Barotrauma During Plane Descending? Happened 4 Hours Ago — What Can I Do NOW?

Hi all, this is my first post on here, even though I've been following this forum for a little while. This place has been a great help. I apologize not to have introduced myself on here before, I plan to do so ASAP.

I just landed in Greece 4 hours ago after a couple hours' flight.

While we were landing (I mean the 20 minutes before landing in which the plane descends), I felt a striking pain in my right ear and it felt like something had exploded inside this right ear, releasing a little liquid. Since then my right ear has been totally blocked, pretty painful and I can barely hear anything through it. It's been 4 hours and pretty much nothing has changed.

I should mention I'm 19 and have been flying with my parents. I asked them to see an ENT ASAP; we have a meeting booked on tomorrow morning (that's in 6 hours). Before that we called the local medical center but they didn't want to see me and they recommended to take Ibuprofen. I took it but it has had no effect.

I've been trying to sleep to wait until the appointment but it's very hard.

I'm very worried about a tinnitus increase and moreover that I'm not acting quickly enough and that I'll keep severe scars from this.

Do you think I should wait to see the ENT or should I try my best to find somewhere where they could help me right now?

Thanks for reading this, have a nice day/night.

 

Were you congested before flying? When descending, mucus could've been forced into your ear. Either that or you couldn't equalize and blew a gasket so to speak.

While descending, a vacuum is created in the middle ear. Eventually if the eardrum doesn't burst, the capillaries will blow inside so there might be blood. If your eardrum burst, you wouldn't know either really... Barotrauma is painful in any direction. That will fix itself.

A PLF is also possible. Only way to know is with air bone gap measurements. Hope you have big ones because if not, you need a blood patch as soon as possile. Steroids won't help and anything burst will need time to heal. If it is blood and you have a pocket USB otoscope, you could see for yourself.

If there was blood, I'd lay with my head slightly down or flat, no pillow, and have the affected ear up so that a blood patch essentially happens on its own.

If it's mucus? Nothing really will help. It'll stay that way until you fly again or come loose in months. It happened to me. I couldn't hear for 2 weeks. Then on the return flight, bam, mucus cleared out on accent. No tinnitus back then from that. It's conductive thankfully and can work itself out. If it's mucus it will unclog when you fly again.

Take decongestants for sure. Be sure you blow all the snot out and equalize lots through yawning on descent on the return flight. If it's mucus or eardrum rupture, don't freak out, enjoy your trip just half deaf. It'll resolve itself.

I've flown and blown my eardrum lots and dealt with this shit before. It's more than likely temporary and not a PLF.

The ENT is good and all, but honestly a hearing test will be much more useful to help you.

 

I don’t think I was congested at all before flying. I was even using chewing gums during the take-off/landing to try and equalize the pressure.

I don’t have any otoscope so I guess I’m good to wait until the ENT check. I didn’t know these USB versions existed at all.

Thanks for your message, it’s quite re-assuring.

 

If your ears were popping lots (you could hear them) and you were chewing hard, it could, though it's rare, be a middle ear bone dislocation.

That is again fixable, even months later and won't get worse, but needs surgery... eventually (not emergency surgery). Also again, you need air bone gap testing to know.
I've read about patients having that occur and restoring their hearing 6 months later when they finally got the dislocation fixed.

I hope the ENT gives you good news, like a middle ear bone joint just got inflamed or something from the frantic chewing/pressure swings.

 

Just came out from the ENT.

A little earwax but no big thing (the suction device is always a stress).

He did a test for the right eardrum, it is blocked and under high pressure because of a fluid accumulation in the middle ear. Barotrauma. Within a few weeks and with antibiotics/two nasal sprays he prescribed it should be all fine, even tinnitus wise.

I’m really hoping so!

Again thanks a lot @Matchbox, it seems I panicked a bit too much.

 

When you had an ear infection before, was the tinnitus in your right ear or not? And did you get any hearing loss when you had the ear infection? And about the flight, did you feel any vestibular symptoms like disorientation, fatigue/headache, nausea after you landed?

 

I initially had tinnitus in my right ear with some hearing loss (up to 35-40 dB at one frequency, I’m unsure on which side but probably right one) but the hearing loss eventually subsided after a couple of months, even though I have developed permanent bilateral tinnitus. My last audiogram only shows losses of max 15 dB at a couple of frequencies so I guess it’s OK.

Concerning the ear infection, I’m unsure whether it was the cause of my tinnitus or not. I’m not certain of when my tinnitus started. I had an otitis in summer 2018 that didn’t totally heal and it lasted 2-3 months in total. At the same time, I was attending football stadiums a lot and at one point someone blew a whistle really close to my ears. I had also been using headphones for many years, even if it wasn’t at a high level.

I didn’t notice tinnitus myself, a friend of mine suggested I might have some and she was right.

No vestibular symptoms to report I think.