Dove congested = world spun!

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northernone

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Rest in Peace
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Currently: Cozumel, from Canada
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Mild miss...

I've been having flu symptoms getting in the way of my diving recently.

Started clearing up. I could somewhat equalize on land. Good enough. I hoped...

Tried a dive:

Squeak (Surface light over pressurizing to prepare for descent.)
Down to 3ft.
Squeak.
Down to 5ft.
Squeak.
Down to 8ft.
Squeak.
Down to 14ft.
Squeak.
Down to 18ft.
Squeak.
Down to 22ft.
Squeak.
Suddenly:
  1. Wooops there goes the horizon.
  2. The world starts spinning.
  3. I feel a little woozy.
  4. Not confident where I am.
  5. Eyes having trouble resolving the image.
  6. Can't read my depth.
  7. Try to focus on the line of the surface, can't.
  8. Circling blur like rolling down a hill or how youtube videos look of crashing quadcopters final moments.
  9. Sinus hurts.

I ascent 2 feet.
Squeak.

All is well in the world again.

Taking another 40 minutes descending slowly, still couldn't get below 52ft but this time both ears equalized harmoniously and no more vertigo.

-98 minutes spent drifting-

The deco style ascent working through the reverse block was unpleasant as well. Dive was lovely though.

Lesson learned? Don't dive congested. It's s'not worth it.

...Somehow I always forget.
Cameron
 
I had to guide a buddy back to surface due to a broken eardrum caused by reverse block resulting in vertigo, pain and a 3 month dive hiatus. Definitely not worth diving congested.
 
I know people who have been congested while on dive trips and still managed to dive only because they took every option to minimise the congestion (netti pot, decongestants etc) while also managing their ascent/descent rates VERY carefully. They were first in and descended very slowly and finished their dive a few minutes early to allow for a very slow ascent. Worked out ok. They did sit a couple when the decongestant was not as effective though. The point being that at the point of starting the dive (no deco, max time 1hr) they were at the point of being near symptom free.

Would they have done it if it hadn't been on a liveaboard? Probably not as they simply wouldn't have made the trip to the site. Knowing the people involved they would have called the dives if they had felt any issues at all.

Listening to your body is the most important thing imho - you took your original plan and adjusted it accordingly to suit your circumstances.
 
Mild miss...
Lesson learned? Don't dive congested. It's s'not worth it.
Thank you for the nice write-up of the dive as you experienced it.

I agree with your "lesson learned".

The lesson not to learn is "Hey, I managed to dive congested and made it up OK. That means I can manage it another time too."

What would have happened if, at some point in that dive sequence we inserted some sort of emergency? An out-of-air equipment defect for example? Would there have been enough time to work through the reverse block on the way to the surface? Could the diver handle the emergency correctly while the world was spinning at the same time?

We sometimes tend to forget that our dive plans should have room for handling a worst case scenario, i.e. problems that are not known at the start of the dive. If we start a dive while already having used that margin of safety for known problems, then we don't have any margin left for unforeseen problems and we are less safe divers than we tell ourselves.
 
I caught a real bad cold and major blockage of the nasal passage few days before my AOW course couple years ago and really didn't want to cancel it as it was an awesome trip planned and paid for.
Talked to my instructor and doctor and they both recommended a nasal spray with cortisone, figured it was my best bet so gave it a go.
Started using it 3 days ahead of the course, and while my nose was still dripping with snot and I very much still had a cold I had zero problems with blockages during the dives over the weekend.
Since then I always use the same nasal spray when I start getting congested and yeah there's still a lot of snot but I've never felt as if there's a blockage or problem of any kind, all experiences with this after my AOW have been on the surface only.
I probably wouldn't dive while congested again no matter what nasal spray I have at hand due to lots of mask clearing (because snot) and generally feeling like crap (mostly this), but it really did work wonders for me then.
Now some years later I know better than to take on the risk of diving in that condition and it's always better to sit one out and feel crap than go down and find out you pushed the limits.

Glad you're okay, sinus blockages can be real nasty and should not be taken lightly.
 

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