LOUD ear ringing

[juxtapilot]

Hey Doc,

I woke up this morning with REALLY loud ear ringing in my right ear and in fact it's so loud, it woke me up. It's muffling my hearing in my right ear. Should I be concerned?

[WacoFan]

Originally Posted by juxtapilot

Hey Doc,

I woke up this morning with REALLY loud ear ringing in my right ear and in fact it's so loud, it woke me up. It's muffling my hearing in my right ear. Should I be concerned?

I'm not the doctor...but have had significant ear problems and have served on the Board of a non-profit here in KC that is probably the most advanced ear related disease and treatment center in the region. My answer would be - get it checked out immediately. Just my opinion.

[My Flight Surgeon]

It is probably an acute infection. See a doctor.

[juxtapilot]

Originally Posted by My Flight Surgeon

It is probably an acute infection. See a doctor.

Thanks Doc. Wilco.

[FlyGuy9k4]

just my .02 on this as it JUST HAPPENED TO ME... and i chose to do nothing... too late for me... please read...

I'm doing OK now, just lots of pressure and thankfully, my ear drums did not burst! Just lots of inflammation and pressure still. It all happened because I decided to fly with a slight pressure in my head.

I was doing a lesson teaching emergency descent in the Duchess and when we leveled off after the descent, I was in lots of pain. My ears clogged half way down. For those of you that don't know what a emergency descent in the duchess looks like, think of a falling rock, doing 140kts, in a turn, in a VERY steep descent.

It all happened because I flew with a bit of a sinus infection thinking it would be "alright", because my theory was, I was not going to be in a pressurized cabin so no big deal right?... WRONG...

Nothing out of the norm that morning before I flew, just a little bit of pressure thinking it was the front coming through and my sinuses would adjust once at altitude and everything would clear up as it usually did in the past. -This is me admitting to not seeing a doctor and using the changes in altitude pressure on a regular basis while flying to open and close my sinus cavities to "self clear" up my nasal passages without being medicated to treat for my inflammation that occasionally occurs. (I usually have allergies but I found that climbing up to altitude would open those cavities and "dry up my allergies". This only works for a short time, as I found out, however in the long run it will catch back up and turn into a major infection if you don't take care of it now on the slightest onset of blockage or pressure in your sinuses.

My AME said it was a combination of a sinus infection and acute rhino sinusitis. -apparently two different things but closely related, one is more allergies gone bad.

I am more saying this to give future advice as a Flight Instructor to you in your Aviation Career. If you think a local flight is no big deal for you sinus allergies or anything related to, you want to rethink that and stay on the ground, a day or two without pay is better than a week or two or more being grounded for blown ear drums.

Ear pain, sinus issues, allergies or inflamed ear drums are nothing to mess around with before or during flying. If your ear drum does rupture, YOU CAN AND PROBABLY WILL LOSE YOUR EQUILIBRIUM and especially in IMC conditions, in my opinion, it would likely be a FATAL outcome due to pain and other symptoms interfering with flying the plane.

Best advice- see the doc... I did, but wish i did sooner before I flew...

[WacoFan]

If it is an ache or a pain somewhere, that's one thing. Blow it off as long as you can stand it. With eyes, ears, or anything that could compromise the acquisition of a medical, I would sure not chance it - I'd see a doctor asap.

[Number1atNumber2]

Ouch, I remember flying freight when I had an sinus infection, and that is NO JOKE on how painful descents are! I know I'm lucky I didn't do a lot of damage. And the infection didn't seem all that bad at first, but I'm sure flying with it aggravated the hell out of it.

So um, yeah, go see a Dr.