equalizing problem

[bluenose]

Last weekend I was diving at Dutch Springs with friends and experienced something that never happened before.
I ascended the usually way, relaxed clearing the impending squeezes until we reached 30ft. from there we leveled off and made a direct line to the platforms for a group check, before heading on to a sunken crane at about 50ft.
At this stage, I felt OK. Then suddenly a squeeze started to raise its ugly head, I could feel it on the left front side of my head.
I cleared again and my ears were fine, no squeeze there what so ever, but the pain persisted and with each foot descended it hurt like a *******. As I honed in on the pain I realized it was in my nasal sinus and felt as if it was right behind my left eye. As soon as I saw the nearest up line I let the other guys know I need to go up and sort this out. They waited and I went up on the line to five feet, slowly. With hope this would subside. It did but only a bit. I cleared again and headed down. No matter what I tried at this stage, the sinus now bruised, was going to hurt anyway.
With the knowledge I had already bruised it, I carried on diving in a little discomfort. We had a good dive, 55 minutes at 43 Deg temp.
All week long I have been trying to figure out what happened. No blood, headache or any sign of the squeeze after the dive. Not even an ounce of congestion.
Yesterday it hit me. I was going over the dive mentally when I realized the only thing I done different was to tighten up my mask strap, really tight.
Tell me if I am wrong but I think the skirt on my mask was pulled so hard, it trapped air in my sinus sack behind the eye brows. While adjusting it under water I could of added pressure in there but with the different depths, the air would swell and expand without an outlet.
Am I mad or is this possible.

 

[amascuba]

Sounds like you had a Sinus block. Were you getting over or still had a cold or allergies?

 

[sarita75]

That has happened to me for the same reasons. Try slackening your mask strap when you go next time, tighten it underwater if need be. Hope that you feel better.

 

[SparticleBrane]

Personally I would have terminated the dive immediately. Diving with sinus/equalizing issues isn't too smart, IMHO. No dive today is worth all the dives tomorrow.

Also, if you get extra bad mask face, your mask is way too tight. It should be snug enough to stay on but not ridiculously tight.

 

[Prostar]

I tend to wear my mask rather loose, almost sloppy. The water pressure at depth will press it on tighter anyway. Then I just control the fit by exhaling thru my nose.

As to going back down, I always tell my students to never push it. Pain makes for an unhappy dive with possible unhappy times to come.

 

[rawls]

It was your left frontal sinus that was giving you the problem...Did you have sinus congestion before the dive? If you didn't then I question a sinus squeeze as long as you were equalizing the airspace in your mask as necessary. The mask being too tight may have caused the skirt to press in on your forehead and thus cause the pain. You may have had both straps cinched down tightly but the left may have been more so than the right. In any event...Hope you get better soon...

 

[diverdown247]

Sinus block, but you hit a good point.

With the mask pulled so tightly against your face, you very well may have forced the air out of part of the sinus cavity close to the surface of the face (most likely around the lower portions of the skirt-been there done that and it hurt badly). What can happen is that you not only force the air out of a portion of the sinus cavity, but you inadvertently trap (causing a sinus block) air in another section of the sinus cavity where it can not be equalized becasue the expansion has no place to go.

So in a sense, you are creating more than one chamber (3-6 to be exact) of air within the sinus cavity that have different capacities resulting in different volumes of air being compressed at depth. This WILL hurt and may even cause an extreme headache for a few hours.

It's like if you take an elongated balloon (inflated of course) and tie a knot somewhere along the length of it to make two unequal distributions of air. Though the air in each distribution will compress at the same rate, the volumes will remain different. Thus one distribution should remain larger than the other at any given depth. Make sense?

One way I suggest that this is resolved is through the use of a Slap Strap. LakeDiver has them available (reasonably priced too) on www.lakediver.com OR you can locate the actual slap straps by Amphibious Outfitters if you want something with a little more attitude or flair (I have one I can send you IF you don't mind something that is not politically correct-I can't wear it as an instructor). These are simply fit to your head, then it should not ever need adjusted unless you grow some serious hair or use a hood. Once it's fit to your liking, place the mask on your face where you want it and toss the strap over the crown of the skull and you're good to go.

 

[bluenose]

Thanks for the input. I would recommend anyone to abort and the thought entered my head. Knowing the dive plan and diving with very good experienced divers gave me the confidence to carry on. Any diversion from our plan would of caused me to. I know my limits and had confidence in my fellow divers.

 

[bluenose]

Cont'd from above accidentally hit send.

So the mask skirt could of done it. I had no residual effects and suffered no congestion prior or after the dive. Every time I go I learn something new.

 

[shoredivr]

The idea of cranial sinuses being like a balloon that can be squeezed is unfortunately not anatomically possible.

The sinuses are located within the bones of the skull: frontal bone (forehead), maxillary bones (cheekbones) sphenoid and ethmoid bones (deep between the eyes). They are not between the skin and the bones. If you ever get a chance to see a human skull sectioned through the frontal bone, you'd see an airspace within the bone.

The sinuses connect to the nasal passages through small passageways or ducts. The frontal ones drain down into the top of the nasal passage, and the maxillary ones drain sideways into the nasal passage.

Sinuses are lined with a thick mucous membrane. So are the ducts, and this lining can swell when inflammed, or be plugged by thick or infected mucus, blocking the ducts and trapping the air inside. Hence the squeeze.

The pressure of a too-tight mask will compress the skin and subcutaneous tissue between skin and bone, and can make the sensations present during a sinus infection or squeeze more excruciating.

Living bone has minimal flexibility, but not to the point of the pressure of a mask squeezing bone against bone to compress a sinus flat.

Sincerely,

Sinus nerd