I went spearfishing on Saturday for the first time in 3 years. The first proper dive in three years, with a boat in real depths.
I faired surprisingly well in the morning session, taking two grouper and a stringer of bream. During that dive I noticed that clearing my ears was created a lot more noise than usual. After that dive, the sounds above water had a metallic ring to them, in my right ear only.
It went away after a few hours and I went out again in the afternoon.
That session was in very shallow water and in absence of any real fishlife I spent a lot of time going up n down just checking things out of stirring up the bottom and watching the small stuff scrurry around in the dust.
In general I have noticed that when I dive shallow water and ascend/descend a lot in a short space of time it bothers my ears after a while, for example when trying to get a speared fish out of a hole in shallow water.
At the end of the day, on one particular dive I found that on the way up, my wetsuit was sucking to my ear and that it wouldn't unblock. It felt like it had jammed, I couldn't descend more than about 4 or 5 meters unless I spent a lot of time playing around trying to compensate. When I was able to compensate it was very noisy, to the point where the small fish close to me would startle at the sqeaking of my ears.
In the past I haven't had any problems like this.
When I got out of the water, I realized that my right ear still felt like i was 10 meters underwater, and it was ringing. LOUD. But it was almost totally deaf.
There was no pain, no blood, no other discharge from the ear. It felt jammed, ringing like I had just heard a gunshot next to my head and when I tried to gently compentsate(on land) the left would give and act normally, the right was dead. No reaction.
I was on a small island off Italy, where the general sanitary situation is, well pathetic but I went to the local chemist to ask if he knew what I could do. (By now it was late) Considering it was an island, lots of tourists, I figured some other idiot like me had done this at some time, probably more than one poor suol so it should be ordinary adim to fix or at least advise.
He knew nothing about it, and sent me to the hospital. There the doctor said he couldn't do anything for me, but with an expression like a light globe had lit up over his head told me to wait until monday when the ear nose and throat specialist would be in. He refused to even take a look in my ear to see if the eardrum was ruptured, because he's no expert. For christs' sake any idiot could see if the eardrum is there or not! By now I am furious after this runaround and got no sleep with this ringing going on im my head.
I get back to the mainland and go see my local GP. No apnea expert but he is able to see if the eardrum is intact.
So far there has been a slight improvement. It will compensate just a little bit but it only lasts a short time before it jams up again. I have some hearing back, though it has that metallic sound to it, and some high pitched sounds annoy me. The ringing persists.
The GP says the eardrum is intact. At least to his eyes the eardrum is all there, and looks fine. So he's got me on a nasal aerosol twice daily until Thursday, when I can get appiontment to see a specialist.
In all honesty I don't know what good it is supposed to do, but he said it would get things moving in the middle ear and help it equilize. when he has booked an appiontment with a specialist, still not a dive doctor but but better than nothing. I have no idea of where to track down a dive specialist doc but I am looking.
Can anyone here shed any light on the subject?
I am in a slightly desperate situation, the medical system is of no help to me and I have no idea of what to do.
Thanks in advance for any help I can get.
I faired surprisingly well in the morning session, taking two grouper and a stringer of bream. During that dive I noticed that clearing my ears was created a lot more noise than usual. After that dive, the sounds above water had a metallic ring to them, in my right ear only.
It went away after a few hours and I went out again in the afternoon.
That session was in very shallow water and in absence of any real fishlife I spent a lot of time going up n down just checking things out of stirring up the bottom and watching the small stuff scrurry around in the dust.
In general I have noticed that when I dive shallow water and ascend/descend a lot in a short space of time it bothers my ears after a while, for example when trying to get a speared fish out of a hole in shallow water.
At the end of the day, on one particular dive I found that on the way up, my wetsuit was sucking to my ear and that it wouldn't unblock. It felt like it had jammed, I couldn't descend more than about 4 or 5 meters unless I spent a lot of time playing around trying to compensate. When I was able to compensate it was very noisy, to the point where the small fish close to me would startle at the sqeaking of my ears.
In the past I haven't had any problems like this.
When I got out of the water, I realized that my right ear still felt like i was 10 meters underwater, and it was ringing. LOUD. But it was almost totally deaf.
There was no pain, no blood, no other discharge from the ear. It felt jammed, ringing like I had just heard a gunshot next to my head and when I tried to gently compentsate(on land) the left would give and act normally, the right was dead. No reaction.
I was on a small island off Italy, where the general sanitary situation is, well pathetic but I went to the local chemist to ask if he knew what I could do. (By now it was late) Considering it was an island, lots of tourists, I figured some other idiot like me had done this at some time, probably more than one poor suol so it should be ordinary adim to fix or at least advise.
He knew nothing about it, and sent me to the hospital. There the doctor said he couldn't do anything for me, but with an expression like a light globe had lit up over his head told me to wait until monday when the ear nose and throat specialist would be in. He refused to even take a look in my ear to see if the eardrum was ruptured, because he's no expert. For christs' sake any idiot could see if the eardrum is there or not! By now I am furious after this runaround and got no sleep with this ringing going on im my head.
I get back to the mainland and go see my local GP. No apnea expert but he is able to see if the eardrum is intact.
So far there has been a slight improvement. It will compensate just a little bit but it only lasts a short time before it jams up again. I have some hearing back, though it has that metallic sound to it, and some high pitched sounds annoy me. The ringing persists.
The GP says the eardrum is intact. At least to his eyes the eardrum is all there, and looks fine. So he's got me on a nasal aerosol twice daily until Thursday, when I can get appiontment to see a specialist.
In all honesty I don't know what good it is supposed to do, but he said it would get things moving in the middle ear and help it equilize. when he has booked an appiontment with a specialist, still not a dive doctor but but better than nothing. I have no idea of where to track down a dive specialist doc but I am looking.
Can anyone here shed any light on the subject?
I am in a slightly desperate situation, the medical system is of no help to me and I have no idea of what to do.
Thanks in advance for any help I can get.