I developed a mild case of barotrauma after doing some lake dives. I experienced symptoms one week after my dive. It's not painful and I have my equilibrium and it is getting better. Have a vacation coming up and yes I have dives scheduled. Based on your experiences, is it a big deal for me to go diving as long as I continue to equalize?
Diving with mild barotrauma
- Thread starter Tigerpaw
- Start date
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Let it heal so you don't chance it hurting your vacation.
Ask your docs, I had a similar thing a few months ago. Diving with a current injury could possibly make it a permanent injury resulting in no more diving ever. Better let it heal or speak to the docs first at least
OP
Thanks,.....I did a lake dives on June 4th and 5th. I equalized and the avg depth of my dives was 30ft. On June 7th or 8th I begin to hear the hissing sound and my ears felt full and I couldn't believe I got it. As the days progressed it got better. I have dives scheduled for June 17, 24 and 27. I was contemplating diving on the 17th but based on everyone's opinion I'll cancel that dive and see how it feels on the 24th and 27th. Today I barely notice it. Thanks for your question.
OP
Permanent injury and no more diving ever are very strong motivators not to dive. To make it worse I just had a dream I was diving so even my subconscious is ready to dive. LOL But yes, I'll wait. Thanks! If I may ask, how did you deal with your situation and how long did you sit out before returning to diving?
OP
Thanks!!! This experience has taught me not to dive before a trip. In this case I had brand new gear and the opportunity to earn my AOW so I went for it.
So I blew some capillaries in my left ear on the second dive of my AOW. Originally the doc stated 10 days before I could dive again, but after the 10 days I was still having issues with the ear so i was instructed that another 7 days was needed before diving. In the end due to a scheduled holiday in ended up being 1 month out of the water. Did some snorkeling on holiday and was able to clear the ears easily so was cleared to dive again once I got back. Pity as the holiday was in the Seychelles so did want to dive, but had some amazing snorkeling so not going to complain too much. The full time line for my recovery looked like this
1st week: Other than showers I stayed out the water completely
2nd week: Cleared to swim but stayed above 2 meter in the pool
3rd week: Back in the sea and swimming in the pool but stayed above 2 meters
4th week: Snorkeling but not deeper than 4 meters, only because of natural depth of the areas in
5th week onwards. Did a test free dive to 6 meters with no issues so geared up and went diving, but clearing the ears wasn't as fast as I normally would be able to do so. Docs gave me decongestants to take before diving for a couple of weeks. Been a few months now and all is fine and dandy, ears have never been better.
It was frustrating to say the least but gave me the opportunity to read the AOW course material a few times
I would wait a while to let it adequately heal. . Pushing it could make it worse. I experienced a barotrauma many years ago (mid 1980's) and as I surfaced I felt like there was cotton in my left ear. There was no pain and equalizing was never a problem. In a few weeks, the cotton stuffy feeling eventually went away, but I was left with tinnitus in that ear. I still have the tinnitus and it's gradually getting worse.
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