Are my ears bleeding?

There's been this constant rhythm in my health life lately: Nausea, headache, jaw tension, ear congestion, tired, dizzy. I thought I was going crazy, I though there were too many things wrong with me, I must be a hypochondriac -- I am, but only a little. And then, yesterday, I was swimming.

"Can you reach the bottom," my boyfriend, Brandon, asked me. Of course I could swim down to the bottom of a pool that was only ten feet deep. I was Kaitlin Prettyman, I could do anything. But lately, that hasn't been the Kaitlin I have always been so familiar with.

The dizziness throws off my balance and I no longer volunteer to climb trees and rescue the neighbors cat, I no longer swing, I no longer jump off of cliffs into the water and I no longer volunteer to be a dare devil.

So, when Brandon posed this question, directly after I swam across the pool in one breath (I might mention that he couldn't do this), I was on an adventure high--it doesn't take much with me.

I initially tried and came sputtering up seconds later. My ears hurt after going just four feet under. My ears hurt just the way they did when we went cliff jumping into a lake the month before. I remember them hurting because he kept asking me to jump from higher heights and I wouldn't because my ears hurt so stinking much.

Well, he told me, this time, to try exhaling with my mouth and nose plugged. He said this would pop my ears and I would be able to go further down. Normally he would be right; this trick would work.

It didn't work this time. I came up almost screaming. I went down four feet, tried the trick and it immediately felt like someone had stuck a knife in each of my ears.

I grabbed onto the side of the pool and held my ears. "Brandon," I said moments later, "Is there blood coming out of my ears?"

There wasn't but for hours my ears hurt.

I think I have found the cause of my problems. I called my mother that night--she's a nurse--because I was afraid of losing my hearing or having brain damage--thanks Brandon for sticking these ideas in my head.

My mother told me its not something thats a huge issue but I should get it checked out; it could be that my problems are stemming from my jaw or from an ear problem. Guess I will find out when I get around to making an appointment.