How to speed up inner ear recovery?

[OldNSalty]

Is there anything I can do?

I am a week into recovering from an inner ear infection. The ENT prescribed a 16 day course of Prednisone, some antibiotics (which I have blown through) and Mucinex. He told me I could go diving again just as soon as I can hear/equalize. My wife goes for her final check out dives in about 6 days and I so want to go with her.

I feel that if I could just get my ears cleared one good time I would be OK. I have been chewing gum like crazy, heating pad on the ear, even massaging around the ear until it is soar. I can manage to get it clear by mid morning but it only last until I take a breath and then it clogs back up again. One of the problems is that I also tend to sleep on the same side as my ear infection and I have constant drainage through out the night (always have) and so any ground I gain during the day, going to bed almost able to hear, is lost by sunrise.

Today, I am going to try some spicy food and see if I can open up my sinus even more. I thought about a pseudofed but I would think that will mess with the Mucinex.

So how about it, any home remedies that people have had luck with?

 

[Agility]

I suspect you are talking about a middle ear infection in which case you could try snifffing sterile salt water.
You should certainly not dive before equalization is secured

 

[OldNSalty]

Yes-sorry. It is a middle ear infection. You are correct. I don't really know the difference but that is what he said now that you mentioned it. I'll try the salt water.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I am not a doctor, did not stay at a Holiday Inn, or read Wikipedia on this. What I am is an instructor that several years ago as DM had a reverse block that paralyzed the right side of my face for a week, had my right eye semi swollen shut for two days, had me on 800mg of ibuprofen 3-4 times a day for 4 days for the pain and swelling, and that took the numbness and tingling a full three weeks to resolve completely. While it was the result of sudafed wearing off so I could dive with MINOR sinus congestion to help an instructor with 8 students it still scared the sh!t out of me and taught a valuable lesson. Any impediment to equalizing is bad. Very bad. And not worth the risk for any reason except maybe of I had to pull my son or GF out of a wreck underwater they were trapped in. Not worth the risk just to go on their OW checkouts or even get in the pool.

 

[OldNSalty]

I agree 100% with you Jim. I am not looking for a way to dive while I can't equalize. I am just looking for a way to help speed up the healing over the next few days if that is possible...you know, get this gunk out of the ear. I am trying coffee and cough drops, anything to open up that tube to get it to drain.

By the way, scary story...I mean, wow...that is a good one to share.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I wish I could help with the middle ear thing but my remedy for speeding up clearing the sinuses is probably not going to help. Thing that works best for me a big steaming bowl of Chinese Hot and Sour soup. Doubt though it'd do anything for your ear. However the drainage at night is interesting. Is this draining out of the ear or internally. One thing I do occasionally as I have problems from time to time with wax bulid up is a warm water rinse of the ear canal followed by my alcohol, peroxide, white vinegar drops. Check with your ENT but a warm rinse may help loosen things up and speed the draining. At worst your ears will be clean. Back in the old days my mom would put a dab of vicks vapo rub under our nose. That seemed to break stuff up quick. Especially at night.

 

[doctormike]

This gets brought up on a regular basis (gotta write a sticky someday!), but just to clarify...

1) Outer ear problems are things like earwax and swimmer's ear. They are treated by cleaning of the outer ear canal (best done by an ENT doc with a microscope), and by putting drops in the canal (antibiotic, antibiotic/steroid, homemade remedies, etc... )

2) Middle ear problems are things like ear infections that you take antibiotics for (rarely seen in adults) or barotrauma (fluid behind the eardrum from diving, flying, etc..). There is virtually no overlap between middle and outer ear problems except that they can both cause ear pain/fullness/hearing loss. Occasionally a perforated eardrum from middle ear disease can cause drainage which can lead to swimmer's ear.

3) Inner ear problems you can pretty much forget about for the purposes of this discussion. Rarely an issue with diving, unless you have a perilymph fistula (leakage of inner ear fluid into the middle ear), or inner ear DCI. This is the one that can give you permanent deafness, but not very common even if your profile involves a DCI risk. Usually associated with severe vertigo.

SO, the best thing to do if you are having ear pain, fullness or hearing loss after diving is to have someone who knows what they are looking at check out your ear, and possibly do an audiogram. If you really have middle ear fluid (barotrauma), then the same sort of gentle equalization techniques seen in this video can help..

Steroids can help, antibiotics/decongestant really don't, although a lot of people think that they do. Hard to give specific advice without seeing your ear...

Good luck, feel free to PM me if you want a local referral for an ear doc...

Safe diving!

Mike