My hearing is a little muffled because of the antibiotic drop residue and the cotton stuffed into my ear. Yes, children, I have an ear infection. It is the annoying kind, painful to the touch, a slight ring and an overall pain in the “head.”
I should know better, since I was a kid on the AAU swim teams, I have needed to dry out my ears with ear drops or suffer the consequences. So here I am, paying the piper for a ignored procedure last week. I guess it is time to mix up some more ear drop solution and put it back in my dive bag. I have my own solution based on some suggestions I received from my doctor and some experimentation. It may not be the best solutions and it may not work for everyone. But, it works for me. You might check with your doctor.
Tom Mount suggested using a Domeboro solution instead of my solution because alcohol can lead to drying and cracking of the ear tissues. According to Web MD “this medication is used to treat infections of the tube (canal) of the outer ear (external otitis). This product contains acetic acid/aluminum acetate, a combination that kills bacteria and fungus that cause infection. Wetness in the ear canal can help bacteria and fungus to grow. This medication also causes drying of the ear canal, helping to cure the infection.” Tom’s point is that it is less abusive on the ear canal. The one downside to this is that it is available only with a prescription.
The most important thing in preventing ear infections is to dry out the ear canal so that harmful bacteria and fungus don’t grow and cause the infection that i am now suffering with. Some people use their hair dryers to dry their ears but since I have little hair left, I don’t use a hair dryer too often. I am not even sure where it is.
Treating the ear infection once it starts is important because you do not want it to travel into the inner ear. So, your Doctor should prescribe some ear drops and maybe some oral antibiotics to combat the infection. Remember to complete the cycle as your doctor tells you. It is a bit harder to get rig of the infection if it becomes a more resistant strain.
I have a lot of diving to do over the next two months so I need to get rid of this sooner rather than later. Hence the muffled hearing I spoke of earlier.
