Did 3 weeks of scuba stretch my ear drums?

A week ago i returned from 3 weeks of scuba every day.

I always promptly, and without any trouble, equalized my ear pressure.

Now I feel as though my ear drums have stretched.
By that I mean that sometimes I sense a loss in hearing acuity, but as
soon as I crack my jaw, or hold my nose and exhale, I hear my ear drums
seem to snap back to an alternate location, and my hearing is as acute
as ever.

Anyone else have this sensation

--
Pat

"self" <me@mine.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.21bd3609c164bf749896c3@News.Individual.NE T...
>A week ago i returned from 3 weeks of scuba every day.
>
> I always promptly, and without any trouble, equalized my ear pressure.

COULD YOU TYPE LOUDER I CAN"T HEAR YOU

>
> Now I feel as though my ear drums have stretched.
> By that I mean that sometimes I sense a loss in hearing acuity, but as
> soon as I crack my jaw, or hold my nose and exhale, I hear my ear drums
> seem to snap back to an alternate location, and my hearing is as acute
> as ever.
>
> Anyone else have this sensation
>
> --
> Pat

"self" <me@mine.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.21bd3609c164bf749896c3@News.Individual.NE T...
>A week ago i returned from 3 weeks of scuba every day.
>
> I always promptly, and without any trouble, equalized my ear pressure.
>
> Now I feel as though my ear drums have stretched.
> By that I mean that sometimes I sense a loss in hearing acuity, but as
> soon as I crack my jaw, or hold my nose and exhale, I hear my ear drums
> seem to snap back to an alternate location, and my hearing is as acute
> as ever.
>
> Anyone else have this sensation

Yes I have after doing lots of dives over a couple of days ( holidays
especially liveaboard type diving ), don't think the eardrums are stretched
( doubt it as hearing returns to normal ). AN ENT friend of mine, who is not
a diver and knows nothing about diving medicine, suggested that the
eustachian tube may get stretched and than act as a one way valve allowing
pressure to build up in the middle ear as you breathe normally or you may
get a venturi effect and pressure drops in the middle ear either way you get
that feeling and loss of hearing. Equalising as you'd do descending on a
dive or ascending on a plane clears the problems so I have never asked my
mate to investigate it further. Anyhow it doesn't seem to be an eardrum
problem

"self" <me@mine.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.21bd3609c164bf749896c3@News.Individual.NE T...
>A week ago i returned from 3 weeks of scuba every day.
>
> I always promptly, and without any trouble, equalized my ear pressure.
>
> Now I feel as though my ear drums have stretched.
> By that I mean that sometimes I sense a loss in hearing acuity, but as
> soon as I crack my jaw, or hold my nose and exhale, I hear my ear drums
> seem to snap back to an alternate location, and my hearing is as acute
> as ever.
>
> Anyone else have this sensation
>
> --
> Pat

I had the problem after a lot of ups and downs in a class. My instructor
said it's pretty normal after that many changes over a short period of time.
I'm fine now. My ENT, who does dive, says my hearing is perfectly normal --
for someone my age. Things should get back to normal after a short
time, but I've noticed since I started diving that I'm more in tune to
altitude changes when driving around. I live in the mountains, and often go
up and down at least 3000' in an hour.

The main thing is to avoid any pain when descending. Pain is not good.

self wrote:

> A week ago i returned from 3 weeks of scuba every day.
>
> I always promptly, and without any trouble, equalized my ear
> pressure.
>
> Now I feel as though my ear drums have stretched.
> By that I mean that sometimes I sense a loss in hearing acuity, but
> as
> soon as I crack my jaw, or hold my nose and exhale, I hear my ear
> drums seem to snap back to an alternate location, and my hearing is
> as acute as ever.
>
> Anyone else have this sensation
>
Yeah, it's not uncommon. I just keep equalising on the surface and a
couple of hours later everything is OK. As long as there's no pain,
I wouldn't stress too much.

-Don

self wrote:
> A week ago i returned from 3 weeks of scuba every day.
>
> I always promptly, and without any trouble, equalized my ear pressure.
>
> Now I feel as though my ear drums have stretched.
> By that I mean that sometimes I sense a loss in hearing acuity, but as
> soon as I crack my jaw, or hold my nose and exhale, I hear my ear drums
> seem to snap back to an alternate location, and my hearing is as acute
> as ever.
>
> Anyone else have this sensation
>


sounds like blood behind the eardrum - it should clear up - maybe a
decongestant

"Joe English" <joe2aenglish@wisperhome.com> wrote in message
news:47549e13$0$4605$ec3e2dad@news.usenetmonster.c om...
> self wrote:
>> A week ago i returned from 3 weeks of scuba every day.
>>
>> I always promptly, and without any trouble, equalized my ear pressure.
>>
>> Now I feel as though my ear drums have stretched.
>> By that I mean that sometimes I sense a loss in hearing acuity, but as
>> soon as I crack my jaw, or hold my nose and exhale, I hear my ear drums
>> seem to snap back to an alternate location, and my hearing is as acute as
>> ever.
>>
>> Anyone else have this sensation
>>
>
>
> sounds like blood behind the eardrum - it should clear up - maybe a
> decongestant

blood behind the ear drum. I would be worried about where it came from
and more importantly why

dechucka wrote:
> "Joe English" <joe2aenglish@wisperhome.com> wrote in message
> news:47549e13$0$4605$ec3e2dad@news.usenetmonster.c om...
>
>>self wrote:
>>
>>>A week ago i returned from 3 weeks of scuba every day.
>>>
>>>I always promptly, and without any trouble, equalized my ear pressure.
>>>
>>>Now I feel as though my ear drums have stretched.
>>>By that I mean that sometimes I sense a loss in hearing acuity, but as
>>>soon as I crack my jaw, or hold my nose and exhale, I hear my ear drums
>>>seem to snap back to an alternate location, and my hearing is as acute as
>>>ever.
>>>
>>>Anyone else have this sensation
>>>
>>
>>
>>sounds like blood behind the eardrum - it should clear up - maybe a
>>decongestant
>
>
> blood behind the ear drum. I would be worried about where it came from
> and more importantly why
>
>


I had this when I firt started diving, my doctor whi dives told me it
was from smaller blood vessels in the inner. I have not had a
reoccurence it cleared up as he said it would. It is always a good idea
to have it check out tho....

"Joe English" <joe2aenglish@wisperhome.com> wrote in message
news:4754b816$0$4632$ec3e2dad@news.usenetmonster.c om...
> dechucka wrote:
>> "Joe English" <joe2aenglish@wisperhome.com> wrote in message
>> news:47549e13$0$4605$ec3e2dad@news.usenetmonster.c om...
>>
>>>self wrote:
>>>
>>>>A week ago i returned from 3 weeks of scuba every day.
>>>>
>>>>I always promptly, and without any trouble, equalized my ear pressure.
>>>>
>>>>Now I feel as though my ear drums have stretched.
>>>>By that I mean that sometimes I sense a loss in hearing acuity, but as
>>>>soon as I crack my jaw, or hold my nose and exhale, I hear my ear drums
>>>>seem to snap back to an alternate location, and my hearing is as acute
>>>>as ever.
>>>>
>>>>Anyone else have this sensation
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>sounds like blood behind the eardrum - it should clear up - maybe a
>>>decongestant
>>
>>
>> blood behind the ear drum. I would be worried about where it came from
>> and more importantly why
>
>
> I had this when I firt started diving, my doctor whi dives told me it was
> from smaller blood vessels in the inner. I have not had a reoccurence it
> cleared up as he said it would. It is always a good idea to have it check
> out tho....

Interesting. Wonder why those blood vessels would burst and why it wouldn't
drain from the middle ear down to the mouth/throat, must of clotted I
assume. Whatever it doesn't sound good to have that occur glad that it
hasn't happened again

"dechucka" <dechu...@vomithotmail.com> wrote:
> "Joe English" <joe2aengl...@wisperhome.com> wrote:
> > dechucka wrote:
> >> "Joe English" <joe2aengl...@wisperhome.com> wrote:
> >>>self wrote:
>
> >>>>... sometimes I sense a loss in hearing acuity, but as
> >>>>soon as I crack my jaw, or hold my nose and exhale, I hear my ear drums
> >>>>seem to snap back to an alternate location, and my hearing is as acute
> >>>>as ever.
>
> >>>>Anyone else have this sensation
>
> >>>sounds like blood behind the eardrum - it should clear up - maybe a
> >>>decongestant
>
> >> blood behind the ear drum. I would be worried about where it came from
> >> and more importantly why
>
> > I had this when I firt started diving, my doctor who dives told me it was
> > from smaller blood vessels in the inner. I have not had a reoccurence it
> > cleared up as he said it would. It is always a good idea to have it check
> > out tho....
>
> Interesting. Wonder why those blood vessels would burst and why it wouldn't
> drain from the middle ear down to the mouth/throat, must of clotted I
> assume. Whatever it doesn't sound good to have that occur glad that it
> hasn't happened again.

Some sort of medication or nose spray that tends to help clear the
eustatian tubes would obviously help improve drainage to get the cause
of any potential equalization blockage out of there, but this is
treating the symptom more so than the root cause.

If it is blood behind the eardrum due to small blood vessels
rupturing, I would view this as a sign of an 'excessive' pressure
gradient being present (to cause the rupture) and thus, that
equalization was not done early/frequently enough.

My inclination would be to remedy this by equalizing more often, and
clearly much earlier than it is believed to be needed ... ie, long
before there is perceived pain.


-hh