fungus

[Venchka]

Jeff,
There’s a huge difference between competitive swimmers submerging their ears for hours a day in practice and competitions and you walking around in the rain with your head vertical.
For what it’s worth, the silicone ear plugs I suggested are used by swimmers. It even says so on the package. Check it out.
Wayne

[jefals]

What are you resting your head on at night on the trail?

Now THAT'S a good question! Because up to the night before I had the problem, I always used my stuff sack with my clothes for a pillow.
But prior to my hike I bought a sea-to-summit 2 oz blow-up pillow, and I was using that for the first time. At least part of the time. It kept slipping out from under my head, so I was sometimes using it and sometimes the stuffsack.

[jefals]

Jeff,
There’s a huge difference between competitive swimmers submerging their ears for hours a day in practice and competitions and you walking around in the rain with your head vertical.
For what it’s worth, the silicone ear plugs I suggested are used by swimmers. It even says so on the package. Check it out.
Wayne

Well, as a kid, we (me, my sister, my friends) would be in the pool all day long in the summer down there in Bham, AL. That was a million years ago, so I don't remember about ear infections. I know if we got em, they didn't keep us out of action for long... I never used any ear plugs. Or sunscreen...
Just remember coming home, eyes stingin from the chlorine, bodies smellin like chlorine, catching lightning bugs after dark, going to sleep exhausted, feelin great --- BUT -- I digress!! FUN TIMES!!

[nsherry61]

DO NOT EVER PUT VINEGAR OR ALCOHOL IN YOUR EAR!!!! Next time you go to your doctor ask him and he will tell you how incredibly stupid this advice is. You can do serious damage to your ear if you do this.

Bronk, you seem to have an exceptionally strong aversion to a widely used and highly effective treatment for outer ear infections recommended by many doctors and used by pretty much every SCUBA diver and competitive swimmer I've ever met. And given that I have been both a competitive swimmer and SCUBA diver in the past, that's a lot of people with a lot of success using a practice that is considered medically sound and safe. I have heard some doctors recommend a 50% water, 25% alcohol and 25% vinegar recipe instead of the more popular 50/50 alcohol and vinegar option to reduce the concentration of alcohol which can be an irritant for some people some of the time, but then, you can also use a solution of 70% rubbing alcohol instead of 90% also. Whatever.

Anyway Bronk, I'm mostly curious where your strong issue with this super easy, widely used, and safe solution to a common problem comes from. Are you just being a naive troll or what?

[kestral]

If you are recovering from an outer ear infection, make sure you wipe down your earbuds with some alcohol.

Try not to disrupt the skin inside ears with scratching or q tips. Saw a guy using a toothpick in place of a q tip today, ugh.

[jefals]

If you are recovering from an outer ear infection, make sure you wipe down your earbuds with some alcohol.

Try not to disrupt the skin inside ears with scratching or q tips. Saw a guy using a toothpick in place of a q tip today, ugh.

Ok, thanks, but I don't use em.

[jefals]

Try not to disrupt the skin inside ears with scratching or q tips. Saw a guy using a toothpick in place of a q tip today, ugh.

Are you sure it was a toothpick? They make these wooden things where the business end is flattened out and curved, so you can get em in your ear and scrape the crap out. Maybe he had one of those...

[Bronk]

Bronk, you seem to have an exceptionally strong aversion to a widely used and highly effective treatment for outer ear infections recommended by many doctors and used by pretty much every SCUBA diver and competitive swimmer I've ever met. And given that I have been both a competitive swimmer and SCUBA diver in the past, that's a lot of people with a lot of success using a practice that is considered medically sound and safe. I have heard some doctors recommend a 50% water, 25% alcohol and 25% vinegar recipe instead of the more popular 50/50 alcohol and vinegar option to reduce the concentration of alcohol which can be an irritant for some people some of the time, but then, you can also use a solution of 70% rubbing alcohol instead of 90% also. Whatever.

Anyway Bronk, I'm mostly curious where your strong issue with this super easy, widely used, and safe solution to a common problem comes from. Are you just being a naive troll or what?

I used to work in an ear nose and throat clinic. And as someone else has already pointed out, if you have a punctured or damaged ear drum, or if you have tubes in your ears, you could seriously damage your inner ear by putting this stuff in your ear. Alcohol will dry out your ear drum. If you do this enough it could become brittle and crack, and then you are introducing alcohol and acid into your inner ear. Lots of people might be doing this and getting away with it, but I just didn't want someone who has ear problems to try this because they read it and "everybody else is doing it" and then damage their hearing. Like I said, many people might get away with it, but if you're one of those people who already have a punctured ear drum, tubes in your ears or have something else going on inside your ears and instead of having a doctor find out what's really going on you start pouring alcohol and acid into your ears you can do some serious damage.

[Traveler]

Medical advice on an internet forum is typically worth what it costs to receive.