Ear Squeeze This Weekend

[sunapeebob]

I agree with everything said. You can never equalize too much. I am doing it constantly on descent. If any pressure, I stop. I have had the squeeze once, and do not want to have it again. One other thing I have found useful is Doc's Proplugs. I dive in cold water usually and these slow down the pressure differential and cold water exchange in the ear canal. It makes it a little easier to equalize for me. I would like to hear (no joke) what others think of these and their experiences.

Bob

 

[chiara93]

I've done that before; had a bit of a cold, and forcibly cleared all the way down. What was kind of disconcerting, was that every time I made a change in depth, I could feel the air hissing in/out of my swollen Eustachian tubes! Wound up with some mild barotrauma to my left ear, which resolved with Sudafed and Ibuprofen. Moral of the story: Ear pain is bad

Same here. Caught a cold, but didn't want to miss any dives, so forced myself to clear each dive. And in each dive, it took longer and longer to equalize. Finally, after the fifth dive, the DM told me to see a doctor. Sure enough, I had barotrauma in my left ear and no diving :depressed:, free diving:shocked2:, nor flying(daytrips from Sharm) for a week. Moody was the least I can described myself that week, but I did get a nice tan since I couldn't do anything else.

Lesson: equalize, equalize, equalize gently and frequently and wear a sweater at night even if it's warm out. Why did I have to learn this the hard way?