Oil your sticky ears.

[Boomstick]

A bit of back ground...


Whilst Freediving in Egypt a few months ago I picked up and infection in both ears and a Barotrauma to boot.
Against everyones advise I continued to dive (and I don't regret it due to wonderful experiences I had). But when I finally got them looked at, the Doctor went 'nuts'!! He couldn't believe the damage I'd done, agreed it must be very painful (it was, I didn't sleep for days) and shot me full of Morphine (WOW...)
The rest of the pain killers and tablets I had seemed to do the trick, but when I got back home it flaired up again, I was in severe pain for weeks, the Doc's over here slowly increased my dosage until I was basically on oral morphine. this seemed to do the trick. pain stopped, infection had gone.
Left it a few weeks before diving again, when I did, I got about a foot down when the pain struck again and clearing them produced a shooting pain and what felt felt like a loud clicking sound in my head, that was until my wife said she could hear it too.
Doing what I do best, I left it a couple of weeks before doing anything about the pain, until I finally had to pack myself off to a different Doctors, as the others I'd seen had basically said "stop diving and it won't hurt anymore?"

This new one looked in my ears and suggested Olive Oil, x2 a day for a week to be dropped in the ear canal (Olive Oil from the Chemist NOT Sainsbury's), I couldn't believe the difference, within 10mins I could fell my ears improving and freeing up, allowing easy hands free clearing, I'm not saying this is a treatment that can be used by everyone but it's worth considering.

Has anyone else heard of this?

 

[BennyB]

Yep, a spearfisherman back in Australia absolutely swears by it and recommends it to everyone who complains about ear infections.

 

[Apnea_Addict]

Linda Paganelli has mentioned in another thread that she uses olive oil to put into her outer ear before diving to keep the seawater from entering.

I have started to pick that up with another sort of clean oil form the pharmacy just yesterday.

Holger

 

[trullalla]

hi,

olive oil, or glycerine, or other oily stuff are good to prevent an outer ear infection in case of dry ear canals.
but i really don't see how that could improve the equalization in itself. when you have sticky ears it's because of some congestion in the eustachian tubes, which makes it difficult for the air to pass and go equalize the middle ear. whatever you put in your outer ear cannot benefit in any way the efficiency of equalizing.
in order to clear sticky ears you can use a decongestant, or doing steam with hot water and camomile (this is what i always suggest to my students), or wash your sinuses with saline solution (sometimes the exceeding mucus form the sinuses covers the opening of the e-tubes making equalising difficult).

cheers
linda

 

[Boomstick]

i really don't see how that could improve the equalization in itself

Niether can I, but it does

I only example I can think of is oiling a sticky lock, it just 'frees' everything up.


I racked up about 20+ dives on Saturday before my ears started to gum up, pushed through about another 10 then gave up with an inflamed ear, fortunatly it went within a few hours, to my relief, unlike last time which was a few weeks!!

Anyway, got my Proplugs now, have to see how I go with them.

 

[fflupo]

after the diving i find it important as well to wash the ears propper with fresh water only oil is not enough and twice a week i put an alcoholic desinfection fluid in just to make sure especially when this ichy feeling inside the ear occurs

 

[Boomstick]

after the diving i find it important as well to wash the ears propper with fresh water only oil is not enough and twice a week i put an alcoholic desinfection fluid in just to make sure especially when this ichy feeling inside the ear occurs

This new Doctor I went to said don't wash your ears out with water
(I've been doing that for years) he said let the ear wax take care of it, it will clean the ear for you, he also said don't use cotton buds (q-tips) & I've been using them for years too.

I've always been one for shoving things down my ears and it feels weird not going through my normal grooming routine when I get out the shower, but in the words of a good friend of mine,
"don't put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear"

 

[fflupo]

i go so many times in da sea that my earwax can t help.
thats why i wash them with fresh water and all the divers i know do the same and no problems anymore, q-tips or simular stuff i m not using in case of a cleaning i use the chinese wax tube once or twice a year

keep the sport clean

 

[Tompa]

When saltwaterdiving I use a big shot,without the needl( 80 ml). How you wonder? After diving I rince my ears out a couple of times with freshwater, dus preventing them do dry out from osmos, have allways worked for me!