Hello Drs,
I have had a cold for a few days now, since last Friday. Nothing too bad, was able to train as usual, despite feeling a bit groggy.
Anyway, last night I blew my nose quite hard and my left ear made a loud ‘pop’ and immediately it felt like I couldn’t equalise the pressure. I tried all manner of swallowing, nose pinching, yawning, burping but nothing would get it to pop back.
I went to bed, but the feeling of pressure got more intense and really quite painful. Felt like someone was constantly jamming their finger down my earhole, and I didn’t get much sleep at all because of it.
My hearing from that ear was muffled and I was worried that I could have damaged my ear drum, so I saw my GP today. She said the ear drum is in tact, but it is red and inflamed. She said to see if it gets better on its own and, if not, to use some antibiotics.
So, I was wondering what you would suggest about training at the moment, specifically regarding the valsalva? I’m half way through you HLM template at the moment and don’t want to miss any training days. However, I’m a little concerned about what could happen when doing a strong valsalva during the heavy lifts. Do you think I have anything to be worried about?
Thanks a lot for all your help!
I think that training is probably fine, you’re going to valsalva anyway (with any challenging effort of any sort), and if you can train- I would train.
Further, it’s not unusual for an upper respiratory infection (cold, in this case) to produce the ear symptoms you’re experiencing.
Thanks Jordan, that’s good to know.
Funnily enough, just before I started to write this I felt something move in my ear and then some thin yellow fluid (pus?) ran out - lovely! The pressure and hearing have gone pretty much back to normal. Hopefully that will be the end of the matter!
Hello again!
So, I’ve now found out that the ear drum has burst. That released the pus, relieving the pressure.
Could I just ask if your advice would change given this? Is it a case of try it and see how it goes?
Thanks!
You’ve been diagnosed with a ruptured tympanic membrane?
Hi Austin,
Sorry, I was very clear. I haven’t been formally diagnosed but I have an acquaintance who is a retired GP. When I described what happened, he said it sounded a lot like the membrane had ruptured i.e. the sudden relief of the pressure when the yellow fluid rushed out.
I won’t have the chance to see my GP until next week so I was going by my friend’s recommendation to treat it as ruptured until then.
Do you think it’s OK to continue to train for the time being? If the membrane has ruptured do you think the recommendation would be not to do anything with a strong valsalva for a while? I did try some relatively light deadlifts today as an experiment and there was no pain in the ear but I could feel a build up of pressure there which dissapated with some popping and crackling afterwards.
Thanks.
Yes, I suspect that would be the recommendation - I would definitely get this looked at.