful and I had to stop going down. Then I went to a local quarry where the water was jiggin' cold (42°) and I couldn't get below 15' without it being incredibly incredibly painful, even with a hood on and taking it very, very, very slowly.
How do I go about finding an ENT that might be more knowledgeable about diving physiology? In the meantime, I have a pool session on Thursday, any recommendations? I'm thinking of heading to the LDS and getting some of those diving ear plugs and hoping that they work. One of the instructors thinks it was the cold water that did it, I'm inclined to agree. He also recommended wearing a hood all the time, but I actually found it harder to equalize with the hood on.
To start, a little history: When I was younger (6 to 10) I had very common ear infections, once every couple months. It was never recommended for me to have tubes in my ears, the doctor said it was because antibiotics cleared it up easily so it would have been unnecessary surgery. I've never thought of it since they stopped coming back all the time. I also had viral meningitis at 6 months old, with a fever so high that it permanently damaged my eyes and ears - I can't focus from near to far very quickly and I have difficulty discerning nearby sounds (such as a person talking on the phone) from background noise. Anyways.
All through the confined water portion of OW, I never had a problem clearing my ears, even if I dropped straight to the bottom of the deep end and stayed there. 13' of water was just not enough for me to not be able to clear. Then during our second (of four) checkout dives (water temp around 70°), I couldn't get it to clear at depth - went down slowly, cleared every few feet from the time I hit the water, and at around 30', it suddenly wouldn't clear. I ascended too fast because I panicked and it was hurting badly, and it made all sorts of painful popping and crackling. On the third dive, I couldn't get below 10' no matter how hard I tried. The next day, I had to take it slow but I could get down to 30' if I was careful and equalize almost constantly.
I started into AOW the next week, and in our first confined water session, it was a slight problem getting down to the bottom of the deep end. Second confined water, I couldn't at first but got it after taking it very slow, and then when doing 'ditch and don' drills, it got too painful and I had to stop going down. Then I went to a local quarry where the water was jiggin' cold (42°) and I couldn't get below 15' without it being incredibly incredibly painful, even with a hood on and taking it very, very, very slowly.
How do I go about finding an ENT that might be more knowledgeable about diving physiology? In the meantime, I have a pool session on Thursday, any recommendations? I'm thinking of heading to the LDS and getting some of those diving ear plugs and hoping that they work. One of the instructors thinks it was the cold water that did it, I'm inclined to agree. He also recommended wearing a hood all the time, but I actually found it harder to equalize with the hood on.
