Barotrauma on my open water dive.

[franks402]

Ten days after my previous post, I would like to add that I can now "pop" both ears, first time, every time! (Valsalva) I'm so happy and relieved! I will keep practicing until our trip in March.

I encourage anyone who is having trouble equalizing to watch Dr. Kay's video - you can find it in TSandM's earlier post; the video is long, but very worthwhile. Best wishes to all!

 

[Linedog]

Hello OP here and it has been a few months and a few dives later and I'm happy to report that all is well. I clear my ears on the drive to dive and often while desending. Diving is much more fun when it's pain free!

 

[biscuit]

Don't know if anyone else experiences this oddity, and until reading these posts I'd forgotten all about it because the solution has become such a habit. We live in the mountains but do a lot of our diving in the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. It's just a few hours drive from home.

After a couple years of diving almost every week several of us noticed our ears weren't clearing without sudafed. Even with it and the Valsalva technique together, I'd be ascending a few feet every so often on the way down so I could clear my ears. The answer for most of my group actually came from what we had to do before the first dive upon our arrival-- check the seat of all o-rings on lights, snorkels, etc and adjust the tightness of seals for the 5100' altitude change. We posited that the difficulty we were having with ears not clearing might be caused by the same thing, and tested it by waiting til the next morning for the first dive. Waa-laa, end of plugged ears and apparently a better adjustment to sea level.

Weird, I know... but it worked amazingly well.

 

[DianeKim]

I have struggled with barotrauma and ear clearing for years due to tight/small eustachian tubes. I have found that equalizing my ears even when I am not diving to help keep them flexible has helped. But I've also discovered if I take a warm/hot shower just BEFORE I go diving and then equalize my ears during/after the shower and on way to the dive has helped. I think the warm steam from the shower helps clear the sinuses and assist in the ear tube flexibility.

 

[RogerAGrimes]

I see a few of these posts referring to Sudafed and other decongestants. In most cases, what divers with ear problems need is an anti-inflammatory, like ibuprofen. Decongestants are great when you have problems due to fluids and mucus issues. But you need an anti-inflammatory otherwise. Of course, consult your doctor before trying any medication, especially before mixing new meds and diving.

 

[Booyakasha]

Afrin is a fairly long-acting medication when you use the first dose. The big issue with Afrin comes with multiple-day use. The medication works by causing vasoconstriction, or narrowing of the blood vessels. When it wears off, the tissue which has been limited in blood flow while the drug was working has been sending out all kinds of signals to get MORE blood, so the vessels dilate even more than before, making the swelling worse. The patient then tends to reuse the drug before the 12 hour period has elapsed. The effectiveness gets shorter and shorter as a result. This CAN end up with what's termed rhinitis medicamentosa, which is persistent, severe nasal congestion CAUSED by the medication, and it can take steroids to get somebody off the Afrin.

In my opinion, if you require Afrin and Sudafed routinely to execute a dive, you should be evaluated by an ENT doc.

This is a very valid point in regards to Afrin. I have had this "addiction" to Afrin happen to me (not in regards to diving). I am now very careful if I use it to clear a stuffy nose. I have become a huge fan of the nettie pot. My son who has a chronic stuffy nose uses it with great sucess.

B.

 

[giozon]

Is it possible to put a few drops Affirin (Xylometasolin) under water during reverse block? Just to stick to your nose an ampule of Affirin and squeez. If you are running out of air and have a reverse block this might be a better solution than barotrauma. Of course, it will be good not to cough you reg away during such experiment. Has somebody tryed this under water?

 

[formula1mb@aol.com]

I have to say I had a lot of problems too in the beginning with equalizing and on my first dive had some fairly serious barotrauma in my right ear. At first I didn't think it was a big deal but felt like I had water in my ear that wouldn't go away. Eventually the pain became really bad but luckily went away the next day, although my ear was plugged up and couldn't hear too well and some blood was coming out. At this point came fairly close to giving up on diving but loved it so much that I decided to wait until it healed and keep practicing.

At first I practiced the standard valsalva method and worked okay except it was little inconsistent. Sometimes it worked fine, other times I'd have a lot of problems in the first 20 feet. Than I tried using the doc's pro plugs and that kind of helped esp in the cold California water.

Eventually though I kept reading about the frenzel technique but could never do it and ended up finding this great tutorial from Eric Fattah that goes into a lot of detail, step by step. Even after reading I couldn't do it for the life of me but started practicing, playing around with it and eventually started to get it. Than as they say, practice makes perfect, I would keep practicing at work and throughout the day until it became second nature. Now I haven't had any problems equalizing for a long time and even going to over 100 ft still no problems.

Kind of hard to explain exactly how to do it but it's worth trying the tutorial if other ways don't work. With the frenzel method, it really is much better----you can build higher pressure so even if you have small eusthacian tubes it'll work and you get way better control and much quicker. It's almost like you get more 'torque' with it, like having a huge diesel engine versus a small, high revving 4 cylinder engine---they both work but you get lot better control and precision with the diesel where you don't always have to redline it and push it to the limit to get any power so similar with the valsalva where you sometimes really have to blow hard to work while with the frenzel it's a quick, smooth motion.

Here's the tutorial, worth giving a shot and just practice, pratice, practice!

Liquivision : Freediving : equalizing

 

[switzke]

This also occurred on my first ever open water dive. It took 6 weeks to clear including a course of antibiotics, numerous nasal flushes and a daily decongestant.

One warning, don't fly with this condition. I did and I thought my head was going to explode.

 

[kaerius]

I have also found it easier, especially for new/certifying divers to "pre-equalize"; I ask them to equalize before they begin their descent, seems to make things go smoother on OW dives.

I have never tried getting them to practice it a few times to lossen up the ear drum, but I suppose that it is plausible (MythBusters time)

Paul.

What I was told during my IDC was that equalizing when you don't need to may damage your ears if you're unlucky, and at best it is an extra strain. However it may be a good idea to softly equalize as you go down before feeling discomfort, every meter/3 feet or so. The damage the OP got to his ear sounds like it was actually caused by a forceful valsalva(equalizing too hard), probably because he had delayed equalizing too long, it's a common enough beginner mistake.

However a PADI instructor taking divers on their first dive should do a 5 point descent and both talk and signal the students through the steps. The last step being to elevate and equalize. So the instructor should be reminding you to equalize just before you go down, as well as mimicing it by repeatedly pinching their own nose at the start of the dive.