ruptured tympanic
 

I know this is mostly a security forum, but thought I would try a personal safety question. I recently ruptured my tympanic membrane, and want to know if anybody else has ever tried to fly with this condition. I will be happy to go to a doctor in the morning, but if anybody has advice, then it may just save me a trip to the ER.

TIA
Loser with a bloody ear! :confused:

As this relates more to travel in general, I’m going to transfer it to TravelBuzz so it can gain a wider audience.
Thanks.....


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Cholula
Travel Safety/Security Forum Moderator

The only consequence a ruptured tympanic membrane has on flying is that you will never have compression/decompression (descent/ascent) pain during the flight!

Travel tips:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/travel.htm

the problem is traveling with an ear infection.
once the tympanic membrane has ruptured then its not a problem.
the question is how do you know the membrane is ruptured? did somebody look? if you are having fluid come out of the ear, how do you know it is not something else?

Pure Hell
 

Been there, flown that, will never do it again. Pain, more than you can imagine, shooting through my ear, straight into my brain for the duration of the flight and some days after.

Forget the ER. If you really did damage the tympanic membrane, you need to see an ENT now. And if you have to fly soon, find out from the doc exactly what they reccomend in terms of decongestants, ear drops and pain killers.

Yup, you will be fine. Hubby has flown at least twice with ruptured tympanic, no problems at all. In fact, even after arriving home, there was nothing the doctor did anyway, so it just healed on its own.

Robin

:p
I thought this was going to be a thread listing the ridiculous subject lines in spam...

some recent ones:
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Hi, open-endedness

Wow, thats amazing that you had so much pain, and I'm sorry to hear that! Both times (that we know for sure) that hubby ruptured his, there was no pain at all with flying. Could it be the stage of healing perhaps? I have no idea how the same injury could produce such varying symptoms; maybe the OP should have it checked out before she flies!

Robin

Thanks to all who responded. I did see the ENT and he said it was only lacerated. My concern with flying was mostly the bleeding involved, and being exposed to all the aircraft germs. Good to go. :)