Jersey
Contributor
Had an ear situation arise couple weeks back. Did a few nice tropical Bonaire dives, 60'ish foot range, 45 - 60 minutes in warm (80F) water. Noticed a bit of water in right ear after second dive. After third dive, noticed water in ear and diminished hearing which I attributed to water. Put a bit of alcohol-peroxide-water mix in ear and went to bed. By morning I had significant hearing issues, maybe 10% remained - I couldn't hear waves crashing standing next to them in right ear. No pain, no swelling, no redness, no issues clearing. But I was very concerned. Drove to the Hospital clinic at 9:25A, couple quick questions and I had a 10:15 appointment. At precisely 10;10 Doctor brought me back, I explained the situation, he took a look and said it looked like cotton stuck in there. That would be impossible as I don't use cotton in my ears, but he indicated they would irrigate it. Waited about 5 minutes for the tech, filled the irrigator with warm water and flushed. Immediately out came clumps of dead skin, about 1.5 X 2cm, they were big. She repeated the process 3 times and each time a clump came out. As they flushed out, my hearing returned to normal. I left at 10:45 with a script for some steroid drops and instructions to stay dry for a day or 2 to let the ear calm down. Awesome experience in the Clinic. Resumed diving after a day and half and had no issues remainder of trip.
Anyone seen this before? I can find reference to skin growing in middle ear - Cholesteatoma - but not external canal. It was not wax buildup, it was skin. The tech had never seen this before and we both thought it was pretty gross.
The only thing I think of was during my last multi day-dive trip October 2021, end of trip started water in ear issues, then developed a pretty bad head-chest cold post trip that required some meds to resolve. Felt like my hearing in right ear was impaired after that > little things like I could sleep through my alarm if my right ear was closest to alarm. At the time I wrote that off to normal aging process, but maybe it was just skin covering the eardrum.
All told, doc visit + script = $85, missed 5 or 6 dives, no residual effects, and thankfully I can continue diving. That was my big concern - they would look at me and say 'your diving days are done'. I will be scheduling an ENT visit just to follow up.
Anyone seen this before? I can find reference to skin growing in middle ear - Cholesteatoma - but not external canal. It was not wax buildup, it was skin. The tech had never seen this before and we both thought it was pretty gross.
The only thing I think of was during my last multi day-dive trip October 2021, end of trip started water in ear issues, then developed a pretty bad head-chest cold post trip that required some meds to resolve. Felt like my hearing in right ear was impaired after that > little things like I could sleep through my alarm if my right ear was closest to alarm. At the time I wrote that off to normal aging process, but maybe it was just skin covering the eardrum.
All told, doc visit + script = $85, missed 5 or 6 dives, no residual effects, and thankfully I can continue diving. That was my big concern - they would look at me and say 'your diving days are done'. I will be scheduling an ENT visit just to follow up.
