Inner ear squeeze

[IvoryDiver]

I just got back from a diving trip in Cozumel...It was a lot of fun! On my last day of diving however, during a shallow dive (about 60 ft) I experienced a moment of dizziness while I was about to equalize. I felt fine for the rest of the dive and about an hour or so after the dive ended I started feeling dizzy again. The next day I went to the hospital and the doctor determined I had a Middle ear squeeze. He told me to take some ibuprofen every 8 hours (to decrease inflammation) and Claritin-D every 12 hours and aslo advised that I not dive for a couple of days. He explained to me that the squeeze had been cause from not equalizing frequently enough.
I now have a couple of questions:

1) How long will it take for the dizziness to go away? Although I do get some relief with the ibuprofen it seems to wear off pretty rapidly. It's been 4 days since the incident and 3 days since I've been on Ibuprofen and Claritin-D.

2) I am surprised that the middle ear squeeze was caused by not equalizing enough. I thought I equalized more often than the avereage person because I've had ear squeeze problems all my life (a lot of pain in the ears when I'm in a plane about to land). Should I be equalizing every second and how would that even be possible?

I would very much appreciate some input...advice, past experiences...

Dive Happy!

IvoryD

 

[liberato]

So, how did he determine you had an "inner ear squeeze" (whatever that is)? Is it safe to say he was not an ENT nor a diver? Was one of your ears more difficult to equalize that the other?

 

[IvoryDiver]

My mistake! it's supposed to be be "middle" ear squeeze. I made the change in my original post.

What is an ENT....the doctor I saw was a hyperbaric chamber doc so I'm assuming he is familiar with dive related conditions whether or not he is a diver.

He looked in my ears with an instrument (don't know what it's called). It's an intrument found in any doctor's office that is used to look in the ears. He explained that the condition had to do with fluid (and blood) moving into that part of the ear and not being able to move out i guess because of inflamation of the membranes ...(i'm not quoting him...I'm just telling you all I remember from what he said).

My left ear is always more difficult to equalize but i've not (yet) had a problem with not being able to equalize.

Dive happy!

IvoryD

So, how did he determine you had an "inner ear squeeze" (whatever that is)? Is it safe to say he was not an ENT nor a diver? Was one of your ears more difficult to equalize that the other?