Howzit Guys
Had a dive on Friday afternoon and towards the end of my dive my left air blocked up and I was unadble to equalize(happens often)but stupidly this time I tried to push it a bit and in doing so the ear popped! got out straight away. Right now the ear is feeling very full and there is a bit of this yellow stuff comming out but the one good thing is that there is no pain (little bit on Friday night). I want to know is how serious is this? when should i try go for a dive again? (as surely the only way to find out is diving) can I even get it wet going for a surf? and anything I should be taking?
Shot any advise would be much appreciated.

Hi Ryan

I recommend seeing a doctor.

Dont play around with your ears or ear pain.
Once they are damaged, it is hard to sort it out again.

Let it heal properly.

Diving is no fun and in some cases not even possible with damaged ears..

Dont dive with sore or uncomfortable ears.

Good luck

J

Its either a perforated ear drum or barotrauma. This is normally caused by sinuses being blocked (why you counldnt equalise). There is some main canal that goes to your inner ear which is behind your eardrum. This canal regulates the pressure in your inner ear. When it is blocked(sinus problems or a cold/ blocked nose) the external pressure of the water will push on the eardrum causing barotrauma (bruising of the ear drum) or a perforation in the ear drum. Because of this aggravation the body discharges liquid into the inner ear. As the canal to the inner ear is blocked the discharge cannot drain and in the case of barotrauma will build up until it creates pressure to unblock the canal or perforate your eardrum.

Since you have discharge from your ear it sounds like you have a perforated ear drum. These take 2-4 months to heal. You should get it checked out and dont get into the water before.

for the future keep some decongestant nasal spray in your dive bag. So when you have a slight cold or blocked nose you can clear it up before this whole thing happens again.

Hi Ryan ,

A couple of good years ago I hurt my left ear and never really gave it a chance to heal and kept diving. I carried on diving with a f***ed ear for a couple of months until I surfaced from one dive completely deaf.(left ear) I though it was water in the ear channel so I jumped around and … nothing, tried to dry it out with ear buds and … nothing! If I stood up to quick from a lying or sitting position I would get a head rush. Then I started to panic!!!! I eventually dragged my carcass to my doc three days later and he booked me off water sports for 3 months and sent me home. Dude … this was like taking a hippo from the water, got very bad tempered because of water depravation. I tried ear drops, vertigo tabs etc. and nothing worked, I was desperate man. I friend of mine told me of a homeopathic remedy (ginger tea), a couple of slices of fresh ginger root into boiling water, let it brew for a little while and that helped me recover from that fullness in the ear. It’s only obvious what I did next … yip you guessed it, into the water with a ear that now I could hardly ear from … yip you guessed again … messed it up good and solid as well as my right ear this time around, land up at the doc again where he very politely called be an ox and asked me if I had any sense? I was banned from all sort of diving except muff diving for six months so I took my frustration out on my off road bike in the velt. Ja that wasn’t too cool either, three sprained ankles in 6 months, many bruises, burns and scabs and I was eventually released into the water under my doc’s advice. My doc said it would be safer for me to get back into the water than for me to carry on riding my bike in the velt …

The ear trauma I suffered has left me with Tinnitus in both ears, I now listen to very loud music so I can subdue the constant ringing in my ears and get into bed when I’m about to pass out, otherwise the ringing keeps me awake.

So if you have suffered an ear barotrauma, go see your doc ASAP … Listen to what the man says and avoid tinnitus at all cost.
For decongestion, best is saline water, sniff it up to flush the sinuses. I was using a nasal spray … (no names) was very good and helped me quite a bit, however if used regularly, it caused me to have very mild nose bleeds (traces of blood in the mucus when I blew my nose), so I gave that one up too.

Good luck buddy.

Ryan, I sincerely hope you've been to see an ENT by now and have not gotten back in the water yet.

I am also one of the chops who thought they could "just dive through it". To cut a very long and boring story short I also have permanent tinnitus in both ears, partial hearing loss in one ear and nearly 2 years later I'm a shadow of my former self in terms of diving ability.

After seeing a few specialists, being in CAT scans and soundproof testing rooms, etc, I think I'm finally getting to a solution. But it has been a long and incredibly frustrating (and Expensive) road.

You might be surprised to know how many freedivers/spearos have hearing issues because they didn't take the health of their ears seriously. In fact if you love doing this sport you should be fanatical about the health of your ears/sinuses.

I have been told that muff diving can cause suffocation as some don't know when to come up for a breath. I know of some specialists who use a snorkel when submerging, but beginners should not try it