Hey! I know Fritz in person and he would NEVER be intentionally offensive. He responded to your post cause he gives a damn.
Even experienced divers have issues from time to time... Distractions of new buddies, scooters, or even just a random head cold that wasn't quite presenting itself before the dive.
I understand where he's coming from, in the course of my diving career I have talked loads of experienced divers who don't clear 'early and often' and have had any number of ear issues. I had one reverse block about 20 years ago and its made me incredibly gun-shy which is why i spend this past weekend thinking about diving and not diving. Stupid head-cold. <grrr> I also use some of the "better diving through chemistry" as Fritz describes, but not when i have a full blown head cold
In the event that none of this is at all correlative to your experience, try not to take it personally, it might be useful for someone else.
There are a few other possibilities that could explain your issues but barotrauma is the one with the least stripes.
How is your ear today?