I saw fish1260's post and it spurred my memory of a problem I had about a year ago that I never resolved.
A little background I suppose...
I've never had any ear problems (that I can remember anyway). I'd been flying for a few years and never had any equalizing problems. Well...
...last year I got my scuba diving license. I had quite a bit of trouble going down because my ears had a very hard time equalizing, so I just descended very very slowly and although it took me three times as long as everyone else, made it down. Getting back to the surface was the real problem though. I went extremely slowly to the top and it sounded like there was a controlled leak in my ears and if I were to ascend to quickly, I would get sharp pain. Obviously I made it, and people told me it was just the cold water. So I tried diving again, and again the same thing. I saw an ENT after that and if I remember right he said my inner ear was a bit red, but other than that, I was fine. He said to take Sudafed and use Afrin. I tried to get some answers as to why this occurred but he wasn't much help. Needless to say, I haven't gone scuba diving since.
Here we are a year later, and I'm not sure if it's related or not, but my ears "pop" much more regularly and it's quite a bit more painful than it used to be. Not necessarily unbearable, just overly annoying. Also, and I have no idea if this is related or not, my ears produce a lot more wax than I can ever remember. I clean my ears daily and it still seems to not be enough.
Anyway, I have no idea what the problem is, or even if it's fixable, but it's somewhat irritating to me to not know the cause.
Any insight is very much appreciated.
A little background I suppose...
I've never had any ear problems (that I can remember anyway). I'd been flying for a few years and never had any equalizing problems. Well...
...last year I got my scuba diving license. I had quite a bit of trouble going down because my ears had a very hard time equalizing, so I just descended very very slowly and although it took me three times as long as everyone else, made it down. Getting back to the surface was the real problem though. I went extremely slowly to the top and it sounded like there was a controlled leak in my ears and if I were to ascend to quickly, I would get sharp pain. Obviously I made it, and people told me it was just the cold water. So I tried diving again, and again the same thing. I saw an ENT after that and if I remember right he said my inner ear was a bit red, but other than that, I was fine. He said to take Sudafed and use Afrin. I tried to get some answers as to why this occurred but he wasn't much help. Needless to say, I haven't gone scuba diving since.
Here we are a year later, and I'm not sure if it's related or not, but my ears "pop" much more regularly and it's quite a bit more painful than it used to be. Not necessarily unbearable, just overly annoying. Also, and I have no idea if this is related or not, my ears produce a lot more wax than I can ever remember. I clean my ears daily and it still seems to not be enough.
Anyway, I have no idea what the problem is, or even if it's fixable, but it's somewhat irritating to me to not know the cause.
Any insight is very much appreciated.
