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flying with a cold - ear pain

flying with a cold - ear pain

Old Jun 9, 2004, 8:34 am
  #1  
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flying with a cold - ear pain

I didn't want to misdirect Dorlee's thread.

I have a cold and laryngitis. I flew home with it DCA-DFW-SJC last Sunday and have tickets this Sunday SJC IAD, returning Tuesday. On the trip home Sunday my ears hurt, more on descent, more the second leg, unpleasant but manageable though I think if we had had to circle I might have lost my cool.

My ears werre intermittently sensitive for about 36 hours, feel OK now. I'm still coughing a little, still sound like a frog, nose somewhat stuffy.

Are there precautions, things to do aloft, things I might take with me, ... ? Earaches are a new experience for me and I've mostly been lucky to not often fly when I have a cold. I'm mostly worried that I might be doing some damage that would make subsequent travel more uncomfortable.

Sylvia

I did aspirin, steam, lozenges, salt gargling while away. Steam gave the most relief. Not talking at two conferences, have another read my presentation, was an interesting discipline!
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Old Jun 9, 2004, 9:12 am
  #2  
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Originally Posted by SylviaCaras
Are there precautions, things to do aloft, things I might take with me, ... ? Earaches are a new experience for me and I've mostly been lucky to not often fly when I have a cold.
Travelling with a cold---a necessary evil but you can prepare yourself for that flight. First off, take a 12 hour nasal decongestant/antihistamine medication an hour or two before departure. Don't take the stuff which is good for 4-6 hours. What works best for me is Drixoral Cold & Flu. Drixoral makes a Cold & Allergy pill too but it's not as effective as the Cold & Flu. Trust me on this.

Next, bring with you a pack of gum to chew as the plane begins its initial descent. The gum forces you to swallow your saliva and the movement of your jaw helps your ears.

Lastly, bring cotton balls for your ears. They help enormously. I hope these ideas help. Good luck.
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Old Jun 9, 2004, 9:55 am
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I have been subject to respiratory infections my entire life. Thank God medication like Claritin are wonderful prophylactics. However, occasionally I am in your situation. The only thing that helps my ears are to take two styrofoam cups, 2 small cloths, and get the FA to pour a small amount of hot water on the cloths. Then hold the cups over your ears on landing. OK, you look like a doofus - but it's a heck of a lot better than excruciating pain. The moist hot air helps the ear channels expand - ahhhh, good.

Occasionally the FA will refuse to provide the hot water due to our litigious society. God forbid, you could burn your ears. Then ask for hot water for a cup of tea.
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Old Jun 9, 2004, 10:55 am
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We have seen some passengers get serious hot water or steam burns - quite a risk considering that trick almost never works anyway. (Actually I've never seen it work, on myself or any of my passengers to be honest!) Litigiousness or not, I don't recommend it anymore just because it seems too risky for very little benefit.

The best thing is the prophylactic decongestants...second, the gum trick (or even nursing a bottle of water on descent) - keeps the eustacian tube moving and can keep it from getting blocked up. It's not likely to UN-block it once it is though.

The valsalva maneuver can help with a minor blockage: hold your nose, take a deep breath, close your mouth, and blow. Very gentle but steady pressure. If it's seriously blocked, you may be tempted to blow too hard - and you can damage your tympanic membrane. Another word of caution with this maneuver - if you're seriously dehydrated or have a naturally low heart rate, it may be best to avoid. This technique does something called 'carotid massage' and can lower one's heart rate fairly quickly; in fact, many docs will have their patients do this in an emergent situation if their heart rate is dangerously high.

Ear block is nasty, nasty, nasty....my left ear drum actually perforated on a flight once, years ago, before I ever started flying for a living. It was really one of the worst pains I've experienced - and now I have some permanent hearing loss on that side. Yuck! Take care of your ears!
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Old Jun 9, 2004, 11:01 am
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All the ideas are good -BUT the reason your ear hurt is that your eutachian tube is blocked by throat inflammation, thus you cannot equalize your ears If the blockage is severe enough and the pressure change quick enough you could actually rupture your ear drum (and then the brief but BAD pain would NOT be pleasant).

If you can "pop" your ears even at home probably you'll be okay on the plane (unless you get worse in the interim). Obviously if you could avoid flying it would be better for you (and those whom you might infect!)

If you have to fly you could get Afrin nose spray to be used shortly before descent - it should shrink the inflamation pretty quickly. DON"T use it a lot on a regular basis - it is very addictive even tho over the counter (because when it wears off there is a bit of a rebound effect -eg your symptoms get worse so you think you need more, etc). For your particular problem, though, it is a good thing to have on hand.
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Old Jun 9, 2004, 11:03 am
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Originally Posted by estnet
All the ideas are good -BUT the reason your ear hurt is that your eutachian tube is blocked by throat inflammation, thus you cannot equalize your ears
Good point estnet - and good tip with the anti-inflammatory spray!
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Old Jun 9, 2004, 1:10 pm
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alcohol?

No, not to drink, but someone suggested drops in the ear to relieve pain. Ever heard of that?

Several good ideas; thanks.

My understanding is that one is only contagious at the beginning of a cold. Is that false?

Sylvia
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Old Jun 10, 2004, 7:05 am
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I popped an eardrum while flying several years ago---I truly felt like my brains were going to siphon out of my head! I didn't have a cold at the time, but I do suffer from various allergies, so while I felt fine, I wasn't.

Since then, I've been instructed to start taking sudafed, or another decongestant, about 24 hrs before a flight...no matter how well I feel. And continue dosing myself until the flight is over. Since then, no problems...except on the trip or two I didn't.

And I now add a decongestant to the scheme....ever since I found myself unexpectedly sitting behind a cat in a small first class cabin. My sneezing and coughing started about 15 minutes after boarding, luckily my seatmate had some claritin and my symptoms calmed a bit within an hour. Now I always make sure there's at least two floating around my bag....and take one the day prior to the trip, too.
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Old Jun 11, 2004, 12:54 pm
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The other extreme

Originally Posted by SanDiego1K
The only thing that helps my ears are to take two styrofoam cups, 2 small cloths, and get the FA to pour a small amount of hot water on the cloths. Then hold the cups over your ears on landing. OK, you look like a doofus - but it's a heck of a lot better than excruciating pain. The moist hot air helps the ear channels expand - ahhhh, good.
Another thing that strangely enough, once worked for me, was a couple of ice cubes, wrapped in a small cloth pressed right behind each ear.
It was suggested by a FA. I disbelievingly tried it, and voila my ears cleared, and the pain subsided.
Since then, I always travel with water, gum or candy, and if stuffed-up take a decongestant. (funny how my anti-unnecessary-taking-of-medicine stance shifts when I know ear pain is on the way )
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Old Jun 11, 2004, 3:31 pm
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a few ideas

I have a very unique experience, so I won't go into detail, but I will be happy to share if you want me to send a pm.

I use earplanes (at Long's, Walgreens, etc...) on ALL flights now and dispose of them after one use. It greatly helps the pressure on descent, and I cannot fly without them. Sometimes I know I can't fly with them, and I need to cancel altogether. I take Flonase, sudafed, Zyrtec, Astelin, and Afrin before each flight. So maybe, depending on how severe your symptoms are, you could consider some combination of what the others have recommended and a couple of these options.

As funny as this sounds, my ENT dr. recommended before an urgent trip that I take BART (train in SF under the bay) because of the pressure to see how I withstood that, and then to take the elevator up and down in the BofA building downtown to see if I could "blow" my ears clear before I got on a plane. Luckily, I could the time I needed to, but there have been other times where I could not, and I did not fly as it would have been terrible for me.

I truly understand how painful this is and I'm sorry you're having problems with it.
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Old Jun 12, 2004, 11:07 pm
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I have allergies too, and can't fly without taking advil cold+sinus or tylenol sinus beforehand. I also use Rhinocort AQ everyday, and often Zircam. You can buy it at drugstores- it's some kind of a homeopathic gel stuff, but even if it's a placebo affect, I swear it helps. I bring gum, saline nasal spray (dry sinuses on long flights are really painful), lots of tissues, and more advil sinus to take 30 minutes before landing.

I've only had one really bad experience with my ears- flying BOS-NYC in college to go home for Thanksgiving break during college one year- I didn't realize it, but I had just come down with a sinus infection that had spread to also be a double ear infection. Ouch. Very glad the flight was so short & that my mom was picking me up at the airport that time!
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Old Jun 16, 2004, 9:48 pm
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I had problems with my ears coming home from Europe and it lasted for days. It was very painful and sounded like someone had the bass on there stereo thumping. I now take antihistamine/decongestant an hour before any flights that last more than a few hours to avoid this from happening again.
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Old Sep 9, 2004, 8:58 pm
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be careful w/ those ears

I was on a flight back from Europe 7 months ago and had my usual ear aches. I didn't have success popping them during the flight and the condition didn't improve after landing. I went to an ENT and was greeted with the news that the hearing loss is permanent! No real explanation of what happened after several tests and an MRI either.
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Old Sep 10, 2004, 7:30 pm
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Originally Posted by spellbound2
....I use earplanes (at Long's, Walgreens, etc...) on ALL flights now and dispose of them after one use. It greatly helps the pressure on descent, and I cannot fly without them. .....
I also always use earplanes. But I can get 4 flight segments out of one pair.
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Old Sep 12, 2004, 12:06 am
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RE: Flying Colds

When I have to fly with a cold, ie: stuffed up nose, blocked ears, I try to buy some Afrin, or a store variety, of a nasal spray. It does wonders for 12 hours, and the altitude will hardly affect the symptoms. There is a caveat with these nasal sprays though. They are not to be used more than twice per day, and no more than THREE DAYS in a row. This should take care of the problems with flying with a cold.
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