Muffled ear after cert dives

[Doby45]

Perzactly!

 

[Chris Fotache]

If you start having any fever, malaise, or increased pain you should see a physician. Occasionally these turn into a middle ear infection. Antibiotics are seldom required.

Yes, that's my main concern, a possible infection (assuming that's lake water that's trapped in there, so probably not the most clean water possible). But isn't that usually treated with antibiotics?

 

[Doby45]

If you will regularly be diving in fresh water that does not have a current, like lakes and quarries, I would recommend you using ear beer after your dives. That is a 50/50 mix of alcohol and white vinegar. This will help kill bad things that might want to hang out in your ear.

 

[Dan]

Another rookie's problem is buoyancy. By going up & down like a yo-yo underwater, you are flexing that eardrums quite a bit. The pressure swing would force the water in your waterlogged sinuses to get into your middle ear passages. Another thing that I learnt early was to get the buoyancy set before I proceed on the dive once I get to the bottom, to the point of your body is moving up & down due to only by your breathing (assuming there is no current messing up your buoyancy in the water), not by inflating & deflating your BCD constantly.

 

[guruboy]

I am not a doctor.

It's possible you had mild barotrauma and your inner ear has filled with some fluid. I think this usually clears itself up after a couple weeks.

I think main thing is to go see a doctor if you feel any pain, possibly due to getting an infection or something.

 

[Chris Fotache]

If you will regularly be diving in fresh water that does not have a current, like lakes and quarries, I would recommend you using ear beer after your dives. That is a 50/50 mix of alcohol and white vinegar. This will help kill bad things that might want to hang out in your ear.

You just pour that in your ear? Is this something I should consider doing it now? (I read about alcohol, didn't know about the mix).

 

[Chris Fotache]

Another rookie's problem is buoyancy. By going up & down like a yo-yo underwater, you are flexing that eardrums quite a bit. The pressure swing would force the water in your waterlogged sinuses to get into your middle ear passages. Another thing that I learnt early was to get the buoyancy set before I proceed on the dive once I get to the bottom, to the point of your body is moving up & down due to only by your breathing, assuming there are no current in the water, not by inflating & deflating your BCD constantly.

I agree 100%, but the first 2 dives, when the problems started, were just skills done on a platform 30 feet deep. So all within 4-5 feet variation. But every time, once I got past around 25 feet, and managed to fully equalize, I had no issue.

And the reason I fully agreed is that my buoyance is completely off. Maybe that's normal when you're doing your very first dives. It was easy to adjust with a reference (they had lines set up in the quarry between all the features / attractions), but when we did the compass navigation in an area with little visibility, on the last dive, it was a mess (first time, we dove 15 feet straight into the bottom; second, we ended up on the surface; 3rd time was a charm)

 

[Doby45]

You just pour that in your ear? Is this something I should consider doing it now? (I read about alcohol, didn't know about the mix).

If you already have water in your inner ear that will do nothing for ya. I use a dropper and place a few drops in each ear after the last dive of the day.

 

[fmerkel]

I'd say your Google-fu isn't working very well today or you haven't actually read my links.

I SERIOUSLY doubt you have water in your OUTER ear. I don't know why folks insist on posting about 'ear beer' when you obviously have a middle ear barotrauma. Using ear beer for a middle ear issue won't hurt, but absolutely will not help.

The stuff in your INNER EAR is NOT lake water, it's effusion from your own body due to the extreme pressure differential. Think of it like a blister. It's sterile to start and as long as it drains out OK > no problem. But it is connected to your throat via the Eustachian canal and that is not a sterile body space.

 

[Doby45]

You are the one that apparently is unable to read the post directly before yours.

I never said "ear beer" would do anything in the world for a middle ear barotrauma. The OP stated a concern about infections caused by "lake" water and that is where the ear beer came into the discussion. We were simply discussing more than one topic at the same time.