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A year ago, on a dive, I was descending (I assume I was equalizing as usual) and suddenly felt discomfort/pain. I paused, ascended slightly, equalized (I thought) then continued the dive with no pain. When I got out of the water, a doctor who was a diver on the boat, saw blood coming out of my ear. She looked in it with her otoscope and thought she saw a spot of blood and a small perforation. It was my 2nd day of a 12 day LOB and 5 week dive trip -- she told me my diving was done unless I wanted to risk a painful middle ear infection. I never had any discomfort, loss of hearing or dizziness. I stayed out of the water and felt lucky that in our remote location, it didn't develop into an infection as we didn't have any ear antibiotics to treat it. Back home in the US, I immediately went to the ENT and they saw the small perforation. It took 8 weeks to heal and then I was back diving again.Hello fellow scubaritas and scubañeros,
I am currently on a dive holiday (abroad) where I just got declared unfit to dive, so I have a lot of time to kill and why not ask you if anybody of you ever have had the same experience that I just had. Because it is somewhat odd. This post is probably more about venting, but in both senses.
I had been diving for a few days prior without any complications. I was feeling great. But yesterday was strange. It was a guided NDL dive, nothing fancy. Nothing out of the ordinary during descend or at depth. We also checked my profile afterwards - all good. But. When we ascended, at around 30 feet, I felt a slight pressure in my left ear, plus squeeking noises. I did not exactly know what to make of it yet, when we slowly ascended just a few feet further and I suddenly felt a super intense, sharp pain in my left ear. I knew something was off with my equalization and I initiated a descend, but it did not happen: I heared a loud popping noise from my left ear. Like really loud, as if someone fired a firearm right next to me. I knew this was not good. But at the same time, the pain and noises vanished at once. I actually felt relieved. No dizziness, no nothing. Safety stop, out of the water. I took my hood off and told my buddy to have a look at my ear. He said that there was blood in it.
I was frustrated because I knew the possible implications. Other than that, I was feeling fine. No dizziness, no loss of hearing, no pain - nothing. Also, nothing was coming out of my ear, the bleeding had stopped. It was not even clogged. But we went off to see a doctor.
It was a general physician in a clinic and I told her my story and asked her to have a look at (in) my ear. She did (with "that device"), and said that there was blood in it and that I had teared my ear drum.
It sounded somewhat strange to me, because she made the impression to me that she was judging mainly by the blood in the ear. I asked her if she could clean it a bit, which she refrained from, because she did not want to touch anything in there. Which I can understand.
Anyhow, tearing of ear drum is the diagnosis. And I am behaving accordingly. But it is just so odd, because I am feeling great. No pain, my ear feels good, I hear perfectly well, nothing comes, or came, out of my ear, the blood dried up quickly - just as if nothing happened. I slept well. I don't have, or had, a cold or anything. Zero.
I feel like I should get a second opinion by a professional ENT/dive doc. Is it possible that I somehow trapped air in my ear canal which lead to a reverse blockade and the bubble "exploded" on ascend? Is that a known thing? It's just weird.
And no, I won't do anything stupid without further medical consultation in person.
/venting off
