Ear Issues

[Clammy]

Hi,

I'm having sharp pains in my left ear that also give me a headache. It feels much like I'm getting hit on the side of the head with a baton and the pain eases. It's becoming more frequent and I'm afraid it's an ear infection. I have a doctors appointment next week but I have to run a marathon on monday. Any ideas? If so, any suggestions on what to do in the mean time? I'd rather mitigate this as much as possible because I don't want to be stuck out of the water for a month due to an infection!

 

[knotical]

You might check in the Yellow Pages under "urgent care centers". They typically don't require appointments; but also don't require the situation to be as acute as would send you to an emergency room.

 

[DandyDon]

Sounds like you ignored the early signs and now are in pain. Been there, done that. Find a doctor's office that's open, go, beg. Actually tears can be easy if the pain is like mine at times.

I am not at all a medical pro, but my experience has been the best treatment involves an oral antibiotic & antibiotic+steroids ear drops. The drops dull the pain, but the brand name is Expensive; request generic.

All the above presumes you have a swimmers ear infection. Whatever, ask a doctor looking inside your ears.

 

[ivobj]

I had that problem after 4 days straight of cave diving, 4 hours in the cold water everyday, in my case was indeed an infection, had to treat it with antibiotic ear drops, so I would suggest you go see a doctor, if it is an infection will get worse if you wait and will prevent you from diving for a while, the sooner you treat the better.

 

[Papa_Bear]

Hi,

I'm having sharp pains in my left ear that also give me a headache. It feels much like I'm getting hit on the side of the head with a baton and the pain eases. It's becoming more frequent and I'm afraid it's an ear infection. I have a doctors appointment next week but I have to run a marathon on monday. Any ideas? If so, any suggestions on what to do in the mean time? I'd rather mitigate this as much as possible because I don't want to be stuck out of the water for a month due to an infection!

The Doctor advice is always good! First never put anything sharper than an Elbow in your ear! Do not clean your ears with Q-tips or any swab! Divers need a natural wax thing going in the ear! Wax is anti-Bacterial and water proof! If you have to use something use Ear Beer or swimmers ears solutions! I use if needed, 1/3 water, 1/3, alcohol, and 1/3 white vinegar!

I understand that all ear infections will heal with or without an anti-biotic! So I use an anti-inflammatory and a anti-decongestant to lower swelling and excess fluid. Warm mineral oil can help with ear pain or a heating pad! If you need more, your body will tell you!

 

[doctormike]

Hi,

I'm having sharp pains in my left ear that also give me a headache. It feels much like I'm getting hit on the side of the head with a baton and the pain eases. It's becoming more frequent and I'm afraid it's an ear infection. I have a doctors appointment next week but I have to run a marathon on monday. Any ideas? If so, any suggestions on what to do in the mean time? I'd rather mitigate this as much as possible because I don't want to be stuck out of the water for a month due to an infection!

Hi, sorry I'm late to answer this, but I might as well put my 2 cents in...

Most of the postings on this forum are very well intentioned, and I don't mean to sound condescending, but it is probably best not to recommend specific remedies without knowing what is going on in the ear. This is because the symptom "ear pain" can be a number of completely different things, which are all treated very differently, and have very different implications.

I know that doctors in general shy away from giving ANY advice online, and I certainly try to be an exception to that rule here (as you can see from my previous postings). But usually, advice is given against the background of some sort of objective information - such as a report of what was actually found on examination of the ear.

It has been my experience that even well trained general physicians can be very inexact and unsure when diagnosing ear disease, mainly because if they are not pediatricians, they probably haven't looked in a lot of ears. So while I am always happy to give advice, I would recommend that you have someone - preferably an ear, nose and throat doctor - take a look in your ear and try to sort out the different possibilities (e.g. swimmer's ear, middle ear infection, barotrauma, etc..) before just starting some sort of therapy.

And, just to be gloomy, not all middle ear infections will heal without an antibiotic, and in the days before antibiotics, complications of ear infections occasionally led to permanent deafness or even life threatening systemic infections such as meningitis. This is not to say that MOST of them won't heal without an antibiotic, but I wouldn't just assume that everything will eventually work itself out. Also, while mineral oil is good for some types of outer ear skin conditions, it can make a swimmer's ear (otitis externa, or a skin infection of the outer ear) even worse.

Finally, we should all note that the OP didn't even mention whether or not the symptoms had anything to do with diving! Always good to get some background. For example, if the pain came after a single brief descent and ascent during which there was difficulty equalizing, that would have different implications than if it came after a week of repetitive shallow diving or surfing...

In any case, the dialogue here is always great, and I don't mean to imply that only doctors have the right answers. It is terrific for divers to swap tricks and secrets for maintaining good health. But in cases like this, a little more information would be helpful...

Best,

Mike

 

[DandyDon]

Thanks DrMike! Hey, I voted "Find a doctor's office that's open, go, beg" in the unofficial poll here. Curious about this, tho...?

It has been my experience that even well trained general physicians can be very inexact and unsure when diagnosing ear disease, mainly because if they are not pediatricians, they probably haven't looked in a lot of ears. So while I am always happy to give advice, I would recommend that you have someone - preferably an ear, nose and throat doctor - take a look in your ear and try to sort out the different possibilities (e.g. swimmer's ear, middle ear infection, barotrauma, etc..) before just starting some sort of therapy.

I thot that doctors always looked in ears? Is that more of a childhood thing? We did have pediatricians in my area when I was a kid so I grew up seeing the town doc we all saw for everything. Maybe I'm having old coot memories of those times?

As much pain as Clammy was in, based on my experiences, I figured he was in need of seeing any doctor he could get to on a holiday Friday. ENTs are not commonly available on holiday weekends are they? My last round of swimmers ear had me so disabled that I couldn't leave the house for two days, wouldn't go to the bathroom without my ear drops in hand in case of attack.

Hopefully he is all better and off running in his Marathon now...

 

[doctormike]

Thanks DrMike! Hey, I voted "Find a doctor's office that's open, go, beg" in the unofficial poll here. Curious about this, tho...?

Yes, I agree with your plan!

I thot that doctors always looked in ears? Is that more of a childhood thing? We did have pediatricians in my area when I was a kid so I grew up seeing the town doc we all saw for everything. Maybe I'm having old coot memories of those times?

Well, as with most things, the devil is in the details. Also, I don't mean to cast a blanket criticism of all adult doctors. Family practice doctors on the other hand do see a lot of children. The issue is that ear disease (in the non-diving population) is incredibly common in children, and relatively rare in adults. So the average adult ER doctor, or internist, just won't have that much experience seeing ear disease on a daily basis...

My last round of swimmers ear had me so disabled that I couldn't leave the house for two days, wouldn't go to the bathroom without my ear drops in hand in case of attack.

True, if you haven't had swimmer's ear, you don't realize how painful it can be. I remember once I treated the mother of one of my patients for this, and it extended out onto the pinna (the part that sticks out of your head), and she needed to be admitted to the hospital for IV antibiotics and narcotics! She said that it was worse than childbirth...

The other thing about swimmer's ear is that it is usually made worse by impacted earwax, and if you don't have someone (preferably an ENT doctor with a microscope) clean it out first, all the drops in the world won't help...

 

[kmrEMTPRN]

thanks for these postings. helpful to me. have had bad sinus/allergy/ear/throat problems for past week, had 1 trip to immediate care (told sinus infection), 1 trip to ER with worst headache/ear pain of life (told sinus infection & headache) and have been on 2 antibiotics for past 4 days now... today followed up with my PMD (who is family med) after symptoms significantly WORSE. now told my eardrum is "bulging" and probably going to rupture, tonsils are swollen and have to follow up with ENT on monday. now starting 3rd antibiotic tomorrow, oral steroids, nasal steroid spray and narcotic pain meds...

this isn't sounding so good for my trip to cozumel in 3 weeks!!!!! my doc said I may be able to dive then, that the plane ride will probably dictate that. any ideas on how long to wait to resume diving... with or without TM rupture???

thanks

 

[kmrEMTPRN]

I suppose I should also mention this is NOT dive related...haven't been in the water since last october