I'm just looking for advice on diving with my particular ear problems. I took the initial scuba class to become open water certified. We had three pool sessions followed by two open water sessions. I've had problems with ear pain when diving while snorkeling in the past and was already worried about it. I felt some pressure in the pool, but it wasn't too bad. I did some research and made sure I knew all the techniques to help with equalizing and even briefly spoke to an ENT doc who recommended I use Afrin before my dive. I was equalizing on the shore before my dive and continually kept trying to equalize in the water. I had alot of trouble the first time I tried to dive and couldn't get below 6 ft. I tried again after a break and was able to get down to 20ft after 12 minutes. I was feeling encouraged after I was able to get down that far and agreed to come back the following day even though I was told I wouldn't be able to get certified that weekend (I had missed too much while trying to get down). I did much better on the second day. I took about 10 minutes to get down to 26 ft and was able to knock out some of my skills easily. After a break, I went down again and was able to get down in 4 minutes. I was super excited after that because I actually got to swim around at the bottom of the lake relatively easy without ear pain. My instructor told me I would have to come back one more time in order to get my certification, which I agreed to. But after being out of the water for about 10-15 minutes, my ears started to ache. The aching increased and became pretty unbearable. I eventually got my hands on some Motrin and took that. The pain subsided eventually, but now I'm afraid to dive again. I don't want to experience that pain again. So, I have a couple questions. One - what caused my ears to ache like that? Two - is diving something I probably shouldn't do? And 3 - should I use something in my ears to prevent an ear infection?
Sorry for the long winded explanation! Please let me know what you think....I've got a trip to the Great Barrier Reef in a couple months and am hoping I'll be able to fully experience that!
Sorry for the long winded explanation! Please let me know what you think....I've got a trip to the Great Barrier Reef in a couple months and am hoping I'll be able to fully experience that!
