doctor diagnostic (was "difficult first 25 feet")

[caribou]

Well...no sound in one ear when equalizing means trouble...
I had blood against my ear drum in the middle ear. Not too serious, but no scuba-diving and no motorcycle riding for 2 weeks.

the body will re-absorbe the blood during the 2 weeks.

But I'm not sure what to do to avoid that next time. I didn't feel anything special.

Did this happen to any of you ?

Is there anything special I should ask to the ENT doctor (in 3 days) about that ?

 

[DocVikingo]

As yours is a medical inquiry rather than one "concerning the scientific aspects of decompression," the focus of the Ask Dr. Decompression forum, I have taken the liberty of moving it to the Diving Medicine section. Dr Deco will still see it.

Best regards.

DocVikingo

 

[pengie]

caribou,

I had something similar happen during my OW checkout dives, though I actually punctured my eardrum. A month later I went diving again, after the ENT said I was all healed up.

I took Sudafed for a day or two before dive day, as well as on dive day, and used a saline nasal spray to loosen things up in my sinuses just to be safe. Before going in the water, I repeatedly inflated my ears, just to make sure I could hear the click on both sides to indicate that they were being pressurized. I had no problems during the dives and was able to equalize normally. After the first dive of the day, equalizing was no problem at all. I think going in the water and pressurizing for the descent loosened my sinuses up. I am going to a diving doctor this month to see if there's anything else that could be causing my slow ear, but the decongestant and saline worked for now.

I did pick up a case of Swimmer's Ear on the dives, but that's my own fault...I was so worried about preventing another barotrauma that I forgot all about cooties.