Ear problems after dives

[Andrew Richardson]

Hi All;
Just got home from seeing a DAN referred Physician. He tells me I have strained my round window in my ear & that is the reason for the tinnitus & other symptoms. Off to see an ENT next. Sure hope this gets fixed befor Easter as we have booked a trip to Barbados to finish out open water course!

 

[Andrew Richardson]

Hi just got back from seeing a doctor I referred to through DAN. He diagnosed a strained round window. I found this site http://www.american-hearing.org/name/barotrauma.html#diagnosed really informative.

Those who don't get it - read! Basically - if you let the pressure build against the ear drum it hurts the inner ear. Blowing out hard can also hurt. Next stop is an ENT. Let's hope this clears by Easter as I just finished booking my open water checkout dives in Barbados.

All makes sense now but I did not get this message from my course!

 

[liberato]

You really need to isolate your drug reactions from your possible barotrauma symptoms. Your MD diagnosed the "strained round window" based mainly on your tinnitus complaint but it is somewhat vague. Try the drug combination again in a non-diving situation and see what your reaction is. If no similar reaction then that lends creedence to the inner ear barotrauma. What you don't ever want to hear is "perilymph fistula" (ruptured window) because your diving career is then pretty much over.

In the meantime, you should consider the injury very serious (but short of catastrophic) and treat it in the same fashion (take it easy, no grunt lifting, no hard blowing of the nose, no sudden load noises). As to recovery period, you should rely on your dive-aware physican for advice on that rather than your travel agent.

In any case, good luck and let us know how it goes. And I agree that more ear physiology needs to be taught in dive training. Most people do not even have a mental image of the structures and functions of the inner and middle ear.

 

[bmaber]

My 2 cents (I am not a Dr ) I have had many problems with my ears. Two things that help so far (still not sure I am cured).

I have my ears flushed by a nurse to get rid of earwax that can get compressed underwater and leave you with about a week of hearing reduction in one ear. The nurse says I have very hairy ears on the inside??

My Dr. also has me on Nasonex to relive my postnasal drip that may be preventing me from equalizing. I have had one successful dive under this treatment, but pre-treatment sometimes I got lucky and had no problems, so I am still not ready to say I am cured. I can tell you one thing, if you don’t clear your ear evenly you get really dizzy on assent and it is no fun to have a reg in your mouth and try to puke on a 15ft deco! :l:

 

[Andrew Richardson]

Cheers! Two things for you. One - I used Nasonex last fall & ended up with a yeast infection in my throat - keep the jokes to yourself! Two - to help with technical speak what I ended up having was Labyrinthitis. One of the symptoms is anxiety. So the drugs don't agree with me but what I thought was still the drugs was actually the ears. All the Doc's I saw kept asking me if I was dizzy. I felt no dizzyness, hearing test showed no hearing problems. Just sore ears (like I had been boxing), tinnitus, fullness, and anxiety. PS. No diving with Labyrinthitis cause the pressure makes things worse. If I inflate my middle ear, I got anxiety feelings. This will all pass & then I can dive again!!!