Are You Afraid To Fly?

teriwtt
Sun, 24 Apr 2011 11:30:09 +0000

MomLive - I’ve also had an eardrum rupture in flight. I don’t know if there’s anything more excruciating than an eardrum that’s about to rupture. But I had a cold, and could not avoid flying. For two-three days prior to the flight, I’d used Sudafed, Mucinex, a steamer, etc.

One important lesson I did learn, though, afterwards - when I went to my ENT the next day and told him what happened, he said in the future, if I absolutely have to fly with a cold and cannot pop my ears before the flight, I could call him and he’d perform a minor procedure on me the day before the flight (he says he has a couple of patients who are pilots that he has to do this with sometimes). He uses a small needle to place a small hole in the eardrum to help stabilize the pressure between inner ear and outer ear. He says it really doesn’t hurt (yea, right), but once you have it done, swimming is off limits wherever you are going. I almost did it last year when I got a cold right before we went to Key West, but when I went to his office, he encouraged me to pop my ears while sitting there (I was afraid to try to hard on my own, thinking I might rupture an eardrum) and with some effort I was able to. Because I wanted to swim in Key West, he held off on the procedure and told me I could call him on Sunday, before I left Monday morning and he’d be willing to come in and do the procedure on Sunday if I needed it. It bought me some time to try to keep the ear open, which I was able to do. I was incredibly appreciative of his offer, as I will say it was the one time I was petrified to fly!