pressure problems with ear 2 days after jumping

[poohbeer 0]

Anybody here that can tell me if it's normal that my right ear (left is fine) still feels like is has effects from increased/decreased pressure and that horrible sounddistortion thingie with it 2 days after doing my first couple jumps?
Or do I need to see a docter about it?

------- SIGNATURE BELOW -------
Complete newbie at skydiving, so be critical about what I say!!
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

[CrazyIvan 0]

Any sinus problems?, it happens to me sometimes when I have those INFAMOUS alergy attacks, but after a few hours I 'pop' my ears and everything goes back to normal.

__________________________________________
Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.

[poohbeer 0]

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Any sinus problems?, it happens to me sometimes when I have those INFAMOUS alergy attacks, but after a few hours I 'pop' my ears and everything goes back to normal.

Nope otherwise perfect health.
Just one ear that keeps bugging me.
Also when I blow with my nose held shut the ear keeps 'popping' no matter how often I do it or how long I don't do it (several ours).

------- SIGNATURE BELOW -------
Complete newbie at skydiving, so be critical about what I say!!
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

[CrazyIvan 0]

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Nope otherwise perfect health.
Just one ear that keeps bugging me.
Also when I blow with my nose held shut the ear keeps 'popping' no matter how often I do it or how long I don't do it (several ours).

This just happened or you had that problem before?, when I land I pop my ears, the right one is always a little 'slow', same thing if I swim, some water stays there, I had my ears checked years ago, no problem, but if this persists, you might need to visit the doctor, I'm just telling you my experience.

__________________________________________
Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.

[tigra 0]

Sounds like sinus problems to me, too. Or maybe the very beginnings of a summer cold.

(I'm not a doctor, but I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express!)

[CrazyIvan 0]

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(I'm not a doctor, but I havte stayed at a Holiday Inn Express!)

ROFLMFAO!!!!!

__________________________________________
Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.

[Casch 0]

Have you EVER had problems with your ears before? Think back, have they acted really funny before/after a cold, after a normal plane ride? Do you usually find it easy to equalize the pressure in your ears, or does it become painful before you can clear them? I had the EXACT same problem you're having. And even though I never felt the need to see the doctor about it, I'm 99.99% sure that it's completely normal. After a couple months of jumping, the pressure thing never really bothered me anymore. But before, I would have problems for up to a week after a jump. Every time I yawned, or chewed/swallowed or whatever, my ears would pop and everything would either sound slightly muffled or a little louder and clearer. I don't get this much, if at all, any more. I think it helps if you equalize the pressure in your ears on the way down under canopy by pinching your nose, closing your mouth and blowing. I'm sure however that after a few more jumps you'll be just fine

[mnischalke 0]

Hmmmm,

I jump every weekend and I've spent a lot of Mondays spent listening to muffled sounds through my left ear. Its almost as if that little valve between the sinuses and the inner ear is too small or something. I can hear bubbling sometimes. If I bend (watch it) over while packing or something and stand up quickly, my balance goes all wacky. Mine has never got better with time. I have asked the doctor about it, and he acted like I was stupid or something and said you can't clean out the inner ear (guess they don't make q-tips that long or something).

I have found, however, it does happen much less frequently or doesn't last nearly as long when I have been taking Allegra-D on a somewhat regular basis. Therefore, following logic, I am quite sure it is allergy related.

Hope this helps.

Not a doctor, but I have wanted to kick one or two of their asses at one time or another...

mike

Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills--You know, like nunchuk skills, bow-hunting skills, computer-hacking skills.

[vt1977 0]

Yep, I have had that happen to me several times. I have been to see a doctor about the problem once before when it was particularly bad but the response I got was extremely unhelpful and I don’t think I’d bother going to see the doc about it again.

My advice (and my own personal rule) is not to jump until I can clear my ears easily on the ground. I have never managed to burst an ear drum but the pain from jumping with dodgy ears is quite unbelievable and I have learnt that it is MUCH better to err on the side of caution.

Sometimes my ears can take some time (a week or more) to sort themselves out but in the meantime I guess you could try taking some decongestants or inhaling some Olbas oil. The main thing though, in my opinion, is to avoid jumping until you can clear both ears on the ground!

hth

Vicki

[poohbeer 0]

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Nope otherwise perfect health.
Just one ear that keeps bugging me.
Also when I blow with my nose held shut the ear keeps 'popping' no matter how often I do it or how long I don't do it (several ours).

This just happened or you had that problem before?, when I land I pop my ears, the right one is always a little 'slow', same thing if I swim, some water stays there, I had my ears checked years ago, no problem, but if this persists, you might need to visit the doctor, I'm just telling you my experience.

Nope, never happened before.. just occured after I took a ride back down with the plane.. hurt my ears like hell damnit..
If it aint gone by this weekend I'm seeing a doctor.
Keep ya guys posted.

------- SIGNATURE BELOW -------
Complete newbie at skydiving, so be critical about what I say!!
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

[jumpgod 0]

i work in aviation and we do altitude chamber rides every few years... they warn us repeatedly to see a doctor if any symptoms persist after the 'ride'. you may have some nitrogen stuck in your interstitial spaces of your tissues. it would be better to be safe than sorry and go see a specialist.

jg

"dude, where's my main?"

[mwabd1 0]

Well it sounds like you have impacted ear wax in that ear. No matter how good your personell hygene you will eventually get a build up and it will cause the symtoms you have. Go see an e.n.t. and i bet a 20 minute office visit will cure you.

.......I hereby reject your reality and instead choose to insert my own!

[aero04 0]

Yep, same problems for me when I started. After my first few jumps it would take between 1 and 2 weeks for my ears to clear. For me, jumping more often cleared it up. Even now my ears are occasionally a little messed up after a jump, but it clears up after a few minutes or hours.

Seems like for some, jumping more often helps clear up the problem.

[Casie 0]

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My advice (and my own personal rule) is not to jump until I can clear my ears easily on the ground.

Right on! I'm the same way. Never burst an eardrum but heard it's very painful & not fun at all. Always remember it's great when you can jump another day

~Porn Kitty
WARNING: Goldschlager causes extreme emotional outbursts!

[Cornholio 0]

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My advice (and my own personal rule) is not to jump until I can clear my ears easily on the ground.

Right on! I'm the same way. Never burst an eardrum but heard it's very painful & not fun at all. Always remember it's great when you can jump another day

I second that idea. I do the same thing, especially after getting over a cold. I jumped in Perris after just getting over a cold, and I had some weird stuff happen. My ears would clear after landing, but it was accompanied by a squishy sound after the "pop". By the second or third day those problems went away.

Although it could be the decongestants that I was taking in additon to Claritin-D. That also caused me to have nosebleeeds on 3 of the 5 jumps on the first day...but that's a bit off topic.

Bottom line is, for me, that it's normal to have your ears kinda tweaked after jumping, especially if I don't jump for a couple weeks. If I am regular and jump every weekend, I don't notice it too much.

If you want to be sure, go see a Dr. I am not one, and I don't play one on TV.

Butthead: Whoa! Burritos for breakfast!
Beavis: Yeah! Yeah! Cool!
bellyflier on the dz.com hybrid record jump

[robskydiv 0]

Sound distortion could possibly be serious. See the doc.

[oldnewbie 0]

I have a similar problem. It seems like i can't clean my ears, more the right than the left. I went to an *ears, nose, throat* specialist and he claims that it is just allergies. He told me to always, even when not having symptoms of allergies to take *allegra, and a nasil spray for allergies* There was some wax in the ear, which he took out, and he said my ears were very red etc.. It seems to help. but go to the doctors, you might have something very very bad!!

[mark135 0]

My doc suggested it was just a little liquid that gets sucked into the middle ear during the way up. she suggested rubbing alcahol on a q-tip to dry ear before jumping. I never tried it. seemed impractical.

I eat sinutab non-drowsy non drying pills all weekend.

_______________


"It seemed like a good idea at the time"

[Deuce 1]

It will go away. I had the same problem and this is the solution!

Clear your ears right after you stow your slider!

The densest part of the atmosphere is right at sea level to about 4500 feet (Approx, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm only addressing the topic of ears)

So, if you clear right at 3000' and again when you touch down it's much easier on your ears than doing one clear after descending from 14,000 to 0'.

I used to SCUBA dive (I skydive now) and you clear your ears all the time to keep them equal to outside pressure as you descend.

Try it, it works great for me.

[tbrown 26]

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Well it sounds like you have impacted ear wax in that ear. No matter how good your personell hygene you will eventually get a build up and it will cause the symtoms you have. Go see an e.n.t. and i bet a 20 minute office visit will cure you.

You might also try some of the over the counter ear wax kits available in any pharmacy. You get some ear drops and a rubber bulb for flushing your ear out with water. If you hear or feel the drops in your ears getting "fizzy" that's because they're breaking up wax. The wax is pretty deep inside, you can't reach it and Q tips won't get it either. You might be amazed/horrified at the huge chunks you could flush out. Lots of good clean fun!

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[edenney 0]

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Anybody here that can tell me if it's normal that my right ear (left is fine) still feels like is has effects from increased/decreased pressure and that horrible sounddistortion thingie with it 2 days after doing my first couple jumps?
Or do I need to see a docter about it?

As if you haven't gotten enough replies to this already. All I can say is that if you have insurance, don't think twice about paying a visit to the doc. Most likely that's a $5 or $10 co-pay and a 30 minute visit. I think most everyone has some pressure issues of varying levels but if it's persisting for days or weeks after jumping that isn't normal.

When I started skydiving I was already having some problems with one of my ears closing up on me when I would lay on that side. Sometimes it would stay closed for seconds after lifting my head up and sometimes for minutes. However after jumping my ear would be closed up and sometimes quite painful for days. It was driving me nuts and I had nothing to lose so I went to Urgent Care to get checked out. Sure enough (despite using Q-Tips regularly) I had a virtual ear plug made of wax that was completely sealing my ear. Took them about 10-15 minutes to flush it out with warm water and something akin to a turkey baster and I've been a happy camper ever since.

Hopefully that's what's going on with you since it's quickly and easily remedied. As someone mentioned, you can also get a do it yourself kit but if you've got insurance it's easier to let them do it.

Good luck!

[divingduck 0]

OMG! That's my deal! Thank you sooo much Casch! I didn't realize what my problem with my ears was until you said that! I have the exact same prob, my ears hurt SOOOO MUCH after jumping, but then I realized that I had tubes inserted in my ears at an extremely early age, cuz I had chronic ear infections!

Oh, and I have been told to take any kind of over the counter sinus medicine about a half hour before hand. BUT REMEMBER: make sure it is non-drousy!

If I loved you anymore I would have a stroke