Lately I am swimming at 2 different pools. I am a late blooming, 45yo, fitness swimmer. I am up to doing about 3800 yds per workout. I find that I often have a very runny nose and sneezing fits that can last the entire day. I will take benedryl but it only seems to help a bit. I have tried to pay attention and think that one of the pools may be causing much more of a problem than the other.
As an experiment I tried takign a single benedryl (sp?) about a half hour before swimming. THis seems to be helping. So am I alergic to the water?
Is this common and what other suggestions if any?
Parents
Former Member
Hey Larry, I had a bad earache a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday night after having been in a swim meet where I swam 400 free and 50 fly. I immediately figured I had an impacted wax or water or whatever in my external ear (don't know the exact scientific terms in English). So next I went against that old saying that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client, and started treating myself. I poured alcohol, peroxide and other stuff into my ear, took some ibuprofen and waited for Monday to come to go to a real ear, nose, throat guy. Well, my problem was not in the external ear, but in the middle ear. So all that junk I stuck into my ear from the outside never came close to the problem. I had to take some antibiotics and some cortisone. Moral of the story: not all ear problems are on the outside, and not all ear problems are related to swimming. In my case it was an infection, probably though the nose into the middle ear. How can you swim with the nose clip and not drown? I tried it for backstroke but it doesn't do it for me. I occasionally use ear plugs mostly for the silence, as I also do when riding the motorcycle. Take care, billy fanstone.
Hey Larry, I had a bad earache a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday night after having been in a swim meet where I swam 400 free and 50 fly. I immediately figured I had an impacted wax or water or whatever in my external ear (don't know the exact scientific terms in English). So next I went against that old saying that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client, and started treating myself. I poured alcohol, peroxide and other stuff into my ear, took some ibuprofen and waited for Monday to come to go to a real ear, nose, throat guy. Well, my problem was not in the external ear, but in the middle ear. So all that junk I stuck into my ear from the outside never came close to the problem. I had to take some antibiotics and some cortisone. Moral of the story: not all ear problems are on the outside, and not all ear problems are related to swimming. In my case it was an infection, probably though the nose into the middle ear. How can you swim with the nose clip and not drown? I tried it for backstroke but it doesn't do it for me. I occasionally use ear plugs mostly for the silence, as I also do when riding the motorcycle. Take care, billy fanstone.
