ouch ear hurts

[Rooster1]

Buddy and I drove down to Bowling Green Ohio to do some quarry diving (first for me) we were doing multiple dives for the day. First dive A ok no problems max depth 50 ft second dive max depth 50ft ok til half way I feel a bit of pain in right ear, I equalize a few times and all seems ok. During surface interval we are just about ready to go in go for third dive and i still feel a little bit of pain, but I think it is nothing major. We head down the rock wall going to look at a bus and silo down at 50 feet, I start to feel pain in right ear when I go down and sometimes when I ascend a bit... needless to say 30 mins later I abort dive pain is really become more then a little and could get serious. I am not sure if it has anything to do with me wearing a hood. I usually never dive with a hood but these Ohio Quarries ar cold . On surface pain is being felt and my right ear pops a few times and it is painful, on the ride home it pops a few more times. Any advice and what exactly happened?? I wont be diving for a few days anyway, but am wondering exactly what happened?

 

[Ghost.Diver]

Had a similar problem on a dive a couple months back. When my buddy and I decended, I was having difficulty equalizing. Got down to about 15' still having a problem with my left ear. Tried all the methods, nothing worked. Finally I reach up and pulled my ear lobe down. OH MY GOD was all I thought. Felt like someone jabbed a hot poker in my ear! I experienced a very sudden case of vertigo, all I kept thinking was I really cant be swimming around that fast... Once I focused and got a hold of my buddy, I was fine, or so I thought. Did the dive no problem. Ear did hurt a little but nothing that I hadnt felt before.
Once I got home that night I was in so much pain I thought I was going to break down and get my wife to take me to the ER. Keep in mind, I dont go to hospitals much less ER's. (after my m/c wreck all I wanted to do was go home and fix my bike!) Pain subsided that night, came back next night.
Couple weeks after that I did go to the doctor for something work related. Told her what had happened (she's a diver also) and suggested that it might have been some type of wax block. She checked my ears, no rips tears, infection, etc. More than likely it was a wax block and when I pulled on my ear, it was like a one way valve. Water rushed in under pressure, hit my eardrum and forced the wax back against the ear canal.

In no way am I suggesting a course of action for you or indicating should follow what I did. What I did was wrong in most respects.

Severe ear pain after diving = seek medical attention asap
Drainage from ear = seek medical attention asap
Do not put anything in ear (swimmers ear, wax remover, etc) if pain in ear

I did not seek medical attention and I did put chemicals in my ear. In most respects I was lucky. I did this on my own and do not recommend anyone follow my example.

Plain and simple; ear pain = seek out medical attention.

 

[BillP]

Rooster1 once bubbled...
I ... am wondering exactly what happened?

Howdy Rooster1:

I'm afraid that it's virtually impossible to tell any individual exactly what happened to them based on a description on an Internet message board. But most of the time ear pain while diving is caused by middle ear barotrauma. Middle ear barotrauma is the most common malady in diving medicine. It occurs when the air pressure across the eardrum is not equalized. This can happen "from the inside" of the eardrum when the diver does not equalize his ears because of a blocked eustachian tube or because of improper technique. Middle ear barotrauma can also arise because of a problem "from the outside" of the eardrum due to an obstruction of the ear canal from a hood (as you suggest), from earwax (as TxDeepDiver describes), or from foreign bodies such as unvented earplugs. Blocking the outer ear canal creates an airspace that cannot be equalized as long as the canal is blocked.

There is a great deal of information available in the archives of this forum on ears and barotrauma, its signs/symptoms, prevention (including dealing with hoods), and treatment. Entering "ear" and/or "barotrauma", etc. in the board's search engine will probably help you out. Also, scubadoc has some info about ear problems and diving on his site at:

http://www.scuba-doc.com/entprobs.html

HTH,

Bill

The above information is intended for discussion purposes only and is not meant as specific medical advice for any individual.

 

[ScubaJorgen]

In the line of TxDeepDiver's advise: Advise from my doctor:

You can put anything into your ear as long as it is your elbow.


I usually don't have any problem clearing ears :ears: (even when I have a cold). I clear ears every half a meter or so. However, after a week of 3 dives a day in Egypt, a number of ascents went not so good. An immediate, acute pain occured (the TxDeepDiver hot poker effect I guess). It occurred close to the surface, very low ascent speed. The last time it occured over there it was really bad :jag:, I decided not to dive further. However, after an hour of so all was OK again. So I took the second dive that day as well without any problem.

Seems like reverse block to me, though I do not understand the acute nature of the pain. One would expect gradually increase of pain. Till today I still don't know what got over me. Can anyone make a suggestion? One more remark: when I dive a lot my ears get feeling stuffed. Like lumps of cotton are put in my middle ear.

Bye

Jorgen

 

[Ghost.Diver]

One thing that did seem to help me after this incident was the use of Doc's Pro Plugs. (this is not an endorsement for a product, just personal knowledge) They worked great. Kept water out of my ears, could actually hear better underwater, and I didnt have that cotton in the ear feeling after the dive.

They worked great on the first dive, second well....

If anyone finds a pair med size Docs Pro Plugs out at TL in Houston, drop me a line. I'll be the one holding my breath, turning blue.....

 

[grouchyturtle]

I'm a rookie and I've been having problems equalizing and on 2 dives I've come up with a bloody nose, and I've had that cotton feeling for a few days after diving too. I looked at some of the links in this post and may try some of those tips next time. But here's some of the details anyway.

I'm fine at shallower depths, up to 30-40', and I'm usually ok on a first dive, but have problems on a second dive, or if I ascend to a shallower depth and then descend again.

Since I'm a rookie I'm not great at contolling my boyancy yet, so I do kind of flip between descending too fast and ascending too much, so I actually have to re-equalize for the depth I was comfortable at. I've heard my problems can also be caused by congestion, and I do have allergies. I didn't feel congested, but could it be that I was congested enough to cause problems, but since I have allergies, not enought to really notice that I was congested?

Also I have narrow ear canals, could this make it harder for me to equalize?

And finally is this a problem that could stop as I get more experienced, dive more, get better at controlling my ascent descent rates and, bouyancy? And is equallizing itself something that I'll get better at the more I do it, just as any other skill?