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bewghero

Skydiving with ear problems?

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Hi,

I have skydived once before in tandem and hope to jump hundreds of times eventually. Last time I dived, however, I damaged my right ear and struggled to hear out of it for a few hours after and was not noticeable after a day or two. I have had grommets before and have narrow eustachian tubes. I saw an ear specialist who said maybe try taking sudafed a few days before.... What else can I do? I don't want to seriously damage my ears but I MUST be able to jump!! Please help. Is there anything I can wear that will help my ears equalize etc?

Thanks!

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Some people just aren't made for it.

Friend of mine did 100+ jumps and eventually quit after not being able to clear his ear so well. He still works in the industry as a rigger.

I wanted to do freediving real bad, my limitation was 35ft. My left side clears no problem, my right side however is different story. However somedays it clears like nothing. Those days I was able to go 30+ ft and hang out. Average days I could only go down to 15 ft ish.

Lots of first timers have trouble clearing their ear. People develop technique for it. There are several different method to equalize your middle ear.

Never go jump, when you have clogged sinus, sick, fluy.

good luck.
Bernie Sanders for President 2016

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I would not draw conclusions from one jump. I always used to have issues on commercial flights, but I no longer experience the problem while skydiving. The more you jump, typically the easier it gets. Wearing ear plugs may help slow down the equalization. Also, try to keep your mouth open initially during free fall. It may help with the equalization, even if it looks somewhat dumb.

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I had problems with my ears for the first thirty or so jumps. I finally got fed up when one of my ears didn't open back up for a week. Apparently it is called barotrauma. Went to a doctor who gave me a nasal spray (flonase). His instructions were, do not do this every day but only on skydiving days. Push the tip of the spray against the nasal cavity tubes or whatever they are called(horizontal towards the back). That way it goes into the nasal cavity. Then equalize using the valsalva technique. As someone else said, this puts it into your eustation tubes. The spray dialates the surface, essentially opening it up wider. I still have to equalize under canopy and again on the ground every jump, but at least my ears do open, and it works perfect every time. Hope this helps!

Disclamer: He said that if used too often the spray can become habit forming.

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Rapid skydiving descent from high altitudes causes negative middle ear pressure changes. The ability to equalize ear pressures after a jump had a large impact on the change in ear pressure. However, the change in middle ear pressure was not associated with the presence of middle ear symptoms.
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The Valsalva maneuver should be avoided and only used as last resort.

Quote

If you don't equalize the pressure, the results will be somewhere between excruciating and devastating. As the pressure differential builds, your eardrum bows inward, pressing on sensitive nerves. If the pressure differential is too great, the eardrum ruptures. This is not generally considered to be fun by any but the most bizarre of pilots.

The first line of defense against ear block is to stop descending, and even to climb back up to a higher altitude. The lower you go, the greater the pressure differential, and the less likely you will be successful at springing that trapdoor open.

The second thing to do is to swallow, yawn, or tense the muscles in your throat. You might even try a technique called the "Frenzel" maneuver. This involves jutting your jaw forward so that you look something like the comic book character Dick Tracy (Figure 2). Of course, he didn't jut his jaw forward because of a middle ear problem. He did it because is made him look tough. What you're trying to do is straighten the eustachian tube out a bit to give it the best chance of opening and equalizing the pressure (it also helps you look tough which makes it easier to get help from line service personnel).

No go? OK, time for the heavy artillery. What virtually every pilot and flight instructor will tell you to do is perform the Valsalva maneuver, in which you close your mouth, pinch your nose, and breath out in short puffs against the closed nostrils. You might think twice before doing this maneuver. The Valsalva maneuver is potentially damaging, and it's unfortunate that it has been so blithely handed down as the way to clear a closed eustachian tube. Even airline flight attendants will tell passengers to perform the Valsalva maneuver.

What's the right answer? Though almost nobody has heard of it, the Toynbee maneuver is a far preferable way of opening the eustachian tube. The Toynbee maneuver is a variation of the Valsalva maneuver. Both start by closing off the nostrils (pinch them closed). However, in the Toynbee maneuver, instead of blowing against the closed nostrils you simply swallow.

Swallowing with your nostrils closed off has the effect of decreasing the size of the oropharyngeal (mouth and throat) space, much as if you had stepped on one end of an inflated balloon. This increases the pressure of the air in that space on the eustachian tube, and with any luck at all the e-tube pops right open. If not, keep swallowing slowly, but do not blow. You can damage your inner ear, and even when it's successful, the Valsalva maneuver can force unwanted material into the middle ear. Take a tip and Toynbee.

Remember, do NOT fly with a cold or other upper respiratory infection, even a little one. The bad news is that I know you will eventually ignore this advice. The good news is that I know you will probably only ignore it once, because the resulting ear block will be a very memorable experience.

An upper respiratory infection is like standing on the garden hose. The water just doesn't have much chance of getting through. When it comes to your ears, there is no such thing as a ?minor? cold. The least bit of fluid and gunk in your head will compress the eustachian tube and make equalizing the pressure on descent almost impossible.

Now that you know better, share the information with your passengers. Don't subject them to the pain and possible injury of an ear block.

If you do land with an ear block, and it doesn't clear shortly after landing, give your doctor a call. On several occasions?one concerning me, another concerning a passenger?I had to climb back up to altitude to reduce the pain of ear block. A more gradual descent eventually helped relieve the pain.



http://flighttraining.aopa.org/magazine/1998/February/199802_Ear_Ye,_Ear_Ye.html

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That Toynbee is interesting, and seems to work (but slightly less reliably) with me trying it right now, however the Valsalva is not a case of puffing your mouth/nose into your face to pop your Eustachian tubes.

Considerable finesse can be acquired through practice and technique.

When using the Valsalva I pinch my nose, fill my mouth with air and adjust the volume of my mouth with my tongue (and other muscles), giving extremely fine control. In pressurizing and adjusting the volume of my mouth I seem to unconsciously seal my mouth from my lungs.

This means I am not simply blowing into my middle ears at any time but using delicate mouth control to do just enough to gradually build pressure and open my tubes.

The obvious risk with Valsalva is someone over-pressurizing or simply blowing without sufficient control. It is probably best practiced on dry land when you don't need it, incrementally and with care, but without puffing away with your lungs. Try using your facial, mouth & tongue muscles to apply the slightest increments in pressure gradually.

Thinking about it my application of the Valsalva technique seems like a hybrid of the Toynbee as the Toynbee swallow is going to seal from your lungs and adjust the volume of your mouth but in a less deliberate manner.

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