Ear discomfort and hearing difficulties

[Tree]

Hi there I'm new to the boards and just finished performing my check out dives for my PADI Open Water certification this past week. Well my last dive was on Sunday morning and I am experiencing some discomfort in my ears and my right ear feels as though its completely plugged up. I did have some problems equalizing on my way down, but I took my time and got myself cleared before I continued my decent on every dive. Though it took me about 5 mins or so to get to the bottom I figured better safe than sorry.

Anyway do you think I still managed to injure my ears on one of the 7 dives I did when I was down there or is this plugged up feeling and discomfort a normal thing? I'm assuming its not a regular occurance, but since I am new to the sport I figured I should ask those much much more knowledgable than I. Oh on a side note I did fly to and from our destination which was Cozumel where we performed the dives and our deepest dive was about 85 ft on Saturday. One thing that did happen though in case it is valuable information is on my last dive on Sunday I did get a slight nose bleed at some point during the dive. I wasn't even aware of it until my buddy let me know.

Any ideas/input would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your time,
Tree

 

[pipedope]

First go watch the streaming video at;
http://faculty.washington.edu/ekay/index.html

Then ask any questions you may have.

I am sure you will get other responses but I am short of time right now so you my very short response.

 

[Mrs.Prages]

First go watch the streaming video at;
http://faculty.washington.edu/ekay/index.html

Then ask any questions you may have.

I am sure you will get other responses but I am short of time right now so you my very short response.

This was a great video. I would like to see some of those equalization techniques explained a little more. Thanks for the link.

 

[Tree]

Went to my GP today and here's what she saw. In my right ear (which is the one that was bothering me the most) it has sustained some trauma and has 2 different layers/chambers (I'm not sure how to explain it) of fluid trapped in there. One was clear the other was yellow. The left ear has clear fluid trapped in there, but she didn't see any signs of trauma. Since she wasn't quite sure what was going on with my right ear she has referred me to an ENTfor tomorrow morning. I will let ya'll know what the ENT says.

Wish me luck that I didn't break myself. Especially since were talking about going on another trip end of Feb or the start of March.

Thanks for the video. Watching it now. Alot of valuable stuff and ear anatomy I wasn't aware of.

Tree

 

[pipedope]

I wish that there had been a video like that when I first learned to dive. It would have saved me a lot of time and trouble.

You are doing the right thing going to the Doc and ENT.

Once you have things cleared up it can help to practice equalising your ears daily and several times a day. This helps teach your body and mind how to do it easily and gets the tissues used to the action.

I had to work at ear clearing when I started diving but more recently could clear easily, often without even touching my nose. When wearing a helmet or FFM I rarely need to block my nose to clear.

 

[Tree]

Here's the diagnosis. Middle-Ear barotruama (sp?). It's not severe (thank goodness), but due to the large amount of fluid trapped in my ears the ENT put me on a 6-day treatment of Medrol, Allegra-D, and Nasonex. After my first day I noticed some improvement and now four days into my treatment I've already noticed a huge difference. I still have a small amount of fluid trapped in there, but the pain is gone and I can hear fairly well again. Of course no diving until I have my follow-up with the ENT in a few weeks, but considering my location and the time of year that shouldn't be an issue. He also went through better equalizing procedures with me since he also dives on occassion and has seen this kind of injury many times before and encouraged me to continue practicing so hopefully he won't have to see me again for this kind of thing.

Thanks for the videos and advice. I'm sure they would've cleared on their own in time, but no sense in risking my future diving by ignoring an injury.

Tree

 

[liberato]

Read post #9 here for a elegant description of what caused new divers to get fluid in their ears.