did I hurt my ears

[Bogie]

Diving is for fun and I would not dive in pain.

Pain is telling you something. Some days your ears won't clear for a lot of reasons, colds, congestion, medication or whatever. If you can't clear your ears and it is painful, dive another day. it is better to stay healthy for the next dive than force anything. Just got to go with the flow.

Good diving and good health

 

[Bubbletrubble]

the most likely cause is a bad squeeze - if you're unable to equalise but continue your descent then blood and spinal fluid is forced up your eustachian tube and into the middle ear. This is what causes the hard hearing, and potentially why you have a bloody nose but no apparent bleeding. If there is sufficient blood it can clot and therefore you end up with odd hearing for a few days afterwards - I've seen this happen a few times.

The "water in your ear" sensation is a squeeze, with the aforementioned blood and spinal fluid getting stuck in there. Assuming your equalisation technique is correct, you have a physiological problem which needs to be addressed.

Thanks go to TSandM for clarifying a number of issues in this thread.

One correction I'd like to add is that "spinal fluid" should never be getting forced up one's Eustachian tubes. Spinal fluid, usually termed cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), surrounds the brain and spinal cord of the central nervous system. In a healthy human being, the anatomic space containing CSF is not continuous with sinus passages or the Eustachian tubes. CSF in the sinus passages would indicate severe head trauma consisting of cranial fracture(s).

 

[tuj]

So I thought I'd offer my post-script after my ENT visit.

First saw the audiologist, ear drum pressures were fine ("Christmas tree"), and I scored above average on all ranges of hearing. Then the ENT checked my ears and found a clot of wax and blood, which he pulled out with a very long and narrow forceps (and I have to say that really hurt and made me dizzy at the same time). He checked the ear drums and saw redness near the front of the eardrums, but no tears or perforations. Then he scoped my sinuses and said the openings to my Eustachian tubes in my throat were swollen and that that was the likely issue I had trouble equalizing.

As for diving in the future, he prescribed Nasonex and said to use it *two or three weeks* before going diving. He said its necessary to use it far in advance to get any swelling to go down long before the dive.

So in conclusion, I think I will be continuing learning to dive after my ear drums heal up a bit and I get the swelling down. Thanks again for all the good responses.

 

[momliz]

Replying to an older post - hope you see this, tuj, and it helps. I've been having a few ear problems too - fine at depth, but popping and ringing continually when on the surface. However, I read somewhere that rather than pointing the tip of the flonase or nasonex bottle straight up, towards your sinuses, it may help to point the tip of the bottle back, kind of horizontally, and spray there, towards the back of your head. Apparently, this forces the spray to go more towards your Eustachian tubes, rather than your sinuses.

Now, I just wish this ringing would go away...

 

[tuj]

Thanks momliz, good advice. I've also used a Grossan pulse nasal irrigation system, which is really weird (it shoots pulsing water up your nose, kind of like a neti pot on steroids), but at the same time amazing for cleaning out the sinuses. Haven't dived since my first attempt, but hopefully will get a chance again later this year.