OWie my ears are a bit sore and I have my OW dives in a week.

[BigFame]

So I finished up my pool work on Wed and both Tues and Wed I had a bit of ear discomfort and we were only in a 10ft pool, but did quite a bit of ascending and descending. Today is Thurs and they are still a bit uncomfy, kind of like when one has an ear ache. I have done a fair of amount of searching but all I seem to find is tricks for what to do IN the water like valsava etc. My question is this, is there anything I can do in preration for this coming weeks dives (tues and wed). my instructor said hot steamy showers and massaging under my ears to try and loosen up the nasties in there. Is this true? What else could I be doing? Thanks

 

[doctormike]

So I finished up my pool work on Wed and both Tues and Wed I had a bit of ear discomfort and we were only in a 10ft pool, but did quite a bit of ascending and descending. Today is Thurs and they are still a bit uncomfy, kind of like when one has an ear ache. I have done a fair of amount of searching but all I seem to find is tricks for what to do IN the water like valsava etc. My question is this, is there anything I can do in preration for this coming weeks dives (tues and wed). my instructor said hot steamy showers and massaging under my ears to try and loosen up the nasties in there. Is this true? What else could I be doing? Thanks

Hi..!

As with most such problems, the devil is in the details. You really need to figure out whether this is an outer or a middle ear problem, as the symptoms overlap a good bit but the treatment is very different. Here is a post that I made the other day on the board which goes over these issues:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/3835876-post3.html

I'm not sure how hot showers or massaging under the ears would be good for either problem...

Good luck with you open water dives!

Mike

 

[BigFame]

i think his belief was that the eustachian tubes might have built up goo over time in them and that hot steam and massaging them might loosen up the stuff blocking them and allow me to equalize better and thus not have this same problem again. Since next week the plan is to go to 60ft and this past week we only went to 10 feet. Thanks and I will read the other post.

 

[TSandM]

If, in fact, you have had some barotrauma (which would be common), the use of antiinflammatories and decongestants may accelerate the resolution of the symptoms. (This assume you have no contraindications to the use of either.) Neither will aid an outer ear infection, although the antiinflammatories will help with the discomfort, but they won't hurt anything, either.

 

[BigFame]

Thanks is there something I can be doing in preparation for next week to make equalizing easier? Like I said Gerry suggested hot shower and massaging those tubes as a way of loosening up things in there. I was able to equalize some under water, but it required that I plug my nose and blow pretty hard (he had also said that you really just blow gently, that is not at all what I was doing), I even could hear a sound in my left ear like air being forced through.

 

[doctormike]

Thanks is there something I can be doing in preparation for next week to make equalizing easier? Like I said Gerry suggested hot shower and massaging those tubes as a way of loosening up things in there. I was able to equalize some under water, but it required that I plug my nose and blow pretty hard (he had also said that you really just blow gently, that is not at all what I was doing), I even could hear a sound in my left ear like air being forced through.

Not sure how a hot shower would help, but it does feel good and your ability to equalize certainly varies from day to day. Some people always have problems equalizing and have to make very slow ascents and descents, no matter what they do. The Eustachian tubes are in the middle of the skull, it is not possible to "massage" them.

Take a look at the post that I referenced before, and specifically the video that I linked to at the end - that goes into a lot of detail about equalization...

Mike

 

[BigFame]

thanks Mike, your help is much appreciated.