Seasiren4scuba
Registered
I am so despondent. I love diving so much I daydream about it. But three weeks ago I injured an eardrum, and it is not getting better. The ENT said it could take three months. But it just feels hopeless. I can't swim either, and I am really missing the water. Any words of hope out there? The injury occurred on ascent at the safety stop after an 80 foot dive with no problems. I had made three dives the day before. I was taking 12 hour sudafed and my regular allergy mess ( Allegra and two steroid nasal sprays) and I have never had ear problems in over 100 dives. I came up slowly, but I got a reverse block. I went back down and the intense pain subsided. I developed serious vertigo, but that went away on the way back up and has not returned. I sat out the next dive ( we were on a boat in the Channel Islands), and made the next two shallow dives. I did not realize I had injured my ear, it just felt as if water was in the outer ear. So I used swimmers ear drops before the night dive was about to take place...and I saw STARS. It hurt like crazy in the injured ear. My knees buckled from the pain, and then I could taste the alcohol from the drops. So it all suddenly became clear...I had ruptured the eardrum and that caused the vertigo.
of course I stopped diving, and saw a doctor within 48 hours as soon as I could. The two Ent's and my regular doc have had me on Sudafed since then, plus all the other allergy mess, and told me to do a nasal rinse before using the sprays. The eardrum does not have a hole in it ( and didn't when the first doctor saw me 48 hours after the accident), but it has dried blood in patches on it, is mostly cloudy, and is pushed inward ( even as of two days ago). The audiology tests say the inner ear is fine, but there is -250 mm Hg pressure on that eardrum still. They suspect fluid in the middle ear and a swollen or collapsed Eustachian tube that won't let it drain. I can equalize the left ear but (obviously) not the right ( the one I injured). I don't know how to prevent this in the future, assuming I do get to dive again.
of course I stopped diving, and saw a doctor within 48 hours as soon as I could. The two Ent's and my regular doc have had me on Sudafed since then, plus all the other allergy mess, and told me to do a nasal rinse before using the sprays. The eardrum does not have a hole in it ( and didn't when the first doctor saw me 48 hours after the accident), but it has dried blood in patches on it, is mostly cloudy, and is pushed inward ( even as of two days ago). The audiology tests say the inner ear is fine, but there is -250 mm Hg pressure on that eardrum still. They suspect fluid in the middle ear and a swollen or collapsed Eustachian tube that won't let it drain. I can equalize the left ear but (obviously) not the right ( the one I injured). I don't know how to prevent this in the future, assuming I do get to dive again.