Left ear feels plugged.

[flots am]

If it's water it might be more similar to swimmers ear. You can drip rubbing alcohol in there, which will join with the water to make enough liquid to pour out of your ear. Then the alcohol will dry the rest up.

If it's inner ear congestion, maybe try a neti-pot before and after.

This is actually a bad idea, unless the OP knows exactly what's going on. Alcohol can cause damage if the eardrum is perforated and it gets into the inner ear.

The various "ear" formulas are nice to use after dives to prevent infections in the outer ear, but are bad news if there's a possibility that the eardrum isn't intact.

flots.

 

[canadianmikey]

I've never had (that I've know) water come out of the ear. It has just felt plugged up for between a couple of hours to a day afterwards. I'm planning on trying different methods to equalize, as well as equalizing more often. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

 

[kentiler]

My ears tend to build up lots of wax, and I have a similar feeling. I have to have my ears irrigated by a doctor when this happens. Debrox doesn't work well by itself for me. As soon as the irrigation is over, my ears feel normal. It's a great instant relief. I have my own irrigation set now that I take with me diving.

 

[Rooster59]

I'm certainly NOT any medical person. One of my ears will hold water a lot longer than the other.

This always works to get water out of your ear- 1) stand on one leg, the same leg as the ear. 2) bend sideways at the waist and grab a couch back, etc. for support. Your head will be sideways with your wet ear aimed at the floor. 3) "donkey kick" to straighten your free leg as many times as it takes to make the water pop out of your ear (10 or so). The kicks are a couple seconds apart.

I've never had barotrauma so I know nothing about that.