Hello all,
New to diving (and posting here). Just received my SSI open water certification and thought I'd see what people think of this question:
So my open water certification consisted of 2 pool dives and 4 open water dives. In the first pool dive, I realized that the Valsalva didn't work for me at all. I would cover my nose and blow and...Nothing. No sensation of a pop or anything else in my ears. However, I used Toynbee and Lowry and was able to use this to eventually equalize and get to the bottom of the pool and do my maneuvers. It took me a lot longer to get down there than everyone else, though.
So on the second pool dive I used Afrin and pseudoephedrine and although I could equalize much more quickly with it, Valsalva still did nothing so I was still relying on Toynbee and Lowry. The instructor didn't mind because "whatever works, works.," but he did think it was unusual and said he had never encountered anyone who couldn't Valsalva. So anyway, with Toynbee and Lowry I was able to equalize slowly without meds and quickly with them.
The next week, I did my open water dives. On the first day, even with meds my descent was slower than others and occasionally I would get that squeak that tells me I was probably equalizing too late. Get back to hotel and ear still feels full, but no pain or hearing loss so I dive again the second day, this time doubling the dose of Sudafed to 240mg from 120. Still can't Valsalva, but equalizing is once again relatively effortless and I can descend as fast as the rest of the group this time. Did my maneuvers no problem, and got my certification.
On the open water ones, I told the instructor about my ear issues and he watched me go down, noticed how I was going back up a little bit any time there was pain or whatever. He said I was doing exactly what I should be doing and that he was impressed with how I was handling it and essentially doing exactly what the classes said to do, i.e. take it slow when needed, do whatever works, and so forth.
Anyway, I get back from OW dive day #2 and ear is still full for a couple of days. So I make an appointment with a local ENT. He looks in my ear, says he sees blood, and diagnoses barotrauma. He said it was very mild (which is why no blood actually came out of the ear) and that it would heal no problem on its own. He said he had no problem with me continuing to dive with afrin and Sudafed so long as I didn't use it chronically and risk rebound, and timed it to make sure it didn't wear off underwater (which I already knew to do).
The ENT doc also looked in my nose and said I am "crooked as hell" and that this may be contributing to my difficulty, but he would not recommend any kind of surgery or anything and that I will "just not be that good of a diver." Interestingly, he said that barotraumas as mild as the one he found were of little concern and may happen from time to time if I keep diving, but I can just live with it so no need to return if it happens again.
That's fine with me, as I have no desire whatsoever to become advanced or dive deep or go in caves or anything else. I just want to go down to my 60 feet or whatever and look at fish and reefs, and I absolutely LOVE diving.
My question is this: Should I just content myself with Toynbee/Lowry? It really bothers me that I can't Valsalva like everyone else, but these alternatives mostly work (especially with meds) and maybe I just get the occasional mild barotrauma. Is there anything I could be doing differently? Also, the instructor mentioned docs proplugs and I also found those pro ear 2000 masks online, but looking at DAN and such I can't see why they would really help equalization given that the pressure is in the middle ear and not the outer. Are such technological innovations just a placebo? If so, is there anything that isn't?
