Inner ear not equalizing
 

Went into a barometric chamber yesterday. we went up to FL250, then off oxygen until hypoxic. My ears cleared fine on the way up, however when descending, only my left ear equalized. My right ear was stuck at 25,000 while we were down at sea level. Needless to say, it was excruciating pain and felt like someone was hammering a nail through my head. The valzalva never worked for me, only swallowing does. Tried everything, it's starting to clear on its own. I have a feeling it might be tied to allergies but my worry is that its a problem with my ear. Should I experience a real life rapid decompression, I dont want to have to worry about trying to land a plane with such pain in my ear. Hopefully some of you guys can chime in. Thanks...

Normally caused by fluid trapped in the sinuses due to cold, infection or allergy.
A dose of an FAA approved decongestant prior to flight may make this less likely. Sudafed.

It may also take on the feeling of a 1/4" dull, rusty drill bit being run into your sinus cavities for some subjects. Side effects may include bleeding and rupture of tissue causing longer term problems. In addition, some subjects report taking on the characteristics of a golden retriever.

It may be due to cold, alergies. If not...

It's a common problem, many military diver candidates are disqualified because they have trouble clearing on the way down.

From a diver perspective, it gets easier the more you do it. Maybe the tubes stretch out? Try doing valsalva a lot, see if you can GENTLY pressurize your inner ear. Or do some skin/scuba diving.

It's common to have scarring in the tubes from childhood infections, you can also just have small tubes I think. It's possible to get plastic tubes surgically installed to keep the natural tubes open, sometimes people do that if they want to be a SEAL, etc badly enough. Probably not worth it for aviation if you are OK with routine ops.

thanks for the info guys. I figured it was just due to inflamed sinuses/canals. However, I do have small ears, or openings atleast. Whenever I get a set of earbuds for my ipod, I have to use the smallest possible rubber pieces that it comes with. Maybe this has something to do with it....oh well. I guess time will tell.

Have your primary care doc recommend an ENT, or let him / her have a look himself. Inflammation from allergies would be obvious, and is easily treated as noted above. If this isn't the issue, you need to find out what gives before you go up high again. 25,000 feet of pressure will bend your nerve endings, as you found out. Yes, "exercising" the eustachian tubes helps, but you're already doing that enough in your normal flying.

It's worth the copay to find out. :)

You don't really exercise them in normal flight if the pressure changes are slow enough not to require a valsalva. Go diving.

We had a pilot in our company blow out his ear drum last year. Not fun.

Your outer ear canal size has no relevance on your eustacian tube size. Tubes could be installed through eardrum to equalize pressure, but swimming, showering and such becomes a concern due to water getting into the inner ear. I had an eardrum rupture due to an infection, the rupture itself does not hurt, it is the pressure on the inside of the eardrum that hurts, and that's what you felt. If and when the eardrum ruptures, it may acctually feel like a relief, because now the pressure is equal. A squirt of Afrin prior to descent may also help open up the eustacians.

The tubes I was referring to are actually installed inside the eustachian tubes, kind of like an artery stent. It apparently works very well, provides free pressure flow without any effert so you don't have to take any action to equalize...it just happens.

Ive heard of these. Considering a surf on an almost daily basis (when I'm not flying) this might be an issue. I'm sure its just allergies, but I'll have the doc take a look.