Ear problems

[Johnboy70_99]

I'm looking for help here with my ear problems.

I think I have had problems equalizing in my left ear. I went through my first 70 dives with no major issues. I did notice that frequently after several dives within a few days my left ear felt full. I dismissed it as normal and continued diving.

At around my 70th dive, I encountered a major issue. I don't remember anything different about the dive, it seemed to be ok. But at one point I remember feeling a rush of water in the left ear, and loud ringing. When I got to the surface I felt dizzy and lost all hearing in that ear. I went to the ER, they said there looked like fluid in the ear, they gave me antibiotics, ant dizzy medication, and antihistamines. The dizziness went away mostly mostly later that day. Most of my hearing returned within a few days, except there is a sharp drop-off around 7k. I also have permanent tinnitus and some hypercuasis. I saw several ENTs over the next few months. One took a ct scan of the ear and everything looks normal. They suspected some sort of barotrauma had occurred. They cleared me to dive again.

I started diving again, shallow at first, then deeper. I try to clear my ears on almost every breath, using freznel, never valseuva which I think caused the initial issue.

Doing that for 10 dives or so of the course of a week, i had absolutely no problem with fullness or anything after I dove. My ears felt perfect, i was so excited I could dive again! But my right ear always seemed to clear easily, my left maybe was not.

On the next dive, we dove to 94 feet. Upon surfacing I heard a loud ringing, and distortion of loud noises. And I felt a little dizzy. I skipped diving the next day, amd the symptoms went away. I did another 8 dives or so over the next week and everything went fine.

Then it happened again. I got the dizziness and noise.

I feel like if I am really really careful equalizing, everything is ok. But my ear seems really sensitive to pressure changes.
I am on flonaise for 2 weeks before and during my dive trips. I also take afrin occasionally. They both seem to help. I also tried docs vented proplugs which made my ears warmer and lessened bubble noise, which was nice, but didn't really seem to help with my ear issue.

I realize that the safe thing to do is stop diving. I can go that route, but I really enjoy diving and would love to find a way to be able to equalize safely on every dive so that my "bad" left ear would feel as good as my "good" right ear that has never had a single problem. At the moment I am not enjoying diving because I am hyper focused on equalization and worried about permanently damaging my ears.

Any suggestions? DAN could not find an ent that is really familiar with diving that is near me (Boston MA)

 

[Scubagermany]

I would strongly suggest you stop diving until you figure out what is wrong!

 

[Chauncy B]

What do you do to clear/equalize your ears?

 

[Johnboy70_99]

I have been trying to do gently do freznel with almost every breath on descent. I stop doing it when I don't feel or hear a pop. I reliably get a pop in my right ear, but it's hard to tell if I get one in my left (bad) ear as well.

 

[hiker11]

I have been trying to do gently do freznel with almost every breath on descent. I stop doing it when I don't feel or hear a pop. I reliably get a pop in my right ear, but it's hard to tell if I get one in my left (bad) ear as well.

I'll be interested to follow this conversation as I have lots of (what I consider) minor ear problems. I’m not a medical person, but I thought my experience might be of interest.

Over the years (~250 dives), I have had temporary muffled hearing/ feeling of fullness after lots of diving. I’ve never worried about it and just assumed it was water in my ears or clogged ears-- it always went away after a few hours or so. A few years ago, I also had a bout of tinnitus after a dive trip. It lasted a month or so, but went away on its own. Two times, while cleaning my ears with a bulb syringe, I got very dizzy but it resolved after a few minutes. All these little things have gotten my attention but haven’t worried me too much.

Then a year ago, I perforated an ear drum on a dive trip. I didn't have dizziness or hearing loss from it, but someone noticed blood coming out my ear and a doc onboard diagnosed it after looking with their otoscope. Eight weeks later, after getting the go-ahead from my ENT, I went diving again. I’ve done ~75 dives since and had no problems. After the injury, I spent lots of time trying to figure out what went wrong on that dive vs previous dives. When it happened, it happened so fast that by the time I felt discomfort and paused to equalize, the injury had already happened. Basically, I decided I needed to be more intentional about equalizing before I needed to….’equalize early and often’ as they say.

Here's the point of my post: After my injury, someone along the way recommended that I equalize at home *between* trips-- a few times each day. They claimed that you can 'teach' your ears to equalize more easily. They were not a doctor (so who knows if the advice has any validity), but it's easy enough to do. So I equalize regularly (valsalva) whenever I think about it. And before a big trip, I do it frequently each day for at least a week. On the trip, I equalize in the boat on the ride out to dive site. I equalize on the surface before I descend. I equalize constantly as I descend. The more times the better— not due to anxiety, but just to be cautious. I also never, ever descend head-down. Here's the interesting thing I’ve learned with all that equalizing… I found that one ear doesn’t equalize as easily— but it’s the ear drum that *didn't* get injured (the ‘healthy’ ear). The perforated-eardrum-ear, equalizes very easily. The other one takes more work, always. Who knows why the ‘easy’ ear was the one that got injured that day!

I have always used Afrin before dives and thought my ENT or my allergist would object to that. Neither did. In fact, they both told me it was a good idea for me to routinely use it when diving. They said if you use a steroid spray immediately prior to Afrin, it mitigates the bounce-back that sometimes happens with regular use. I also use Ryaltris nightly for allergies as the steroid sprays don’t seem to help me.

I was unsure about responding to your post, as your symptoms of dizziness and hearing loss are more serious than mine. But perhaps something I’ve said has some value to you.

 

[kinoons]

I'm looking for help here with my ear problems.

I think I have had problems equalizing in my left ear. I went through my first 70 dives with no major issues. I did notice that frequently after several dives within a few days my left ear felt full. I dismissed it as normal and continued diving.

At around my 70th dive, I encountered a major issue. I don't remember anything different about the dive, it seemed to be ok. But at one point I remember feeling a rush of water in the left ear, and loud ringing. When I got to the surface I felt dizzy and lost all hearing in that ear. I went to the ER, they said there looked like fluid in the ear, they gave me antibiotics, ant dizzy medication, and antihistamines. The dizziness went away mostly mostly later that day. Most of my hearing returned within a few days, except there is a sharp drop-off around 7k. I also have permanent tinnitus and some hypercuasis. I saw several ENTs over the next few months. One took a ct scan of the ear and everything looks normal. They suspected some sort of barotrauma had occurred. They cleared me to dive again.

I started diving again, shallow at first, then deeper. I try to clear my ears on almost every breath, using freznel, never valseuva which I think caused the initial issue.

Doing that for 10 dives or so of the course of a week, i had absolutely no problem with fullness or anything after I dove. My ears felt perfect, i was so excited I could dive again! But my right ear always seemed to clear easily, my left maybe was not.

On the next dive, we dove to 94 feet. Upon surfacing I heard a loud ringing, and distortion of loud noises. And I felt a little dizzy. I skipped diving the next day, amd the symptoms went away. I did another 8 dives or so over the next week and everything went fine.

Then it happened again. I got the dizziness and noise.

I feel like if I am really really careful equalizing, everything is ok. But my ear seems really sensitive to pressure changes.
I am on flonaise for 2 weeks before and during my dive trips. I also take afrin occasionally. They both seem to help. I also tried docs vented proplugs which made my ears warmer and lessened bubble noise, which was nice, but didn't really seem to help with my ear issue.

I realize that the safe thing to do is stop diving. I can go that route, but I really enjoy diving and would love to find a way to be able to equalize safely on every dive so that my "bad" left ear would feel as good as my "good" right ear that has never had a single problem. At the moment I am not enjoying diving because I am hyper focused on equalization and worried about permanently damaging my ears.

Any suggestions? DAN could not find an ent that is really familiar with diving that is near me (Boston MA)

I agree with scubagermany, no diving until the issue is solved.

Perhaps we can get @Duke Dive Medicine to offer some additional insight, and he may be able to help with finding a ENT near Boston that is familiar with dive injuries.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

I'm looking for help here with my ear problems.

I think I have had problems equalizing in my left ear. I went through my first 70 dives with no major issues. I did notice that frequently after several dives within a few days my left ear felt full. I dismissed it as normal and continued diving.

At around my 70th dive, I encountered a major issue. I don't remember anything different about the dive, it seemed to be ok. But at one point I remember feeling a rush of water in the left ear, and loud ringing. When I got to the surface I felt dizzy and lost all hearing in that ear. I went to the ER, they said there looked like fluid in the ear, they gave me antibiotics, ant dizzy medication, and antihistamines. The dizziness went away mostly mostly later that day. Most of my hearing returned within a few days, except there is a sharp drop-off around 7k. I also have permanent tinnitus and some hypercuasis. I saw several ENTs over the next few months. One took a ct scan of the ear and everything looks normal. They suspected some sort of barotrauma had occurred. They cleared me to dive again.

I started diving again, shallow at first, then deeper. I try to clear my ears on almost every breath, using freznel, never valseuva which I think caused the initial issue.

Doing that for 10 dives or so of the course of a week, i had absolutely no problem with fullness or anything after I dove. My ears felt perfect, i was so excited I could dive again! But my right ear always seemed to clear easily, my left maybe was not.

On the next dive, we dove to 94 feet. Upon surfacing I heard a loud ringing, and distortion of loud noises. And I felt a little dizzy. I skipped diving the next day, amd the symptoms went away. I did another 8 dives or so over the next week and everything went fine.

Then it happened again. I got the dizziness and noise.

I feel like if I am really really careful equalizing, everything is ok. But my ear seems really sensitive to pressure changes.
I am on flonaise for 2 weeks before and during my dive trips. I also take afrin occasionally. They both seem to help. I also tried docs vented proplugs which made my ears warmer and lessened bubble noise, which was nice, but didn't really seem to help with my ear issue.

I realize that the safe thing to do is stop diving. I can go that route, but I really enjoy diving and would love to find a way to be able to equalize safely on every dive so that my "bad" left ear would feel as good as my "good" right ear that has never had a single problem. At the moment I am not enjoying diving because I am hyper focused on equalization and worried about permanently damaging my ears.

Any suggestions? DAN could not find an ent that is really familiar with diving that is near me (Boston MA)

It's hard to say for sure what happened but your description of the first event is consistent with barotrauma, possibly of the inner ear. Massachusetts Eye and Ear should have an ENT who can help you. DM sent.

Best regards,
DDM