I finally had an appointment with the Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) Consultant surgeon at the hospital yesterday. He confirmed that I did indeed have Surfer’s Ear but thankfully didn’t want to send me off for surgery to have it fixed.
He refer me to get fitted for some earplugs though to help prevent it getting any worse and amazingly that was done there and then. So in a couple of weeks I should have some free custom moulded earplugs courtesy of the NHS. I shall have to wear them when swimming, surfing and windsurfing.
Such much for keeping fit and healthy! Since I started trying to get a little fitter again I seem to have spent more time at the doctors surgery than ever before. In addition, every time I go to the doctors I seem to be told not to do some sort of exercise.
Last year I had a couple of visits to the cardiac unit and was told to refrain from anything too strenuous for a few months. So far this year I’ve had an ear infection and have been told not to go swimming. The ear infection has apparently been brought on by Surfer’s Ear.
The narrowing of my ear canal due to Surfer’s Ear means that it is no longer as good at ‘self-cleaning’ and ‘self-drying’ as it should be making it susceptible to infections.
Despite antibiotics, ear drops and refraining from swimming the infection still hasn’t cleared up. I’m therefore continuing with the ear drops and have been told to avoid getting it too wet. I might try swimming with blu-tack in my ear soon though! I’ve also been referred to an ENT specialist to see if anything needs to be done about my Surfer’s Ear. I don’t think I’ll let them go down the surgery route yet though. This is the first infection I’ve had and although it is proving fairly stubborn, I don’t think I should jump into the surgery option straight away. Obvisouly if I keep getting infections then that will change.
In the meantime how is a man supposed to get fit if everytime he visits the doctor he gets told not to swim or run or ride a bike etc.!
I’ve had an ear infection for a few days and eventually gave in to the nagging I was getting from Anna and her Mum and phoned the doctors. I was told to go to A&E where I saw the on call doctor. As suspected he told me that I had a pretty bad ear infection in both ears, but also guessed that I was a surfer as apparently I have pretty severe ‘surfer’s ear’ as well.
Looks as though my hearing could get worse pretty soon!
Surfer’s ear is the common name for an abnormal bone growth within the ear canal, more accurately known as an exostosis. It is caused by irritation from cold wind and water exposure that causes the bone surrounding the ear canal to develop lumps of new bony growth which constrict the ear canal. Not surprising that I would suffer from it then.
There isn’t much that I can do about it other than avoiding going out on the water in cold, windy conditions – Not really an option! Wearing earplugs or neoprene headbands when I’m out there may help, but otherwise I guess I should just resign myself to going deaf with dignity! If it gets really bad they can perform a surgical procedure to remove the growths, but that would mean at least a couple of months off the water while it healed.
At the moment it’s OK, but it could be the cause if the infection as the constriction of the ear canal from these growths can trap debris, leading to painful and difficult to treat infections. For now I’m on a double dose of antibiotics to try to clear it up.
