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Skydiving for post mastoidectomy/tympanoplasty
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Skydiving for post mastoidectomy/tympanoplasty

Greetings. I'm an avid skydiver and want to take my wife on a skydive for her birthday.

As a child she had: a canal wall up, then canal wall down mastectomy, two tympanoplasty tubes (one in each ear), and her middle ear was "reconstructed" with her external ear lobe cartilage.

I know this is a complex question, but do these procedures damage the Eustachian tube? Will she be able to equalize the pressure in freefall? If the answer is maybe, then we'll go see a doc. But if the general consensus is "hell no, are you crazy" then I feel like it won't even be worth the bother and we'll scrap the idea.

One thing to note, she was an airline flight attendant (after surgeries) and passed their ear pressure exam (but after several attempts after hacking and nose blowing). And commercial airliners pressurize to 8000 feet, so I know she can equalize, I just want to make sure she'll be able to do it fast enough for rapid descent.

I've read that scuba diving is forbidden, but I get the sense it's more about infection from debris and water in the mastoid bowl rather than the pressure, which gives me hope. But someone please offer some guidance here, I'd really love to jump with her! Thanks so much.
Larry
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