Water up nose and into ear

Two weeks ago, I jumped into a river from about 12 feet off the ground.  When I entered the water, feet first, water went up my nose and I experienced a sharp pain in my ear.  I am assuming that water got up into my ear.  The pain went away after a day but I continue to have ringing in my ear and it sometimes feels clogged.  The doctor examined my ear and saw nothing unusual and told me to take Sudafed for awhile to dry it out.  After a week of that, nothing has changed.  Any suggestions?  The doctor told me to go to an ENT if it doesn't clear up soon.

[ENTMD]

Hello there!

As you discovered, drugs like Sudafed and antihistamines do not work to correct problems in the eustachian tube.

Likely the jump into the river resulted in some very minor barotrauma.  As long as your ear drum is intact, there is no sign of infection, you are not experiencing vertigo and any hearing loss is only a mild conductive loss (your doctor should be able to determine this), there is likely no reason to be alarmed.  These things often simply take time -- sometimes several weeks to a few months!

[artiecat9]

Thanks for your help!  Two follow points here.  One, my regular doctor did say that I had a very minor infection in there so he gave me some drops.  Second, would my regular doctor have been able to determine if there my ear drum was in tact or would an ENT have to determine that?  Thanks in advance.

[ENTMD]

Good questions!

Drops are very reasonable in your circumstance - this is particularly true if the drum has been ruptured. Otherwise, there is no way the drops can get past the intact ear drum.

As for the second point, I sincerely hope that any primary care doc knows how to examine an ear and can tell whether an ear drum has been ruptured or not.  If he has doubts, he should let you know.

[lauravg85]

I went swimming today and water went through my nose and into my ear.  It is very  painful, and I think that it is in the eustacian tube.  I did not have an impact as to force it as this person has, but I don't know how to get the water out.  The pressure is killing me!  Please let me know what to do to get the water out???