Ears Ringing

[bluesrocker22]

All,
I hope someone on here might be able to point us in the right direction.

My girlfriend and I dive 4 weeks per year, and have been going every six months to the Florida Keys for several years. We make dives from 20 feet to 120 feet normally. My girlfriend HAS had problems equalizing in past dives (sinus congestion issues), but I never have. I use patches for seasickness (and Bonine) and my girlfriend uses Bonine intermittently. Now, we are BOTH suffering from ringing in the ears. It is very strange, we can both "feel" fluid in our ears (intermittently) when we lie down (but no liquid ever comes out of the outer ears). My only guess is that there is liquid in the middle ear? Now I have had ringing for many years due to exposure to high noise levels in the USAF, but this new level is an entirely different animal. One thing that makes this hard is one cannot "quantify" the ringing (i.e. how bad is my ringing vs. my girlfriend's ringing?). I have always assumed that if I do not feel discomfort while descending, then I am equalizing often enough? Should we be equalizing more often while descending and ascending? I am assuming that whatever has happened is probably permanent, but I hope not. I am 53 years old (my girlfriend is much younger), so perhaps I am seeing normal progression of ringing from aging? I have tried the ENT thing, but they just looked in my outer ears and said "looks fine" and charged me $100. Since this can be PHYSICAL or NERVE or the little hairs or bones in the ears, I am lost as to how to narrow this down. Any input really appreciated.

 

[Wookie]

You probably have liquid in the middle ear and eustation tube. Give a Benedryl a try and see if you can't dry them out. I have this problem more and more as I get older, I used to have such large eustation tubes I didn't even have to clear. Now, I feel "full" for a day following a dive, although I don't get tinnitus. Anyway, give a benedryl a try and see if it doesn't dry you out.

 

[100days-a-year]

You have a girlfriend much younger than you,what's the problem?
Seriously, I use the knockoff Afrin spray before every day of diving and occasionally in the afternoon. My ears are beat from turbine engines,diesels,loud music,diving,wind,cold, childhood fevers,different size eustatian tubes,motorcycles and being married.

 

[BoltSnap]

You should make this post in the dive medicine section of SB so that medical people including Duke Medical can give you guidance on where to start to seek proper diagnoses and then remedy or cure.

 

[flyboy08]

Your tinnitus sounds different due to the water in your ear....see a real doc.

 

[Johanan]

I always had some "ringing" in the ears but it got notably louder after last few dives. Could it really be from trapped water somewhere in the ears?

 

[bluesrocker22]

It is very strange. We are going to dry and "dry out" the inner ears with Benedryl and see what happens. Please keep in touch Johanan because we would REALLY like to figure this out.

 

[TMHeimer]

I never give medical advice. Will say that I have a friend with tinnitus all the time who doesn't dive. I get it on very rare occasions, but never got it after a dive. Some say it has to do with teaching Band (constant loud noises). Doubt that helps, unless proving what you have is not real tinnitus.

 

[Moor3061]

I had similiar symptoms last year after I pushed an ear too hard that was having trouble equalizing following a cold. I visited the Dr who diagnosed fluid in the ear, recommending I take sudafed for 10days to clear it up.

 

[fmerkel]

Benedryl won't dry out your inner ears. It may make YOU feel kind of dried out as a normal side effect, but won't materially affect exudate in the middle ear.
Sudafed may help IF swelling/inflammation is part of the problem. Prednisone will help most but that's prescription and most physicians won't Rx it without a visit and a good reason.Mostly it's simply time and normal healing that will fix it.

If indeed you do have fluid in the INNER ear, not the outer ear canal, then you most likely got it by over pressurizing the middle ear space. You do that with pressure stress, either inadequate equalization, or over active (forced) equalization. The body reacts to both with leakage out of the cellular structures and vasculature. That's a VERY complex and delicate anatomy in there, not just a space with some fluid pooling and needing to be drained out. All kinds of tiny little parts get traumatized.

Unfortunately doing that routinely puts a lot of stress on the ear components. Whether the tinnitus is caused by this, or is being aggravated on top of old insults is somewhat moot in my opinion. You only have one set of ears, they will get worse as you age, and I'd recommend you take as good care of them as you can.

I dive almost every weekend and have been doing that for 20 years. I just got back from a 3-4 dives/day trip. I'm VERY careful about clearing. Even with that there were a couple days I felt a bit puffy and full in the ears after a whole day of diving that hard. When you go from no diving > diving hard you are going to stress your ears unless you are one of those rare people blessed with wide open Eustachian canals. I've seen a lot of experienced weekend divers have ear problems on dive vacations.

It's hard to give up dives when you have a lot invested in a dive vacation. Sometimes you have to think about the long term consequences.