What do we have 'ear'

About two weeks before attending Austria to take part in the Ironman in July 2007, I was blessed with a very painful ear infection in the right ear. I had a series of ear drops prescribed after having a wick soaked in tar packed into the canal for a week (not nice). Eventually the inflammation eased and the drops could reach the source of the pain. I was told no swimming and that the only prevention was to never ever let the ear get wet. Great…some advice that was to a Channel Aspirant. Anyway, I used the setback to begin my swim taper for the event and swam through it albeit keeping the sessions very brief so as not to loose the feel of the water.

I mentioned at the end of the last post that I had been getting some grief from the left ear, well on Friday (05.10.07) I visited my GP and received some drops, but as usual it didn’t help due to the swelling and the canal being more or less closed, so today I popped to the ENT at hospital where again I had them suctioned and guess what …they told me the only cure was not to swim. Some help that is. I do have some moulded swim plugs that cost me a small fortune, but I have also learnt that the hospital will provide me with a set free of charge !! Well that’s got to be a result.

I can still swim, though it is kind of fortunate that I had planned a easy recovery week before a tough weekend in the Lake District. I have another appointment next week when hopefully I will get the all clear. I know swimmers ears can be very problematic so I just wanted to sort early this time and continue to take as much prevention measures as possible.