Found out I have an middle ear infection.

[kong]

From what the doctor said today, it is rare for someone my age (over 12 years old) to get one and he couldn't believe that I had one. I last went diving about 2 weeks ago and my ear has been hurting since then but I thought it would go away. I finally decided to go to the doctor today and got some meds for it.

The ear that it has happened to has had the ear drum ruptured about 5 times while growing up and always takes me a little while longer to equalize. I guess I didn't clean my ears out well enough last time and got some water stuck in there.

Oh well. Live and learn.

[James1010]

I hear ya, I have to be religious when it comes to cleaning my ear. I got them blown out in Iraq and it still isn't healed all the way. I think it takes years (I cannot remember the exact time frame), somewhere around 7 years I think to heal. Not exactly sure, but that is a good lesson to learn and hearing what happened to you will give me that extra motivation to clean even harder.

[K9Pig]

It's always the middle man/EAR that screws things up. Hope the meds do their magic for you.

My teenage stepson had ear issues growing up. He wants to dive so bad but can't because of the problems. He had surgery a year ago to repair his ear drum, but it worked. Doc also said it would be several years before the consideration to dive could made. They had to remove his ear for the repair.

He wants his graduation gift to be a dive trip to the Keys. He is a HS-freshman now, so we will have to see...

[kong]

I thought I might of just damaged it a little while equalizing but I guess they can still get infected. Growing up my right side ruptured so many times that they told me they were going to do surgery next time it happened so when it ruptured again I didn't tell anyone because I really didn't want surgery.

Yesterday it said it was ok to dive as long as I clean them out thoroughly and go to the doctor as soon as any pain is present next time.

[wgt]

Cleaning or not cleaning the ears has basically nothing to do with middle ear infection, unless, of course, your cue tip plunges through the ear drum. As for outer ears, ear cleaning actually increases the probability of infection among divers in association with traumatization of the water-softened ear tissue.

Middle ear infections reflect the retention of contaminated materials that have migrated from the throat. Your experience with longer equalization times may reflect a diminished capacity of your eustachian tubes to conduct air between the throat and the middle ear. This could also correlate with the increased vulnerability to middle ear infections.

I would advise discussing your history with an ENT specialist who is experienced in diving medicine. It may be the case that a little bit of decongestant the day of the dive will solve issues of equalization and the potentially related middle ear infections.

One more thing to note: Middle ear infections ought not to be treated on a wait-and-see basis. They can progress, eventually chewing through the skull into the brain...how embarrassing...

Originally Posted by kong

From what the doctor said today, it is rare for someone my age (over 12 years old) to get one and he couldn't believe that I had one. I last went diving about 2 weeks ago and my ear has been hurting since then but I thought it would go away. I finally decided to go to the doctor today and got some meds for it.

The ear that it has happened to has had the ear drum ruptured about 5 times while growing up and always takes me a little while longer to equalize. I guess I didn't clean my ears out well enough last time and got some water stuck in there.

Oh well. Live and learn.

[kong]

Originally Posted by wgt

One more thing to note: Middle ear infections ought not to be treated on a wait-and-see basis. They can progress, eventually chewing through the skull into the brain...how embarrassing...

That's good to now. Guess next time I will go straight to the doctor. If/when it happens next time I will probably get a referral to an ENT to see what they can do since yesterday it was at a walk-in-clinic and they are probably not equipped to deal with such issues.

[teerlkay]

[quote=wgt;246457]Cleaning or not cleaning the ears has basically nothing to do with middle ear infection, unless, of course, your cue tip plunges through the ear drum. As for outer ears, ear cleaning actually increases the probability of infection among divers in association with traumatization of the water-softened ear tissue.

Middle ear infections reflect the retention of contaminated materials that have migrated from the throat. Your experience with longer equalization times may reflect a diminished capacity of your eustachian tubes to conduct air between the throat and the middle ear. This could also correlate with the increased vulnerability to middle ear infections.

I would advise discussing your history with an ENT specialist who is experienced in diving medicine. It may be the case that a little bit of decongestant the day of the dive will solve issues of equalization and the potentially related middle ear infections.

One more thing to note: Middle ear infections ought not to be treated on a wait-and-see basis. They can progress, eventually chewing through the skull into the brain...how embarrassing...

Good information...thanks for sharing.