Flying with a Cold

Hi all,

Seen a lot about avoiding flying with a cold. I think I have one coming on. My ears are blocked, my T has increased and I have a bit of a runny nose and sneezing a bit. I fly in about 2 weeks time, a 12 hour flight. I've spent lots of money on this!!

Should I just not fly at all or is it a case of taking precautions such as wearing ear planes?

Thanks for any advice.

 

You can not fly with an upper respiratory infection. Don't even think about it. Barotrauma will occur and you may get increased T out of it.

 

Get travel insurance so you won't lose all your money if you have to cancel. But--- your cold could very well resolve in the 2 week period.
Good luck.

 

Agree with @Nucleo: If you have any hint of an upper respiratory infection, don't. I wasn't aware about the dangers of flying with sinus/ respiratory infections two years ago, when I was headed out on a long flight to Europe. I have tinnitus due to that flight. Had seen my then ENT two weeks prior and he said he saw no problem. Um, wrong.

 

I am with others on this. Don't fly if you don't have to while your cold is still bad. Plugged up airway and sinus are sure way to fire up T. If you have no choice and have to fly, make sure you carry cold medicine with decongestant and also nasal spray so that you have a better chance balancing the barometric pressure change at take off or landing time.

 

I think in 2 weeks time you'll be healed up and symptoms would be gone

 

Ah so annoyed, I knew this holiday was too good to be true I flew with a nasty cold to Norway and had no effect but that was only 2 hours. I thought ear planes were supposed to help. My Eustachian tubes always feel blocked and full of liquid, is this a bad thing for flying? Will travel insurance really cover instances like this?

 

There's so many excursions I need to plan before I go. I need to sort them today too. No insurance will cover cold/flu. I've already spent a couple of thousand pounds. That's a lot of money to me. I really don't know what to do.

 

There is no need to panic about it. I have flown trans-continental and trans-pacific flights many times since T. These flights can take 12 to 16 hours. Earplane plugs are good for protecting from the jet noise. I used them initially. But slowly I took them off except during take off and landing. Nowadays I travel only with ipod ear buds. In my last trip to Toronto with a stop in Winnipeg, all the take offs and landings, I only used my fingers. LOL. On one of the long flights, I came back with a really bad cold with everything plugged, and I had trouble balancing the pressure. Well, I felt pain in the ear drums and hearing was like in a cocoon. T was higher of course. But I am committed to not reacting to T high or low. So in a week, hearing was normal again and T back to its usual dog whistle base line. There are many threads on air flights on TT. Search them out to read it. Having T is not the end of travel, even long travel. Relax and enjoy your vacation, just like me and Aaron here:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...are-with-you-some-pictures-i-took-after.3268/

 

Thanks Billie. I'm not concerned about the flying at all in terms of my tinnitus, I know it will spike a bit and the acutal tinnitus doesn't bother me anymore, well very rarely anyway.

It's that my ears are quite full feeling and they are crackling and popping every time I swallow. It normally happens before I get a cold but I've had no cold symptoms today! Last time I had a cold this feeeling lasted for weeks afterwards. I wonder if it's worth risking the flight even taking precautions as I read horror stories about people rupturing their ear drum, and that would send my T rocketing! I've just felt really down recently and booked this holiday as I thought why not, always wanted to go. Now it feels like I'm risking my sanity as I could have a massive increase in T if my ear ruptures as well as losing hearing. I really don't know what to do, I don't want to waste over £2000.

I can change the flight for a £100 fee but the hotel isn't possible to get the money back and that was the most expensive part!

 

I'll probably get the symptoms tomorrow, but all I seem to have is crackly ears. They don't seem to be blocked very much if at all. No cold symptoms anymore either. Perhaps this is the early sign of a cold but wondering if this will be OK with the right precautions taken. Hmm.

 

Here's hoping that you are fully back to normal by the time you fly. I agree with others who have said if you have upper respiratory symptoms at the time of the proposed flight, don't do it!
From the tinnitus point of view,all would probably fine, any increase in tinnitus settling quite quickly. On the plane you may not notice tinnitus at all. Earplugs designed for flying should help.
Why am I bothering to reply on this thread, saying things that others have already said. Well, I'm not a 'doom-monger' by nature, and feel that most things in life can be handled. I also think that we are all a little different, and some of us probably are born with narrow Eustachian tubes which will cause more trouble than the nice wide type.
I was always prone to have some pain on plane descent and would Valsalva furiously for about 20 minutes. After a flight, my ears would remain a bit 'iffy' for a number of days.Still, loved to travel and put up with the inconvenience of the ears.
Some years ago, whilst in India, I developed a heavy cold about a week prior to flying. The cold had cleared, no ear symptoms, and I gave it no thought on boarding the plane. 8 hours later, and descending into the airport, I developed excruciating pain in my left ear. Unable to 'pop' left ear. Finally, nearing touchdown, my eardrum perforated with a little clear/bloodstained stuff escaping and immediate ear pain relief. the perforation and ear symptoms settled quickly.
30 years later, I developed Eustachian Tube Dysfunction and 24/7 tinnitus/deafness after a VERY trivial cold. First grommets, then T-tubes...but at least I will be able to fly without a problem.
So, I think I probably had narrow E tubes all along, prone to block. If those tubes are still crackling/popping at the time you intend to fly...DON'T.
Pre-treatment with decongestants are said to help, so maybe get some now? I can't take them due to glaucoma, but would do had I been able.

Good Luck.

Fungus.

 

Hi fungus, I have been to Japan and now flown back to England too. My ears were still bad but it all went completely fine only slight discomfort. I just took all precautions necessary. The only trouble I had with my ears was going up the skytree which is a big tower, the second tallest structure in the world. My ears popped and hurt then!

 

Champion!

I've flown many times after the permanent spike of my T whithout a problem.

This weekend I need to make a long business travel and have a very bad cold.

I always use a decongestant, afrin, and earplane plugs only in ascending and desceinding process.

What was your strategy for your trip?

Regards!

 

It's completely up to you to risk it but if it's very bad it may be worth re-arranging.

Basically, an hour before I left, I used steam inhilation with Albas oil I think it is too; this cleared my system out massively.

I was also taking sudafed decongestant, I made sure to take one an hour before take off and an hour before landing, I also done the sudafed nasal spray an hour before landing too. I also used it about 30 mins before take off.

I used ear planes for take off and landing and made sure they were screwed in and inserted properly.

On take off and landing I sucked boiled sweets, and sucked like never before haha, as I've heard this can help open the tubes.

During the flight, at cruising altitude, I used foam ear plugs, during turbulence I took these out just in case of sudden pressure changes.

I had a slight spike but it soon went away. No pain at all, only slight discomfort when my ears popped/crackled a couple of times.

 

Hi Geg, Yes! definitively a complex ritual for us to take a plane hahah. I use afrin, chew gum and I use airplane plugs, and have worked for me very well.

My cold is going better (in spite of T, I have a relative good health so colds just hits me 2-3 days and then I'm up and running again).

Yesterday that i was reading your travel experiencie i started to think "what a brave boy!" I have read in the past some of your post where you talk you were fighting for habituation. But man! I think you are handling it very well!

Today I'm fully habituated with my current sound (hopes no spikes never again!), but in first months of my spike I was a living death, considering that before I was a guy with a strong mind. I remember having ALOT of fear going far from home, not even thinking about taking a flight to another country, not even another city!!

So, now that you were able to do this nice vacation trip, I really think you are in the right path and habituation will reach you soon.

Regards!

 

Got another flight tomorrow, and guess what, I have a cold again! The last one I had was the last time I flew, bit too much of a coincidence!

My ears are fairly blocked, worried tomorrow they will be very blocked.

Are shorter flights less likely to lead to barotrauma? It's only Paris so not even an hour flight.

I'm really worried, although Japan went fine, I guess it's just a case of decongestants, nasal spray and earplanes?

 

Hi @geg1992 - how did this go for you?

I had to fly 2 days ago with a cold (and 5 days before that), and while my tinnitus is fine, my right ear is now clogged and my throat hurts yet again. Heading to the doc tomorrow.