surfers ear sucks
Tony Plants ear, never again
Surfers ear is a bitch. The symptoms are easy to spot. You see them in the carparks and down on the beach. First they pull their ear lobes, then they twist up the end of the towel and start cramming it into their heads , but as the seasons go by, the pouring of olive oil into the ears and the use of matches, fingers, ear candles, old wives tales and blu tak will all have to end. Being as deaf as a post except for the constant high pitched drone in the left side of your head becomes a bore, because, the inevitable will surely happen.
They sawed my right ear off, skinned the canal, put that skin to one side, drilled out the junk, pressed the saved skin back into the wound, poured sterilising solution into it, packed it full of shit, plugged it with a huge wax bung and stitched the ear back again. That was a few years back, and as I left the Harlyn ward of Treliske hospital I remember they said “see you for the next one soon” , but they wont take me alive, I vowed “I’m not going back”. It takes weeks to heal, stinks to high heaven and is no fun. But, its almost that time again………. and I have a terrible sense of deja-vu
Nick Lloyd : "tony give rob a shout at surfplugs.co.uk !!!! and come up here and get in the water it been smoking !!!! lol"
Sorry my mate but you had bush surgery by a bush surgeon - I surf as much as anyone in the world and have had the surgeries twice in both ears over the last 30 years - the best technique is micro chisel - no cut to the outside of the ear and you are back in the water in 2 weeks - operation usually lasts for around 20-25 years if you are hard core - sorry for the bad experience but kick your surgeon in the bum and tell him to join the 21st century.
[Bottom left of image] Is your neck really that thin? Or is it the head that is big? Surfer’s Swollen Head?
Good luck with Numero 2.
hey Shaun, tell me more, where are you ? did you get this micro chisel in the uk ? t
yo big guy…drop me a mail regarding the ear thing!
cheers
chris
will do Chris, happy new year mate, you must owe me a pint ?
Hi Tony… give me a shout (if you can hear me!!)… and have a look at the surfers ear site at http://www.surfplugs.co.uk.. were trying to promote surfers health and helping people to STOP THE SURGERY!!… I am an audiologist with the NHS by trade, have surfes 20+ years and have surfers ear.. started developing the plugs about 8 years ago and they work… got loads of surfers up here in North devon using them and word is starting to spread throughout the UK… cheers Rob..
Hi guys Ears to you all, cheers from North Wales Pen
Oil fired , steam powered not capable of printing anything futher P
hello ..
Im from Iceland and been surfing for 18 years now ,, I got surfers ear,, whent to sergery on my right ear , it didnt go to well ,, i lost more then 50 percent of my hearing and have a constant beeb sound which is still driving me crazy,, I was supposed to go for the other ear but didnt,, I should have done more research, before i whent to that Fu;;;;; doctor ,,,, Im still doing research about it untill I will do something about my left ear ,, whant to save my hearing ….. any tips out there ,, thanx
hey Orri, dont get the surgery, it sucks, but you already know that. Plugs. Its plugs all the way, plugs, blu-tak, wax, sticks, squid beaks or herbaceous borders, anything to jkeep that water out, OR, move south, stay funky, twisted
Orri here’s a copy of the end of an interview with the guy in california who developed the “chisel technique”. It costs money but if you end up needing further surgery look at doing it this way.
DH: What most ear surgeons in the world would do to remove the bone growth is one of two things. Usually it would incorporate a drill, either working down the ear canal without any sort of incision, or — what’s probably done by more people in the world — make an incision behind the ear, flip the whole ear forward, then peel all the skin out of the ear canal. They do that so they can get all the skin out of the way. Once you get everything out of the way, then you can go in and drill with a band. They drill the bone down and turn all these mounds of bone into bone dust. Then you get all that stuff out of there, put the ear back and stitch it up back there. There are some excellent ear surgeons out there who are firmly convinced that’s the only way this operation should be done, and that’s what they do. The downside is you’re cutting through a lot of normal skin, normal muscle and some nerves. You’re disrupting a whole lot of stuff in order to get down to what you want to do. A lot of times it usually takes several months for that thing to heal. Also, the noise of drill can put up to 130 decibels in somebody’s ear, which is the equivalent of a jackhammer. So that itself can cause nerve damage and some permanent hearing loss. That was actually my original motivation in trying to develop a new technique, one where you’re not putting these horrible noise generators in people’s ears.
LM: How is your new chisel technique different?
DH: If you just make use of the natural opening via the ear canal, you’re not making these incisions and not disrupting as much. What it basically amounts to is, if you envision these mounds of bone covered by skin down inside your ear canal, you make a linear incision over the top of the skin and peel the skin back like opening the cover of a book. Then you go to the base of the mound with your little 1-millimeter chisel and just tap-tap it a few places until it cleaves or separates. Then you slide the bone out, leaving the intact skin. And you can use a chisel next to skin, underneath skin, and it doesn’t do anything bad to the skin, whereas the drill would tend to shred it up. It’s much easier to tear up the skin with a drill, which can slow down the healing process and usually people have more post-op pain. So I’ve had probably 50 guys who have had prior drillings by somebody, then the bone regrew and the ear closed off again. Then they did the chisel thing and they’ve all told me: faster healing, less pain, it’s the way to go. For me, having done it both ways, there’s no going back. If someone took my chisels away and said you can’t use them anymore, I would say I’m not going to do the operation. I would refuse to do it because I think you’re posing too many risks for people.
LM: Aside from using pro plugs and a hood, is there anything cold water surfers and ocean sports enthusiasts can do to prevent surfer’s ear?
DH: If you’re going to be a serious surfer and you don’t want the bone growths to develop, wearing some kind of an earplug is recommended. The ultimate is earplugs plus a hood. We don’t know exactly where all the sensors are that cause the body to set off the bone growth. Are there some on this outer part of the ear? So if you have an earplug keeping water from getting down to the ear canal skin and something on the outside protecting this other area of the ear, that’s kind of the ultimate.
Just got back from the Docs who told me that I have the worst case of Surfers Ear she has seen in a long time. I just hope she hasn’t been looking too hard!
Glad, in a way, to see that I am not alone. Feel fairly miffed as I don’t consider myself a hardcore surfer so can’t see why I am so badly inflicted.
Off to WH Smiths to buy some bluetac! Any other suggestions? D.
yeah mate, buy 2 bits of blu-tak, you are bound to lose yer original piece. Its plugs all the way, plugs, blu-tak, wax, sticks, squid beaks or herbaceous borders, anything to keep that water out, OR, move south, stay funky, twisted
ps red wine might not be a cure, but you just never know
Along with Dan and some others, I have recently been diagnosed with the dreaded surfers ear. It has crept up pretty quickly too. 2 weeks of jumping on 1 foot after surfs and now I can’t hear a thing! If only the operation was that quick!
I have advising all my mates to get some blu tack and save themselves the drama.
I also youtubed the operation and now wish I hadn’t!
Oh the joys of cold water surfing in the deep south of New Zealand.