right ear plugged up for a few days

[kimchicowboy]

i went diving for three days from last friday to sunday. ever since my first dive on friday, my right ear has been plugged up and i feel partially deaf in it. i never had any problems equalizing while diving nor problems in the plane. i tried a q-tip, but that didn't help.

any ideas what may be the problem and how to fix it?

thanks!

 

[Nut Bubblefish]

What about a plug of ear wax? Just guessing. Have it checked by an ENT anyway, he will bring you the clue, and if it is a plug, he will remove it on the spot.

Cheers.

 

[Divingguy]

Assuming that you are not having actual "pain", you most likely have fluid behind the eardrum. A Doctor can get you steroids which will reduce the swelling, and therefore let the fluid out. I found that the cause of my problem was descending too quickly. Even though I thought I was equalizing, and never had pain, really slowing down the descent rate, and equalizing repeatedly even on a pro-active basis, helped tremendously. Unfortunately, everybody talks about equalizing, but they really never teach you how to do that. There have been other threads on this same topic very recently. You might try running a search on "ear" or "equalizing". Hope you get it resolved.

 

[fyh]

It's very likely a wax blockage.
If this is the case, a q-tip will likely just push it farther in and compact it deeper.

Soak with wax removal drops, flush with warm water in the shower.
Repeat for a few days and see if it gets any better.

Or, if you have a large syringe, you can mix hydrogen peroxide in equal parts with warm water and flush repeatedly. This method seemed to be more effective.

This happened to me several years ago while swimming, and again last month during my OW class. It's very annoying!

 

[NCSCUBADOOBA]

look up middle ear barotrauma... look in scubaboard archives too, i did a post on it and got tons of info back that was really helpful and included DAN's advice and my doc's advice.

 

[mfalco]

I sometimes get fluid in my inner ear (right ear only for some reason). When I do I take sudafed and don't dive for a few days and the problem goes away