How long?

[TheMackDaddy]

the doc said 3 months, i was wondering for those of you that have had barotrauma how long it took before you were totally healed and could safely dive again. three months seems like forever and i don't want to waste my whole summer. to see more specifics on my injury look at my reply on the "Inner ear Barotrauma" thread

[Marcus]

Wait a little longer and use the "doc's ear plug's" that are VENTED. This will keep sudden pressure changes from happening. Your ears are nothing to be screwing around with. I dove off the boat into the water after 4 months and it busted again. I then had to have ear surgery because it didn't heal up correctly.

[CTFreeDiver]

Why do you think you have two ears? You only need one good one! Why not dive next weekend?

Or... Do as the doc says to the letter! The recommendation of Doc's Pro Plugs (vented) is also a very good idea.

CT

[OceanEd]

Why would you possibly want to take a chance of permanently hurting your ears?? If you miss this summer, then you miss the summer. There will be many more summers for diving IF you take care of the problem properly now.

[WonderBoy]

I agree. I don't have a degree in medicine, but why risk making a permanent problem for the rest of your life for one summer?

[Bill McIntyre]

I know I've delivered this sermon before in your other thread, but I'm deaf in one ear already and its really inconvenient. Background noise in restaurants and other noisy places makes it hard to hear the person I'm talking with, I miss things that people say to me from my left side, and I have no idea which direction a sound is coming from since it all comes in one ear. If a car honks a horn at me or someone shouts a warning, I don't know which direction to look. When I was teaching college classes, when a student said something I had to scan for the moving lips to find out who was talking to me.

All that is just annoying, but if I lose the other ear, life will suck. Why take a chance of putting yourself in that position?

[TheMackDaddy]

yea, u guys are right. and maybe i should stay off of this site for the time so i just forget about spearfishing totally.

[Southern Cross]

Grab a rod n' reel.
Try a fly rod, may be something new and challenging.

Good Luck with the ears.

[OceanEd]

SP:

Don't stay off the site. Stay and learn. Then whey you get a chance to go back in the water you can try out all the new stuff you have been reading about.

BTW what type of fish are you holding up in your picture? It's a little hard to tell for me.

[TheMackDaddy]

a permit shot in yucatan, mexico.

[OceanEd]

That has got the be the largest permit I have ever seen. I didn't know they got that big. I have shot them about 2/3ds that size in the Bahamas and I thought those were as big as they got.

[neondiver]

Have you had your vestibulars checked yet? I've lost 25% of my left. Any trouble with balance or dizzy spells. If you loose one 100% then your laying on your back for the rest of your life. You may want to go to a othincologist (?spelled correct?) and have the testing done. A few good articles on this in Alert Divers mag.