Barotrauma relief help

[jetskichic688]

Hi everyone! I am new to the website and new to diving. I just started my certification class and have run into a few bumps. On my first dive, I apparently ascended too fast, causing me to have pains in my ears for two days until I built up enough courage to go the doctors. He diagnosed me with barotrauma and sent me home. He told me that no medication would help except Advil for the pain. I started reading up on barotrauma and people have been saying take Sudafed to relieve the pressure and muffling sound in my ear. I tried putting an alcohol/vinegar mix in my ear to dry out the water, but the muffled sound came back. I am allergic to Sudafed and so I was wondering if any of you seasoned divers out there have any recommendations for me. Thanks for any help!

 

[rollerboi]

Unfortunately, time is the main component of your recovery path.

I once had a barotraumatic incident resulting in a migraine that wrapped around the whole back of my head, damn near incapacitating me for several weeks. All I could do was take pain medication and wait.

 

[sabbath999]

You can try some Afrin nasal spray (it's generic equivalent is the same stuff at 1/3 of the price).

But Rollerboi is right, time is the thing you need. It will get better.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

When you say dive do mean in open water or in the pool? That should not happen in the pool on your first night. How much time did you spend on getting weighted properly before you descended and how much time was spent working on buoyancy? How detailed was your instruction on use of the inflator/deflator assembly? Just curious. But as the others have said time and pain meds ( I like 800mg ibuprofens) is what will be needed. The vinegar alcohol will do nothing for the inflammation and probable fluid you are experiencing. It only works for drying the outer ear/outer ear canal and keeping any bad bacteria at bay after a dive or pool session. Your instructor should have covered this. BTW what advice did you get from him/her and did you inform them of the problem?