While in Bonaire this winter I developed a mild case of swimmer’s ear. I ignored it for a couple of days but awoke one night when it became worse. Not fully awake, I stumbled to the kitchen to put a few drops of vinegar in the ear hoping it would help a bit until the clinic opened. I was glad I had bought some vinegar recently. I put a few drops in the ear after spilling some down my neck. Instantly, I was in serious pain, the kind that makes you nauseous. I looked at the bottle of vinegar, the label was Dutch, but I saw in small print, “80% acidity” (table vinegar is 5%). I flushed my ear and neck with water and put some aloe gel on my neck which by then had a wrinkled white stripe down it. The pain in my ear was intense but slowly faded over the next two hours. The next day was Sunday, it didn’t hurt anymore, I could hear, so I waited until Monday (dumb) and then went to the clinic. I saw the doc and two days later the specialist, who periodically comes over from Curacao. I had a nasty acid burn and blister on the ear drum and the white neck stripe had turned a crusted dark brown, but both docs agreed I was lucky that my hearing was unaffected. In about two weeks, I was fully healed. Anything but 5% vinegar was unknown to me. Apparently the docs have been trying to get that 80% stuff off the market. Tragically, it is swallowed by people wanting to commit suicide. There is no warning on the label and it sits in the supermarket right next to regular vinegar, so be forewarned.

Oh Natalie, I hope you are doing better now?


I'll stick with the mix I learned while teaching swim classes: 3 parts isopropyl alcohol to 1 part hydrogen peroxide right after a swim to prevent swimmer's ear. It's cheaper to mix it yourself than buying store brands

(Message edited by michelle_s on May 25, 2005)

(Message edited by michelle_s on May 25, 2005)

My goodness Nathalie! I'm glad that both you and your hearing are okay. What a scare!
Thanks for the vinegar strength warning.
And thanks Michelle for the recipe.

Mare

You need to be careful using hydrogen peroxide, it to is available in industrial strength. I believe 3% is the strongest that can be used.

I'm sure a Google would bring further information.

Also a Google of swimmers ear will give some info on home brews, 50-50 alcohol and white vinegar (the stuff that goes on chips!) is one from memmory.

Dave

Nathalie, What a terrible ordeal that must have been for you!!! Thanks for the warning and glad that everything turned out ok for you!

What a horrendous experience, Nathalie!
When I moved to Bonaire, I could not find vinegar at Warehouse because I had not yet learned the Dutch word, so I asked the manager where it was. As he led me to it, he cautioned me that Dutch vinegar is much stronger than American and said I must very much dilute it before use. I have saved the strong vinegar for killing ants or fungus in my house. 80% strength will act like bleach to clear away mold and mildew.
As for swimmer's ear, the fastest cure is to cut an onion in half, microwave it for 45 seconds, then hold it slightly away from your ear (so as not to burn the flesh). It's amazing; works much better and more permanently than vinegar or vinegar and alcohol or the store-bought fluids, and you don't even pour anything into your ear.
Thank goodness you're okay!!
Tish

Tish, you are such a delightful fount of diverse knowledge! I hope we can meet when next we visit the island.
Nathalie, thanks for the report on the Extremely Dangerous Vinegar..trouble is, being a guy and all, now I want some for a cleaning aid too.

I glad you survived your ordeal Nathalie!

The solution I use is equal parts isopropyl alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, white vinegar, and water. That solution was given to me by my doctor after I came back from diving with a blocked ear. We rinse with it after every dive, and at night leave it in 5 minutes per ear, and it works for us.

We use a 50/50 mixture of isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and white vinegar, prepared before we leave the US and stored in an empty 4-oz contact lens saline bottle (label removed; identified as 50/50 alcohol/vinegar mixture using "Magic Marker" with permanent ink). Liberally squirt some in each ear after exiting the water. Vinegar kills any critters and alcohol dries the ear. While we may smell like a salad with Italian dressing for a while afterwards, we have not had any problems with swimmer's ear. Also useful if you get stung by a jellyfish. We always empty the bottle after each trip, allow it to dry out and refill with fresh mixture before the next trip.

Natalie, Thank you again for sharing your hard-earned info on the differences between vinegar concentrations.

A google search on Swim-ear treatment netted many recipes, almost all of which prescribe a mix of alcohol and vinegar, but none warned against your horrific experience.


Here's a neat tidbit about preventing swimmer's ear from Mothernature.com:

Mineral oil, baby oil, or lanolin. These can be preventive solutions before swimming. Apply as you would the alcohol (below).

A squirt of rubbing alcohol. First, put your head down, with the affected ear up. Pull the ear upward and backward (to help straighten the canal) and squeeze a dropperful of alcohol into the ear canal. Wiggle your ear to get the alcohol to the bottom of the canal. Then tilt your head to the other side and let the alcohol drain out.

A kitchen solution. Eardrops of white vinegar or equal parts of alcohol and white vinegar will kill fungus and bacteria, says Dr. House. Use it the same way you would alcohol.

Thanks, Seb.
When are you making your next trip?
Tish

Thanks Nathalie!!! Man,I would have never known that.

OK, I think DAN needs to get a call about oil in the ear Michelle. I'm getting slightly creeped by that idea. That's how Old Hamlet's Ghost Got His.
Not soon enough, Tish.

OUCH! Glad to know you're doing better. I guess is a good thing I carry the ear drying solution in my dive bag. Thanks for sharing. Excellent heads up! Feel better and happy diving. Coach Izzy

Seb, I didn't say I'd TRY the oil in the ear thing... I just said it was interesting. I try to be careful about what I don't say. I just LOVE what you all come up with when things are left to your imagination.

Ah, yes, Seb, as enacted in young Hamlet's "mousetrap." Do you think the old king did a lot of diving in Denmark? I hate the cold water myself.
Tish

Thanks all. BTW, it was a FAST way to kill the swimmer's ear bacteria. Not only that, but I haven't had ANY mold or mildew in the ear since. :-)

Nathalie, whew, what a nightmare! I once grabbed my "swimmer's ear" bottle (from the dark bathroom) instead of my EYE DROPS and put the swimmer's ear in my eye! OUCH! It was on our first trip to Bonaire and after our first dive...needless to say we didn't dive the rest of the day. It took almost the entire day before my eye didn't hurt...we did do a night snorkel that night though!

Ah yes, you know you've been doing a lot of diving when you clean your mask with swim-ear and put mask cleaner in you ears...

Tish, I must admit I included the bit about Hamlet for your amusement. I don't get many chances for Shakespearian allusions on BT!
Gee Michelle, I usually only worry about what I say, and don't worry at all about the unsaid. Keeping my mouth closed is what keeps me from getting into trouble.

Heres my suggestion..As soon as you arrive on Bonaire (we rank this right up with shopping for food), go to the botika in town & have the pharmacist make you up "diver drops"..The cost is approx $2.50 per bottle & worth every penny. It's a solution in a glycerine base using some vinegar..Use after diving & at night.
For those of you doing home prep formulas, my research has concluded that you should avoid using isoprophyl (rubbing) alcohol..The reason is this has a tendancy to REMOVE ear wax. The ear wax PROTECTS the outer ear canal (similar to the way a surfer puts wax on a board). So you want to keep the ear wax there & not remove it.

Vince, I have heard that about needing to keep earwax in the ear for protection. On the other hand, I disagree with you about alcohol. From my personal experience, and from what I've read, the key to preventing swimmer's ear is to keep the ear canal dry. As we know, the vinegar is used to kill fungus and bacteria. The alcohol is what gets trapped water out of the ear canal.
To dry the ear canal, one shouldn't use q-tips (which certainly will remove protective earwax), instead cotton balls or a towel to soak up moisture.

By they way, that is why I thought that suggestion about using mineral oil was interesting. It would add a layer of oil protection to the ear (to aid ear wax), but I'm concerned that after adding oil, it would be near impossible to clean after.

Anyway, I'm going to try Gail's recipe next. Tish's onion sounds pretty wild too.

The onion really works better than any liquid formula, store-bought or homemade. You can even re-use the same onion. The only drawback from the standpoint of vacation use is that you've gotta stay someplace that has a microwave.
Tish

Michelle S.. The solution sold in the local botika does in fact dry the ear out without using alcohol.
Obviously, we're talking of using this prophylactically.. I find it to be less irritating to the external ear canal then using an alcohol based preparation (before I used to use a 50-50 home made prep of alcohol/vinegar). The stuff sold in the botika works better IMHO. For $2.50 you can't beat it. This prep is different then that sold in our local pharmacies for "swimmers ear" which are all from what I've seen alcohol based.
Now if at some point in time I ever do develop otis externa, I must say the "onion remedy" sounds intriging!