Ear Infections and Flying

I got a phone call yesterday from someone asking about her son flying with an ear infection. Here's my advice on that one. If you have an ear infection you should be taking a decongestant for at least 24 hours before you fly. This will help take the congestion out of the eustachian tube so that when you take off your ear doesn't plug up. You can use any of the over the counter decongestants, just follow the instructions on the label.

If you have an infection, this should be diagnosed by a physician, who is treating you with antibiotics. Ear pain does not necessarily mean you have an infection. Get it looked at.

When you fly, ask the stewardess for 2 cups with a hot wet paper towel in each. As the plane takes off, hold these up to your ears. This will alleviate some of the discomfort of the take off. Do the same for the landing. You make look a little silly and feel a little funny holding the cups to your ears, but it is way better than the pain associated with the assent and descent. Cabin pressures are set to about 5,000 feet, so if you're landing in Denver, it will be less painful because your ears are used to that pressure. However if you're landing in Houston or somewhere that is sea level, the pressure will be intensified.

It would be best if you didn't have to fly, but sometimes that is not an option. Things that can occur are what we call barotrauma to the ear drums from the pressures outside versus the inside pressure behind the drum. This may lead to scarring and decreased hearing later in life. You can also suffer a rupture of the drum, in which case the pain will be instantly relieved. the bad news is that you will lose your hearing for awhile in that ear depending upon the size of the rupture. Ruptures heal, again leaving some scar tissue which can impair the hearing in the affected ear.

Swelling and Airline Travel

I just got back from a trip to California where I was doing way more physical activity than I usually do. The plane ride back was not a direct flight, so had a short layover and a connecting flight. I was also excessively tired, running on about 3 hours of sleep. As a consequence, I slept on the flights. This was not a bad thing, except that I did not move much for the 4 hours while I was flying. This means no exercising or moving of my legs. The result when I landed in Denver was excessive swelling of my feet, ankles, and lower legs.

This is a perfect set up for a blood clot to form. How I could have prevented this was every 20 minutes or so pulling my toes upward toward my shin and then pointing my toes about 10 times in each direction. When you are awake on the plane you may not be doing these exercises, but you may be moving your legs. You will find that when you do these simple exercises you can prevent the excessive swelling in the lower extremities and help prevent a blood clot from forming.

When I got home, I immediately elevated my feet above the level of my heart to help get the swelling down.