tore a hole in my ear drum

[Limishowman3]

I was out wakeboarding yesterday and landed dirty and tore a hole in my ear drum. Doc said it should heal up on its own in about 6 weeks and if i do get in the water put in an ear plug. What is yalls take on how long i should be out for riding. I was thinking two weeks and then stick a plug in there and just take some easy sets and until my six weeks is up.

[brain_rinse]

Sorry to hear! (pun intended... ) If you get a good silicone ear plug, why wait?

[jjolson]

From what I know as long as you have good silicone ear plugs you don't have to take any time off. It really has to do with your comfort level on how soon you want to start back. Make sure you have a follow up to make sure it heals completely

[skiyaker]

any dizziness or loss of balance? If not put a plug in it and get back out there man!

[zegm]

About 2 months ago I posted about my sons ruptured ear drum so you might want to go back and look for "slap boxing".
Yeah you could put a silicon ear plug in but are you 100% sure that the bacteria you pick up from the water around the ear (which is from the lake a nice bacteria rich stew) won't migrate into your open wound? We were told that it would be six months before my son could get in the water, but he did have to have surgery to repair his ear drum, it was ruptured so bad they took a skin graph from behind his ear and made a patch to cover the hole in his ear drum. Luckily my son (12 years old) is a FAST healer and after about 3 weeks he was allowed back in the water, after the doctor (ENT surgeon) verified that it had healed over. BUT I promised the doctor that he would wear a Pro-Tec helmet with the ear cover whenever he was skiing, kneeboarding, surfing or wakeboarding. My son wasn't happy (it was his younger sisters helmet) at first but now he just grabs the helmet and has fun. If I was you I wouldn't get it wet for at least 2 weeks and then after that I would revisit the doctor (are you going to an Ear Nose and Throat Doc?) and ask if the ear plug was ok to use. And for sure if I was you I would get a helmet with the ear pads. That spot will be weak and it wouldn't take much at all to blow it out again! Only the next time it could be worse and they could be going behind your ear for a skin graph! That hurt my son more than the ruptured drum!

[jester]

dang that sucks. The simple answer is just don't crash then you will not get water in the ear.

[Limishowman3]

Well I will only get one set in anyways in the next two weeks, so ill probably just sit it out. Im going to wait and see if it is healing properly before i ride again. I will probably wear plugs too, and take your advice and just not fall. Simple as that haha. Yah I really don't like the idea of the skin graph either. Well thanks for yall's input guys I really appreciate it. And trust me this fall won't keep me from trying again. I mean I almost landed it!

[mmandley]

Same thing happened to a buddy of mine last Tuesday on Henry Hagg. He took a nasty fall and ruptured his ear drum also. He went to the doc and she told him 7 days or so. He came out today and wore some earplugs and did fine. He didn't do anything big today just some nice easy ridding.

He tried the swimmers ear stuff. Basically it was alcohol and vinegar, but his doc said jsut keep it dry and your ok.

[Ian Brantford]

I must agree on the importance of wearing a helmet with ear flaps.

There are some who say that helmets do more harm than good in watersports. My response is that you have to be wearing a correctly fitting helmet. I agree that having significant room for the helmet to move may or may not make it smack your head hard than the water. Adjust it so that fits well.

I have mostly Protec helmets. Some of them use an internal strap adjusting attachment that has a little peg on each side that fits into one of four holes. Note that these can let go, especially during a crash (which might be by design). They should be checked each time they are used. You have to pull off each ear flap's front snap to see the strap's attachment.

Also, it's time for me to again plug wearing a Neck Roll (http://cinchmax.com/_wsn/page3.html).

I recently started using some watersport goggles (http://www.bartswatersports.com/catalog.asp?P=4427) that prevent "eye openers". It's amazing how much braver they make me.

[Limishowman3]

damn well maybe ill ride then friday. I have some silicon ear plugs that u roll in a ball then stick in ur ear. It says its waterproof but i just didn't know how they would do on a fall. What kind did he use?