THE EARS HAVE IT Part 1
By Corky Carroll
One of the things that go along with constant surfing are some rather annoying health issues. For some reason I am susceptible to all of them. There are ear, eye, back, skin and all sorts of other little complications that continuous exposure to sun, wind, water and the pounding of day to day surfing and paddling all compound.
One of the most common problems is “Surfers Ear.” The correct name is exostoses of the external auditory canal (the bony growths) with external otitis (inflamed or infected skin) and acquired external canal stenosis (narrowing). If this gets bad it requires a surgery.
I have had my ears drilled out 5 times from this problem. I get asked about it all the time. So I contacted who I consider the leading expert in this area, Dr. Carol Jackson of Newport Beach, and asked her to write me a current rundown on this and related ear problems that surfers incur. Here are her own words.
“Now I'm doing the exostoses removal and canal reconstructions through the ear canal without needing to make the post auricular incision behind the ear in cases
where the exostoses obstruct less than 95% of the canal. Through the use of local ear canal skin and rotation grafts, the time out of the water is usually a little less at 3-4 weeks.
It's best to have them removed when they are 70 to 90% occlusive of the ear canal. That's usually when they cause water to be trapped and dead skin debris causing pain and plugging sensations. It's best to have them removed when they are in the 70-80% range, since they are less likely to be pressing on the eardrum and fusing with the top layer of the eardrum, which may require grafting at surgery. It makes for a little bigger procedure and longer wound healing (6wks) and staying out of the water.
Swim plugs do prevent recurrence, IF they are used in the ears. Not much good in a pocket! (Although I've not had any of my own patients have significant re-growth - - that is
for 15 years, but there is a risk with 20 + yr exposure) They come in colors and float. While not always watertight they prevent the sudden rush of water against the eardrum.
The colder the water, the more frequent and severe exostoses formations are, although they occur in the tropics, too.
There are some new ear drops that are great for after water, bedtime use. Derm Otic Oily Solution; It is a water repelling coating agent, with topical steroid to reduce inflammation and has a fresh scent. It's a prescription drug, also great for hearing aid wearers, for mild external otitis (outer ear canal inflammation) but not for treating a rip roaring painful infection.
Q tips are near blasphemous, and frequent use of alcohol or hydrogen peroxide is drying to the ear canal skin, which causes, cracking and opens the skin to infections.
For those surfer rockers with baby boomer hearing loss (nobody we know, right?) we now carry the latest 20 channel micro digital hearing instruments for improved hearing of speech in noisy backgrounds. They're either CIC (completely in the canal --- once the exostoses are removed so there's room for them! ) or micro BTE (behind the ear) with a clear or flesh colored very tiny part in the ear canal. The micro BTE fits in the crease, looking like a skin colored gummy worm and hardly noticeable even with a buzz cut.
Our favorite is the state of the art Phonak Savia. It's like surround sound technology in a micro computer. In So. Cal. it retails for $3,700 to $4,000, and we carry it now for $2,990 each. They automatically couple to the phone, have bi-directional microphones built in, with squeal stop, other helpful features and several programs for different listening environments.
You can also get a remote the size of a credit card (or smaller for your keychain or watch) to adjust the volume without touching your ear.”
FAVORITE NEW YEARS ~ THE WAVE
by Corky Carroll
Being a dude who loves to go to parties it would seem that most of my best New Years memories would be of epic fun-a-thons of mirth, music, dancing, wonderful women, designated drivers and those sort of forms of merriment. And, truth be known, they are. I admit it. I am a fun hog.
But one of the best New Years’ that I remember was one where I didn’t even go to a party or have any of that kind of fun. It was a football and surfing New Years.
I am trying as hard as I can to remember what year it was but I can’t. But, it was back when the NFL football team the Rams was still playing at Anaheim Stadium and it was the year that they went to the Super Bowl and lost to the Pittsburg Steelers. I was a huge Rams fan and had season tickets for all of the years they played in Orange County. My dad got me hooked when I was little, taking me to the Los Angeles Coliseum to see them.
On New Years Eve, actually in the afternoon, that year the Rams were playing the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC title game and for a trip to the super bowl. The Rams were notorious for loosing those kinds of games back then and the game was in Dallas, so it looked like a bleak afternoon.
There was a big swell coming up and I had gotten a call from my pal Rolf Aurness to come up and surf with him at a spot north of Santa Barbara where his dad, James Aurness of Gunsmoke fame, had a house. So I was getting ready to go up there but really wanted to watch the game too. I had been invited over for the game and food by two pals that worked at the music store in San Clemente and who were both from Dallas. Dallas Terry and “Lakewood Blvd.” Bob Bailey. (Yes there is a story to that name). So I figured that I would go hang out with them and let them razz me to death while Dallas was killing the Rams.
And that is the way the day sort of went too. Dallas was leading towards the end of the forth quarter and I was taking the barbs from those dudes, while I was ingesting a lot of their food and drinks, and it was looking like the way we all thought the game was going to go. Until Vince Feragamo fades back and fires this long pass straight down the field into a whole pack of Dallas players and not a Ram in sight. What was he thinking? But then all of a sudden Billy Waddy comes streaking into the picture cutting across the field and catches this miracle pass and the Rams score and win the game. The Dallas dudes are silent and in shock. I am so stoked I can’t see straight and go out on their deck, close the door, and let out a monster ahooooooooooo for the whole town to hear.
And then I jumped in my car and headed up to Rolf’s place north of Santa Barbara.
The next morning the surf was huge and we were the only guys out at one of the better spots on the California coast. It was a perfect day. Glassy and offshore winds the entire day and giant waves. We surfed a different spot in the afternoon that was as close to being what you would call epic as you can get.
Rolf’s dad showed up that night and barbequed the biggest steaks I had ever seen and we hung out in his Jacuzzi, which was the size of a normal swimming pool. It wasn’t a knock down drag out party New Years but it was really a fun and exciting one. Who says you can’t have fun without chicks? Well, maybe me…. Hahaha.
The only bad part about the whole experience was that night we left out wetsuits out on Rolfs deck to dry out and they got munched on by foxes. Mine looked like Swiss cheese. Full of holes. Kind of like the Dallas defense on that miracle pass play that sent the Rams to the Super Bowl.