I'm not asking for medical advice, just curious how many other people have dealt with this and maybe a bit of a cautionary tale.

After diving in some cenotes near Tulum, I got a pretty painful outer ear infection which I treated with some antibiotic drops, which worked really well at first. However in the couple of years since then, my ears have never been the same. They feel irritated/itchy a lot and sometimes develop back into a painful infection. I've done more ear drops and a course of oral antibiotics most recently, which kind of worked, they haven't been super painful but they still just don't feel like they used to. Maybe diving in fresh water has an increased risk of ear infection? Future best practice may be to clean them out post-dive. I'll probably talk to my doctor about it again soon but curious if other people have had this experience of a chronic/recurrent outer ear infection.