bdombrowski
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Jan 19, 2005, 8:35 PM
Post #6 of 11
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Re: [whittonr] Ruptured Ear Drum - slightly off topic
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Hi,
I have a personal story to add to this thread.
I've been diving for 15 years both recreationally and technically.
Last July between two of my Tortugas liveaboard trips, I developed an inner ear infection. I had a discharge of bright green puss about 9 days before my next trip. It didn't hurt all that bad and felt normal a couple days afterwards.
On my 2nd dive of the trip, 120 miles offshore, I went to equalize my ears and noticed a bubbling sound coming from my right ear. I looked up and .... yes, they were bubbles alright. There was a hole in my ear drum.
Being 120miles offshore on a 100 ft liveaboard in flat calm seas with great vis, I was determined to keep diving with my camera for the duration of the trip. On one dive, I developed vertigo at 60ft and called the dive. After that, I was very careful to decend slowly continually equalizing to minimize and cold water getting in my right ear again. This worked, I finished all 13 dives of the trip, some to over 120 ft.
I flushed my ear between dives and at night with the wrong stuff. I used the ear dry stuff that has alcohol in it. It's all I had, and it stung like h*ll. It would have hurt less to pinch my nuts with a pair of vice grips. It was horrible for about 15 seconds after putting the drops in. (I should have been using 50/50 white vinegar and distilled water as you will read later, but this is hindsight.)
By the time I got home, I had green fluid running from my ear. A second raging inner ear infection had set in due to sea water intrusion. The ENT had to put me on Cipro and I had to douche my ear with 50/50 vinegar and water 5 times per day for 10 days. (This creates an acidic environment hostile to bacteria.) I had a 2mm diameter round hole (perforation) in my ear drum. Not barotrauma. This was caused by the first infection before my trip.
A month later, the infection was well cleared up but the perforation didn't close. ENT said no diving, no swimming. About this time hurricane Charely, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne were visiting so I wasn't really missing anything in the Tortugas. Every month the ENT check to see if the perf would close on it's own. No progress, no diving... time for surgery.
They did a myringoplasty in November to close the perf. This is full-blown surgery where they cut the perf bigger so it bleeds and take a plug of fatty tissue from your ear lobe to make a rivet-like graft to plug the hole. The ear drum's blood vessels grow into the graft. Eventually the graft is supposed to atrophy and the ear drum grows across and repairs itself. My hole was 4mm in dia after they cut away the dead tissue to prepare it to take the graft.... and it was dangerously close to the edge of the ear drum. Post op, the ENT said 70% chance of success vs the 90% he quoted before hand.
Well, yesterday was the day of truth. Two months since the surgery. The ENT tested the graft by putting suction on it and pulling. Remember putting the vaccumm cleaner wand on your face as a kid and pulling on your cheek? The same thing but on your ear drum instead. It wasn't very comfortable. He pulled, and the graft failed and pulled away. :(
The short coming with myringoplasty is that if the hole is too close to the edge of the ear drum, that edge has very few blood vessels and thus may not fuse to the graft.
So now, I face a more invasive surgery called a tympanoplasty where they need to cut the ear drum away and put a formal patch of skin (taken from my temple I believe) behind the ear drum where the hole is and against the inner ear canal. Oh yeah... and to get the right angle for entry, they need to cut the back of my ear and flip it forward so they can go straight down into the ear canal. Should make for some great pics.
Right now, I'm kinda at a cross roads on a decision. Do I try to dive one season with a perf and then get the surgery next fall, or do I get the surgery now and wait another six months to dive? I considering diving with the perf using Doc's Ear Plugs (one vented in the good ear, and one non-vented in the ear with the perf) and flushing with vinegar and h2o between dives to get by. I'm pretty sure I can keep infection away if I'm diligent with the ear douching using vinegar this time along with the plugs. Biggest concern would be vertigo if cold water got passed the non-vented plug.
By the way, the video and photos from the last trip I made were great and worth fighting to stay in the water. Had a pod of 3 wild dolphins swim right by the camera on one dive :)
Regards,
Brian D.
subsurfacemedia.com
Sony PDX10, USVH Housing, custom light rig, VX1000 with amphibico VH1000 housing. Premiere 6.5.
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I ruptured my eardrum on the reefs off of Key Largo a few years back (I have terrible sinus problems). As a result of the pain and loss of equilibrium, I ended up losing lunch when I hit the surface (the Yellowtails had a feast). It cleared up fine and I haven't had any problems at all with the ear, other than my normal sinus problems. As long as the eardrum isn't "perforated," it usually heals well. 
