Eardrum problems...

[baby jesus]

So I've been diving for years under widely varying conditions, depths, peoples ect... I've never had any health problems related to diving (except for emotional trauma when my dry time lasts too long).

This changed on my last dive. It had been a couple of months since I'd been in the water. I went for a night dive in San Diego to hunt for lobster (success by the way, 5 bugs!). The dive never went below 25 feet and lasted about 40 minutes. I did have some navigational problems due to the zero visiability, the ridiculous amount of kelp, and the ripping surge. I had to surface twice during the dive (both times from around 20') to get my bearings. Both times I made a reasonable slow ascent.

I never had any problems clearing my ears nor did I have any pain at any time... However, my ear drums bothered me for the next three days. It wasn't a painful situation. The best way I can describe it is this: it was as if someone had stretched out my eardrums and they never came back. I would hear a weird echo when I talked, and I could imagine feeling my eardrums move when I chewed, inhaled deeply, moved my jaw....ect.... It was a very strange sensation that is only now abating. Like I said, never painful at anytime.

I wish I knew what was going on Any ideas? Need any more info?

 

[rmediver2002]

It sound like the sensation of fullness in your ears, caused by fluid (blood) retained in your middle ear after a barotrauma.

It is possible, especially when diving relatively shallow (greater volume change) and alternating your depth while following bottom contours or structure to forget to clear. The minor variations in depth are often not sufficient to cause any sort of pain indicating you need to clear your ears, the minor pressure differential left unequalized will draw blood / tissue into the middle ear space to equalize the pressure...

I know during pool dives or even on decent in an airplane it is pretty common...

How long has it taken to go away?

Hope your soon feeling better,

Jeff Lane

 

[baby jesus]

its been about three days now and the sensation is almost completely gone. Obviously I will be more careful with my clearing for future shallow dives, but is this something that I need to worry about for the next dive? I'm hoping to go again soon (perhaps this weekend...).


the word baratrauma makes me queasy by the way.. :wacko:

 

[Bob3]

If you've taken sudafed in the past & you tolerate it, start dosing yourself up the day before the dive & then the day of diving. 12 hour version works best, less chance of having it wear off during the dive.
Clear often & early.

 

[pipedope]

Is excessive ear wax.
I get that kind of problem if I have a buildup of ear wax.

A quick look in the ears will let you know.
I need to clean excess wax from my ears now and then.

If you continue to have the problem, see a good doc.

 

[ScubaCollin]

I always thought clearing your ears of wax was a bad idea, it can form a plug in your ear, kinda like wearing earplugs.

 

[pipedope]

You are right that cleaning all of the wax out of your ears is a bad idea.
At the same time too much ear wax can form a plug that can be pressed against the ear drum by pressure during a dive. This is painful and makes my already poor hearing really really bad.

I have been taught by my Dr. how to tell when the wax is building up and how to clean it out.

The best trick is to see a good ENT and find out the exact problem and how to deal with it. Once you have a handle on it you can manage the problem (if it is managable) and go back to the Doc if something is different.