Preforated my eardrum on the Oriskany today

[Florabama]

Well, I ended up with an ENT that's a diver of 20 years. I was thrilled to hear it. He said my ear is already sealed up but has a lot of scaring. He put me on an antibiotic and an oral steroid. He's going to pressure test it in a month or so, and said I should be able to dive again but probably not for at least a couple months. That was very good news.

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi Florabama,

Bad news that the eardrum is scarred and thus structurally compromised; good news that it's healed and that you should be able to dive again. Obviously you'll want to be very careful with it in the future.

BTW, the "pressure test" likely will be either pneumatic otoscopy or tympanometry. These involve the assessment of movement of the eardrum under increased air pressure. Neither should be painful.

Best of luck.

DocVikingo

 

[Florabama]

Hi Florabama,

Bad news that the eardrum is scarred and thus structurally compromised; good news that it's healed and that you should be able to dive again. Obviously you'll want to be very careful with it in the future.

BTW, the "pressure test" likely will be either pneumatic otoscopy or tympanometry. These involve the assessment of movement of the eardrum under increased air pressure. Neither should be painful.

Best of luck.

DocVikingo

Thanks Doc. Do you think this is anyway age related (I'm 50 this year)? I've been diving a long time and never had any ear problems until this season. I'm worried that the chickens have come home to roost, so to speak. I had a lot of ear infections as a young child. Could the scarring be finally giving way to age?