About a month ago I got some water in my right ear, swimming in the sea. Unlike Taylor Swift, I’ve not been able to shake it off.
There is a ‘full’ feeling on the right side of my head and my Naims sound middling at best. I feel a bit deaf.
Yesterday, I saw the nurse at my surgery. My right ear is full of old hard wax. The solution (literally) flooding it with olive oil nightly. She wants to see me again in two weeks.
I pass this on in case any other members have similar issues. It is not always the stereo.
Stay well and please see a nurse if you are in any doubt about your own hearing.
The nurse will probably ‘syringe’ your ear with a warm fluid to release the wax, then reverse the process to suck it all out. Gruesome!
Bur worthwhile when you hear clearly again.
You may even prefer the sounds that your Naim equipment is making!
Or, I suppose that it’s possible that - with everything working as intended - you find that you preferred it muffled, as it was before! Then you may need to buy a set of ear-muffs.
The actual best treatment is microsuction which ideally is done after the wax has been softened with drops or whatever. But you have to pay. It’s about £50 to have both ears done in the UK. No-one will do syringing any more.
Cost me about £80 at an ear specialist , I had lost around 50% of hearing at this point
It happened in the Pandemic and I drove to surgery to ask for an appointment, I was told that I could not have this at present - but the doctor could ring me to discuss.
Having said that, the receptionist took a look at my face and considered what she had said and for what condition
Same issue myself at the moment though with my left ear. Kicked in after a swim on Monday. I’ll oil both ears for a couple of weeks and then book a vacuuming.
I always breathe on the left side when I swim crawl - which is about 3 times a week.
Have done that for years.
So my left ear drum is often wet from swimming.
My left ear drum has had a few problems lately - colds, maybe some sound damage at a stupidly loud Robocobra Quartet gig in Manchester a few months ago that left me half-deaf in that ear for several days.
I have had the ear checked and there is some hearing loss at 2000 Hz.
The good news is that my doc just referred me to my local hospital audiogy dept at my request to get some swimming ear plugs - I found out by calling them that they mold these to fit your exact ear and sell them to you for £20 a pair, with free replacements.
If you look online, you find that many NHS hospital audiology depts provide this personally-molded swim ear plug service at about £20 a pair - but I think you normally have to be referred there by a doctor.
If you can’t get a referral any of the high street hearing aid specialists do this as well…at greater cost of course. I’ve had a pair for years and can hear well when using them in the pool, wouldn’t swim without them now.
I’ve got one these. Using a device you can see what’s going on.
Of course I would only recommend going in so far and not in the inner ear, but almost all build up is in the middle.
If in doubt one can take a screen shot and send it to a professional who could advise.
They do appear quite large in this image, but they are very tiny and the probe itself with the blue scoops are so dainty. It’s not like your shoving an agricultural insemination device in there.
I hope you are only going into your outer ear! Stick that think into your middle ear and you’ll have a pierced eardrum. Get it anywhere near your inner ear and you’ll be permanently deaf, if not dead
