hearing

I blew up a tube this morning in the shop during a repair. My head was right over the wheel. I wasn't able to hear well out of both ears initially. My right ear has cleared; however, my left still sounds/feels like I am under water. I also have a squiggly sound when I swallow. Any idea how long this will last?

Our HR person actually called a doctor to ask if I should get checked. He said to wait 24 hours. He also felt that if I had busted my ear drum that I would be in a lot of pain.

So... B4E... how is that hearing now... coming back?

I know how loud those tubes can be when they go like that... sounds like a gun-shot!

I have no idea how long it will last, but it must be about 12 hours now? I'd be thinking about going to the doctors in the next few hours... you don't wanna muck about with your hearing...

The weird thing is when I swallow hard or cough, I get a terrible squeak in the ear. It sounds and feels like there are bugs in there. I had a hard time going to sleep. I sleep on my left side which is the ear effected. I hate to admit it, but I think I will need to get it checked.

bike4ever - please get your ear checked, preferably from an ear-nose-throat doc. Don't want to mess with your hearing if at all possible. Let us know what your doc says.

Don't mean to be the voice of doom and gloom, but my ear squeaked like that after it was punctured and drained. It does grow back up, but I'd get it checked all the same.

I'd be heading to the ENT or your primary care doc.

Wonder if something burst in your ear drum, and ooozed all thru there (the sound like water) and it's draining down your eustacian tube (the squeak when you swallow or cough)?

I've never had something like this with my ears, but we suffered thru many gooey drippy drainy ear infections with Small Knot with similar noises to what you describe. (from fluid in his ear and draining down the tubes into the throat)

So our head of HR sent me to a doctor today. My ear drum is intact (good news). I do have some hearing loss at the moment. Not significant - but there. Will it return? The doctor's answer - maybe! Boy that's encouraging. Oh well, maybe I'll just have to get used to the dull hum in my ear.

Thanks for posting last night...I was wondering if you saw a doc yesterday. I hope that your hearing returns to normal soon and that the only humming you hear is the tune that you are humming to yourself.

That's kind of scary! I rely on my hearing to make a living, so I'll be super careful when I pump up my tires!

Pedal Wench - The key is verifying that the tire is seeded properly on the rim. I was installing a new tire on a crappy bike (Magna). I got distracted by a co-worker and didn't check that it was seeded correctly. Boy, you should have seen the tube - completely blown apart.