Swimmer's Ear

[Peji911]

Anybody get this? I get it BAD!

I LOVE to swim, and Im going here this summer for 5 weeks, but with a mad case of swimmers ear, its hard to do.



I HATE wearing tubes just cuz sometimes they fall out.

What do you guys do to combat SE? Is there a technique to remove it? Are there better tubes out there?

Thanks boys

[Husker_OS]

Re: Swimmer's Ear

I got it bad one summer. Kept me up at night. Its up there with ingrown toenails as far as pain goes. And when I went to the DR, they put this big *** swab in my ear. I was in tears when they did that. It was like shoving a steel rod into my ear due to the swelling in my ear. When they pulled it out 2 days, the thing was soaking wet. Havent had the problem since. But when I do get water in my ear, I tilt my head to the side, pour down a mixture of warm water and vinegar. Seems to do the trick.




The key is to not let it get as bad as mine got. I literally stayed up all night with my head throbbing and my ear being sensitive to ANY noise.

[Double Eights]

Re: Swimmer's Ear

I wish my ears wouldn't feel like they were going to explode, when I swim to the bottom of the deep end.

I've had swimmers ear, and yes it does suck. Not sure how to avoid it or how to cure it. Check wikipedia or some medical sites.

[Jonesy]

Re: Swimmer's Ear

I'm an audiologist and swimmers ear (otitis externa is the technical term) is a common and annoying problem. Really there isn't much you can do other than to avoid contact with water in the external canal. Unfortunately that usually either means avoiding swimming or wearing a cap and looking like a douche.

You can get some special drops (they are called Aqua Ear here in Australia, not sure what they are called in your part of the world) which quickly dries the canal after swimming to reduce the likelihood of (re)infection.

Once you have an infection a visit to your Doc is the best way to cure it with a prescription for anti-biotics which works 80-90% of the time. If you are still constantly getting them a referral to an ENT may be an option to have it further investigated.