Ear Squeeze This Weekend

[Scubacoastie]

I thought I would share my first rookie move of my short diving life. This last weekend I went diving a site I had dove a few times before. This time it would be the first time doing a straight down decent to 60 ft. About half way I had ear pressure that soon turned to pain as I was having trouble clearing my ear. Instead of doing the right thing and ascending to clear I thought I could clear it before it became a problem. I was wrong. Monday I was told by a Doc that I had barotrauma in my left ear and was not to dive for a week at least. This could have been worse I could have ruptured my ear drum. I was lucky and from now on I am going to more careful so that something like this never happens again. :doh2:

 

[Steve50]

I thought I would share my first rookie move of my short diving life. This last weekend I went diving a site I had dove a few times before. This time it would be the first time doing a straight down decent to 60 ft. About half way I had ear pressure that soon turned to pain as I was having trouble clearing my ear. Instead of doing the right thing and ascending to clear I thought I could clear it before it became a problem. I was wrong. Monday I was told by a Doc that I had barotrauma in my left ear and was not to dive for a week at least. This could have been worse I could have ruptured my ear drum. I was lucky and from now on I am going to more careful so that something like this never happens again. :doh2:

Could you describe what action you took after you felt the pain that contributed, such as a more forceful clearing technique, or continue descending - and what symptoms you had that led you to the doctor. thanks for the post!

 

[Scubacoastie]

Could you describe what action you took after you felt the pain that contributed, such as a more forceful clearing technique, or continue descending - and what symptoms you had that led you to the doctor. thanks for the post!

I just keep using the Valsalva maneuver as I descended and finally my ear cleared. My ear hurt for about two hours after the dive and the dive shop owners' wife told me I probably squeezed it. So I had a Doc look at it to be sure and sure enough it was a mild squeeze.

 

[bamamedic]

I've done that before; had a bit of a cold, and forcibly cleared all the way down. What was kind of disconcerting, was that every time I made a change in depth, I could feel the air hissing in/out of my swollen Eustachian tubes! Wound up with some mild barotrauma to my left ear, which resolved with Sudafed and Ibuprofen. Moral of the story: Ear pain is bad

 

[RonFrank]

I don't think many new divers take this advice to heart. I clear before I even gear up just to make sure I can. I clear at the surface, and clear a lot during the decent before I feel pressure.

If you feel pressure, attempt to clear, and can not, arrest the descent. If you still can not clear, ascend, and continue trying to clear until it works. If you can not clear, and hit the surface, it maybe time to call the dive.

Ears can take some abuse, but the end result of such abuse will be barotrauma or worst. There is no shame in calling a dive.

 

[Scubacoastie]

Just saw the Doc today he says everything is healing fine and should be able to dive in a few days. Man I can tell you that this is one lesson learned. I will never keep diving if I can not fully clear my ears.

 

[apertyx]

Or your sinuses! Man -- that's like an icepick through your head! Glad you learned the lesson: I wonder how many others have said, "It's ok - I can handle it!" And made things worse....

 

[pollywogg]

On one of my first few dives, I started to feel pressure in my ear as we descended. I cleared as usual, but at around 35 feet, it just was not clearing. I ascended until the pressure was relieved, waited a minute, and started again with my descent, paying special attention to clearing my ears on the way down...I ended up paying attention only to clearing. As, I got back to around 35 feet, I was still feeling the pressure, but, as I had been overly trying to clear all the way down, I didn't realize it. All of a sudden, the pressure got sharp, then there was relief, and warmth. I continued the dive, mainly out of not wanting to be a....wussy, but also because I was comfortable at that point. My hearing in my right ear was pretty much shot for about 3 days, but then, one day, I woke up, and had kind of a gross mess on the pillow....My hearing had never felt better. Lessons Learned: Don't pay too much attention to any one element, Don't try to clear too hard(if it doesn't work soft, blowing hard will just hurt you), and if you don't feel right, just scrub the damn dive...oy yeah, and try to learn a lesson from everything you do in life, just try to make sure you survive to benefit.

 

[Lee Taylor]

I know you will find this hard to beleive, but, there is a positive side to ear squeeze. The opposite of ear squeeze is called "reverse block". The positive side to ear squeeze is that it is much easier to remedy than reverse block. One can stop their decent when experiencing ear squeeze. They can even return to the surface. When experiencing reverse block, one cannot go to the surface without risk of ear drum rupture. As you might guess, you have a limited supply of air and you must, sooner or later, return to the surface. The only remedy I have found to date for reverse block, is tilting ones head side to side as if trying to put the ear on the shoulder. Use ear clearing techniques until air passes through the eustation tube. My recommendation on ear squeeze is to start clearing your ears long before splashing in, and do an extremely slow decent. Stop and start an assent immediately given the first sign of pain. Do not proceed with the decent until you manage to pass air into the inner ear by way of the eustation tube. Barotrama takes months to heal and will ruin a complete dive season. Its better to lose one dive to squeeze problems, than to lose a complete season.

ps: Ever noticed old divers say "huh" a lot. They can't hear worth a flip.

 

[Steve50]

ps: Ever noticed old divers say "huh" a lot. They can't hear worth a flip.

I've never noticed that - perhaps I just can't hear them