BigDaddyEd
Registered
Good news!
My wife and I completed our OW cert the first weekend of May in Paamul, Mexico with a dive shop called Scuba Mex. Great people, great dive sites. Rick was especially good with my anxiety ridden wife. I can't wait to go back.
Bad news. I wound up with a perforated ear drum and a very nasty middle ear infection, from which I am still trying to recover. The first dive on Friday was uneventful (from an ear standpoint, AWESOME from a diving standpoint!). I experienced a slight pressure in my frontal sinus, ascended a few ft., equalized and completed the dive with no problem.
After dive #2, I noticed a sense of fullness in my ear. No pain, just felt like there was water in there. At 2 AM, I awoke with an intense pain in my ear. At this point, I thought I would probably skip dives #3 & 4 and try again at a later date. At breakfast, I shared my symptoms with 3 divers who all had over 20 years experience and they convinced me that I probably was suffering from a reverse squeeze and the best thing to do would be to try to dive again to release the pressure in my middle ear.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I completed dives #3 & 4 with no increase in pain and actually felt much better immediately after completing the final dive. After showering, I noticed a small amount of blood in my ear canal. I didn't notice any blood in the ear canal prior to dives #3 & 4.
We flew home, saw an ENT, confirmed ear drum perforation, infection and complete deafness in my left ear. I have been on antibiotics (ear drops and oral), added a steroid after the infection caused such a build up of pressure in my middle ear that I started suffering from muscle weakness in half of my face, and finally had a tube inserted in my ear drum to relieve the pressure. I'm still not completely out of the woods yet. I do know that I won't be diving any time soon.
Does it make sense that my ear drum ruptured in my sleep at 2 AM after dive #2? I believe I screwed up by trying to perform a Valsalva when I felt slight pressure on ascending during dive #2. I believe that dives #3 & 4 ensured that my middle ear infection would be a 'raging' one, as my ENT describes it.
Unfortunately, I've always been one of those macho, no pain, no gain kind of guys. This time it really jumped up and bit me on the derriere. One other question. Have any of you gone through something like this and if so, how long before you tried diving again? My ENT, who is not a diver, sez if he were me, he would give up diving. I'm hoping that isn't the answer. I know I shouldn't have attempted dives #3 & 4. Hopefully, someone can learn from my folly.
My wife and I completed our OW cert the first weekend of May in Paamul, Mexico with a dive shop called Scuba Mex. Great people, great dive sites. Rick was especially good with my anxiety ridden wife. I can't wait to go back.Bad news.
I wound up with a perforated ear drum and a very nasty middle ear infection, from which I am still trying to recover. The first dive on Friday was uneventful (from an ear standpoint, AWESOME from a diving standpoint!). I experienced a slight pressure in my frontal sinus, ascended a few ft., equalized and completed the dive with no problem. After dive #2, I noticed a sense of fullness in my ear. No pain, just felt like there was water in there. At 2 AM, I awoke with an intense pain in my ear. At this point, I thought I would probably skip dives #3 & 4 and try again at a later date. At breakfast, I shared my symptoms with 3 divers who all had over 20 years experience and they convinced me that I probably was suffering from a reverse squeeze and the best thing to do would be to try to dive again to release the pressure in my middle ear.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I completed dives #3 & 4 with no increase in pain and actually felt much better immediately after completing the final dive. After showering, I noticed a small amount of blood in my ear canal. I didn't notice any blood in the ear canal prior to dives #3 & 4.
We flew home, saw an ENT, confirmed ear drum perforation, infection and complete deafness in my left ear. I have been on antibiotics (ear drops and oral), added a steroid after the infection caused such a build up of pressure in my middle ear that I started suffering from muscle weakness in half of my face, and finally had a tube inserted in my ear drum to relieve the pressure. I'm still not completely out of the woods yet. I do know that I won't be diving any time soon.
Does it make sense that my ear drum ruptured in my sleep at 2 AM after dive #2? I believe I screwed up by trying to perform a Valsalva when I felt slight pressure on ascending during dive #2. I believe that dives #3 & 4 ensured that my middle ear infection would be a 'raging' one, as my ENT describes it.
Unfortunately, I've always been one of those macho, no pain, no gain kind of guys. This time it really jumped up and bit me on the derriere. One other question. Have any of you gone through something like this and if so, how long before you tried diving again? My ENT, who is not a diver, sez if he were me, he would give up diving. I'm hoping that isn't the answer. I know I shouldn't have attempted dives #3 & 4. Hopefully, someone can learn from my folly.
