Equalization?

[Guba]

Gregg, how hard are you having to "blow" to get your ears to equalize? The reason I ask is a friend was having similar problems (pain afterwards and nose bleeds). What we discovered was that he was waiting until he felt the need to equalize before attempting to. By that time, the pressure was greater than he thought and he was blowing pretty hard to equalize. In fact, he was blowing hard enough to cause minor damage to his ears as well as his sinus membranes, hence the nosebleeds. He trained himself to equalize first at the surface with very mild "puffs", and much more often on descent, particularly at those very critical shallow depths. His symptoms went away.
Just a thought.

 

[shark_tamer]

my main question was is it normal for my ears to feel awkward a day or so after my dive cause i did get them equalized they just feel weird today!!!

The awkward feeling could probably be normal ... I'm no doctor, but this could only be that your ears are not used to the pressure difference.

So far in your life, your ears have been in a constant 1 ATA pressure. Sudenly, you submit them to different pressure, and a new environment ( water ).

When I go on a dive vacation, I usually do 15 to 20 dives in a single week, and sometimes my ears do feel different after the 3rd or 4th day. They don't hurt, they just feel different.

I'm also prone to have ear infections ( depending on water quality ) so now I have a ritual that is part of my "pre" and "post" dives now : Before and after each dive I put 1 or 2 drops of otic solution in each ear.

.... have fun diving.

 

[AbyssalPlains]

Equalizing every 3-5 feet is not nearly enough. Especially during the most critical phase, between the surface and 20 feet, one cannot equalize too often, at least every two feet or even every foot.

 

[AbyssalPlains]

The awkward feeling could probably be normal ... I'm no doctor, but this could only be that your ears are not used to the pressure difference.

So far in your life, your ears have been in a constant 1 ATA pressure. Sudenly, you submit them to different pressure, and a new environment ( water ).

When I go on a dive vacation, I usually do 15 to 20 dives in a single week, and sometimes my ears do feel different after the 3rd or 4th day. They don't hurt, they just feel different.

I'm also prone to have ear infections ( depending on water quality ) so now I have a ritual that is part of my "pre" and "post" dives now : Before and after each dive I put 1 or 2 drops of otic solution in each ear.

.... have fun diving.

I strongly disagree. If your ears "feel awkward" you should pay attention to that. Sometimes it takes a few hours after a dive for your ears to fully "open up" but if they feel different for days on end, that means something's not right. If you experience a "stuffy feeling" in your ears, even if it is very slight, it could mean that you experienced a mild barotrauma, slight as it may be, and it would be another hint at the likely fact that you didn't equalize often enough. All you (the original poster) describe points to your ears being a little more fickle than average (mine are too, so I feel I know what I'm talking about), and you need to be aware of that. Equalize more often than the average person, descend more slowly than the average person, and pay more attention than the average person.

Just my $0.02