ciret
Contributor
I've been diving for about a year, (52 dives). I have chronic sinusitis (post nasal drip). the ENT has me on Nasonex which seems to work moderately well. On the advice of DAN, my instructors and the dive professionals I dive with and the concurrance of the ENT I use a 12 hr sustained release pseudophed and guaifenesin tablets. This seems to work reasonably well.
I have made many successful dives with no equalization problems or after dive problems. However, in early Dec after a successful Sunday morning 2 tank dive, by early evening I felt some fullness in my right ear. I was in Puerto Rico and planning to travel home in a few days. I made an appointment with my ENT just to have the ear checked. Wednesday morning I woke up and had some fluid draining from my right ear. I immediately went to the local clinic. the doc said I had an ear infection and prescribed an oral and ear drop antibiotic. And told me not to fly.
By the time I got to my ENT (10 days later) I felt fine. The ENT said I still had an infection and prescribed another round of antibiotics. During all of this time I had wierd gurgling in the right ear. No pain, no feeling of fullness. I had to go back to the ENT for a followup and I was sure he would have to do the ear drain procedure because of the gurgling. Well, he did the visual exam and the air pressure test and said I was fine. No problems, everything was OK, go ahead and dive.
We also talked about the medications I was using and he said that one of the side effects of Nasonex and pseudophed is to cause thickened mucus, which might make equilization harder. So, I quit the Nasonex and pseudophed. I went diving about a week after that. I used the guaifenesin and oxymetazoline.
Dive went well, but I did have one point where equilizing was difficult. I did the recommeded procedure, went up a couple of feet, equalized and slowly resumed my descent. I had some minor feeling of fullness that afternoon, with the gurgling.
It's been 10 days, flying was OK, I'm back in the cold climate, back on the Nasonex only. But, the right ear still seems to be making noises and gurgling. No feeling of fullness, no hearing loss, no pain . . . I can pressurize my ears. The right ear squeals and gurgles and pressurizes, left is basically quiet.
My ENT is not a dive doc, but I did talk to a couple of DAN medics and a DAN doc. They all felt a reg ENT should be able to help me.
Anybody else experiance this? Any suggestions?
Thanks,
I have made many successful dives with no equalization problems or after dive problems. However, in early Dec after a successful Sunday morning 2 tank dive, by early evening I felt some fullness in my right ear. I was in Puerto Rico and planning to travel home in a few days. I made an appointment with my ENT just to have the ear checked. Wednesday morning I woke up and had some fluid draining from my right ear. I immediately went to the local clinic. the doc said I had an ear infection and prescribed an oral and ear drop antibiotic. And told me not to fly.
By the time I got to my ENT (10 days later) I felt fine. The ENT said I still had an infection and prescribed another round of antibiotics. During all of this time I had wierd gurgling in the right ear. No pain, no feeling of fullness. I had to go back to the ENT for a followup and I was sure he would have to do the ear drain procedure because of the gurgling. Well, he did the visual exam and the air pressure test and said I was fine. No problems, everything was OK, go ahead and dive.
We also talked about the medications I was using and he said that one of the side effects of Nasonex and pseudophed is to cause thickened mucus, which might make equilization harder. So, I quit the Nasonex and pseudophed. I went diving about a week after that. I used the guaifenesin and oxymetazoline.
Dive went well, but I did have one point where equilizing was difficult. I did the recommeded procedure, went up a couple of feet, equalized and slowly resumed my descent. I had some minor feeling of fullness that afternoon, with the gurgling.
It's been 10 days, flying was OK, I'm back in the cold climate, back on the Nasonex only. But, the right ear still seems to be making noises and gurgling. No feeling of fullness, no hearing loss, no pain . . . I can pressurize my ears. The right ear squeals and gurgles and pressurizes, left is basically quiet.
My ENT is not a dive doc, but I did talk to a couple of DAN medics and a DAN doc. They all felt a reg ENT should be able to help me.
Anybody else experiance this? Any suggestions?
Thanks,
