ok thanks guys.

I have no vertigo, my glands seem to be fine(no swelling)no pain when touching the ear, just it feels like a itching, niggling sensation inside.

A friend used a drop called covancaine. says ear drops, antimicrobial, local aneasthetic on the box.

Otherwise i'll go check the doc.

thanks guys

With a middle ear infection you're not going to have any pain on the outside. And I've ever really had swollen glands when I've been in the same situation before.

Convocaine is an excellent ear drop for outer ear infections (swimmers ear), but it's not going to do a thing for a middle ear infection - quite simply because of the obvious fact that you can't reach the middle ear via the outer ear.

As I've said before, you have got to take the health of your ears very seriously otherwise you can join the long line of those of us queuing up for hearing aids before we turn 50. So call your doc now.

Hi Guys

MMMMMMMM middle ear infection + diving = nasty consequences.

Duran, at a glance I would say yours is middle ear cause you have that full feeling plus the ringing. The house music/headfones really throws a spanner in that theory but I am sure you would have noticed that before your dive. The infection and related swelling are aggravating the cilia in your middle ear cochlea causing the tinnitus(ringing) and also like Tom says pushing on your ear drum.

WRT middle ear infections, here is my advice:

Always skip the local GP. He will give you a general antibiotic (augmentin), useless eardrops and achieve skwat! And cost you big bucks!

Rather fone the GP and ask for a reference letter to see an ENT. No Cost!!

Durban based guys, go straight to Louis du Plessis in Umhlanga Medical Centre. No nonsense, only solutions and proper medication! Expensive but effective!

I have been thru the middle ear inf. plus diving scenario and have the 60% hearing loss in left ear and persistent tinnitus tea-shirt. The hearing loss I can deal with, cause when the wife nags I make sure she is on my left side and when I forget to do shit, I tell her she must have been standing on my left when she asked me!!

Tinnitus is however the nasty little scoundrel...like having a nest of agitated crickets living in your head full time. This is when the cilia are damaged properly, left in a permaently agitated state. Kind of like strumming an electric guitar once and it plays that high pitched F-sharp key for eternity!!

The side effect of that for me was extreme claustrophobia at night, lying in bed and it is pitch black and all you can hear is this wretched noise...no medication for that little sucker...putting a pillow over your ear only makes it worse!

With tinnitus the only remedy for me was time. Gradually your brain adjusts to that high frequency and you learn to rate that pitch as normal. Having kids was also great cause all the noise they make counters all the noise in my head!! They do make a hearing aid that emits a white noise which counter acts the tinnitus but I never went that route!

Ok, so, modus opperandi when you get itchy, full ear after dive. This will, without proper meds, turn into raging middle ear inf. which feels like someone is jamming a knitting needle thru your eardrum! Take myprodol or gen-payne for pain.

Forget going to GP, get reference letter from GP for ENT. See ENT and get sorted. Listen to ENT when he says no diving! Go Back for check up with ENT to make 100% sure no more problems. Then wait 2 more weeks before diving again...so that I can shoot all the couta!

Hope this helps
Warren

Saw an ENT in Town a few years ago, like smith street Durban CBD town. He was old school and pretty good. I had a skin infection in the outer ear. I used covencain with no effect, (usually does work) he inserted gause with ant-biotic cream on it right into my ear and was told to leave it in for a week, all sorted. Any way, enough of my rambling, point is you don't always need to phone a GP to get a referral letter, just call ENT and ask for an appointment. I did it no issue, tried it with another ENT and it also worked but cancelled the appointment as he could not see me soon enough.