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Post by Dive Bunnie on Feb 17, 2006 9:46:34 GMT
Well, I discovered this week that we are not all immune!
I had been experiencing slight problems with one of my ears, however nothing hugely drastically painful, I must stress. However when I finally took myself off to the doctors I was warned off diving, told to stay out of the water or risk perforation of my eardrum. Basically it was a chronic kind of barotrauma often afflicting busy guides and instructors.
So a little warning to you all... if your ears don't feel right, get them looked into. They do not have to be screaming in agony to be damaged.
I was given some tips to speed the healing process too, which I am sure work in a preventative measure too:
eat pleanty of protein, meat nuts etc drink warm drinks (both the warmth and the swallowing action help keep your eustatian tubes clear and functioning well) chew sugarfree gum, again with the chewing action combined with the xylotol in gum that apparently works like an antibiotic.
Bear in mind that even if you can still equalise, if your ears feel muffled or strange in anyway, it is always a good idea to get them checked out.
Happy diving ;D
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Post by Dive Bunnie on Mar 14, 2008 13:52:03 GMT
I will also say further to the above post that there is now a decongestant that has been approved by the Divers Alert Network as it is long lasting. Having said that, though whilst that can certainly prevent damage to your eardrum through enabling equalisation, I did find that the more I used it, the more I needed to use it (be that a slightl psychological feeling of "what if I don't take it and can't descend?"). There have also been concerns regarding the safety of taking this particular decongestant and diving to depth. I have since found out that whilst this may be ok as a temporary measure if you are on a diving holiday and don't want to miss out. If you are a diving professional, and diving most days, it is definately NOT recommended. So as always there is never an easy solution… other than rest it out and let your ears recover. I guess if I was on that trip of a lifetime with no chance to return, I might resort to taking the medication. But the advice of our local doctors to the dive guides here, is still to avoid taking the decongestants.
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