How long after ear infection to dive?

[carolrose]

I helped out with a pool session for an open water class last Thursday, and did six dives over the weekend. Yesterday my left ear was feeling a little stuffy after the last dive, and it burned when I used Swim Ear after (OTC product w/alcohol etc to dry ears). This morning my ear was a little sore so I made a dr appointment for tonight. By the time that rolled around, it hurt to touch pretty much anything on that side of my head. I have a double ear infection and the doc said my eardrum actually looks green--lovely. I was given ear drops and an oral antibiotic.

The thing is, I am supposed to leave on Thursday for a weekend trip to cave country. So how quickly do these things usually clear up to the point you can dive again? I have a set of pro plugs that I've dived with before when I had stuffyness in the ears, but I couldn't even put them in right now. I hate to cancel my trip if things should be fine by then, but it would suck royally to be 5 minutes from Peacock and unable to dive. Any advice?

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi Carolyn,

No fun.

Your treating physician seems to be in the best position to advise on this matter.

Based on the total description, most diving medicine doctors very likely would recommend passing on SCUBA, and even snorkeling or swimming, until the infection entirely resolves.

Regards,

DocVikingo

This is educational only and does not constitute or imply a doctor-patient relationship. It is not medical advice.

 

[DandyDon]

DocVikingo has already given you excellent profession advice and my amateur posting here is offered to help in learning from the problem, ok...?

I helped out with a pool session for an open water class last Thursday, and did six dives over the weekend. Yesterday (Sunday) my left ear was feeling a little stuffy after the last dive, and it burned when I used Swim Ear after (OTC product w/alcohol etc to dry ears). This morning (Monday) my ear was a little sore so I made a dr appointment for tonight. By the time that rolled around, it hurt to touch pretty much anything on that side of my head. I have a double ear infection and the doc said my eardrum actually looks green--lovely. I was given ear drops and an oral antibiotic.

I take it that you did not use alcohol after Thursdays or Saturdays dives, not until discomfort was felt on Sunday? I don't know why I didn't get ear infections for so many years of swimming, but I do now if I don't use that prophylactic treatment every day of diving. I use the popular alcohol-vinegar mix. When I have had ear infections, the combination of oral antibiotic and ear drops with additional antibiotic and steroid pain killer both (I think) worked much better for me than without the drops - probly because of removing the pain. My practice now is to use the mix after every dive and shower of a diving day minimum.

The thing is, I am supposed to leave on Thursday for a weekend trip to cave country. So how quickly do these things usually clear up to the point you can dive again? I have a set of pro plugs that I've dived with before when I had stuffyness in the ears, but I couldn't even put them in right now. I hate to cancel my trip if things should be fine by then, but it would suck royally to be 5 minutes from Peacock and unable to dive. Any advice?

I hope you have trip insurance to remove the financial pain if you have to cancel. If not, explain to the airline and others why you have to so as to lessen your losses. You might heal fast enough for this, but I would be pessimistic.

good luck!

 

[carolrose]

Thank you guys for the replies.

DD, to answer your questions, I generally don't use the alcohol mix unless I feel like I have water in my ears because I find it dries out my ears too much to the point that they are actually itchy, and that's very annoying. I recently read that you can add I believe it's glycerin to the ear beer mix to make it less drying, but I haven't done it yet--lesson learned.


The regular doc said it should be fine, but they don't know anything about diving, so I'm going to see my DAN recommended ENT today and hoping for some good news.

As for trip insurance, I do not have it outside of what is included in my DAN policy because this is a very inexpensive weekend trip. All I've paid so far is the 200 bucks for my airfare. My car rental and accomodation can be cancelled without penalty with 24 hour advance notice, and I'm still outside that window.

 

[DandyDon]

Oh, okay - thot you were going to Mexico. Good luck.