Eustachian Tube Balloon Dilation

[UCFKnightDiver]

Whoa! Local anesthesia!
At their request, I give general anesthesia for my ENT's who do this procedure, and see a good bump in blood pressure when they inflate the balloon. It's pretty stimulating to the system.
Not sure I'd agree to local if I needed a dilatation, but then, I trust my partner anesthesiologists.

Diving Doc

The doctors at this practice typically do it under local anesthesia and mentioned if they do a good job at blocking a specific nerve then there's usually not much pain. Unfortunately for me, I thought the pain was more like a 5 or 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. However the procedure is only 2 minutes long, so it wasn't the end of the world. They also had me take a Valium to reduce anxiety - they do this for all patients. The procedure was definitely a bit more painful than I was led to believe. However, the next day and today I'm not really in any pain at all.

 

[UCFKnightDiver]

Update: Eustachian Tube Balloon Dilation did not relieve my issues of not being able to clear mid-dive (30-40 minutes in usually) with issues often when I come up to a much shallower depth and then try to go back down, which is when I'm not able to clear.

Exploring turbinate reduction surgery to reduce congestion and open up airflow. When I come up from dives it feels like I just have a ton of flem in the left nasal area which feels like it is blocking the eustachian tube from openning. I never have reverse block issues. Some theories of mine are thick nasal mucous/flem, issues with flem clearing/draining to the throat when only breathing through mouth/regulator, or issues with sinuses not draining super well. Regarding the sinuses not draining well, I never really get sinus infections, I just constantly feel somewhat congested like I have a mild cold, so I'm not sure about that being the issue. Have been on flonaise and azelastine with not much help in symptom improvement. Also have taken Affrin and Pseudofed pre-dive which help some, though I can't really do Affrin for multiple days of diving in a row due to congestion rebound. May try to add Mucinex to see if I can thin the congestion and mucous. Would welcome any thoughts from some of the experts in here such as @doctormike to explore with my ENT.

 

[Imbodie]

not an expert but personal experience... When I lived in Florida I had to tune my allergy meds to the time of year. I couldn't take just one 365 and be good with it. Try Zyrtec and Claritin ( I personally use generics). HYDRATE HYDRATE HYDRATE sudafed(the real stuff, make sure you have to sign for it) is supposed to dry you out, which will thicken the mucous (I mean it helps but can also hinder). Allegra was the BOMB for me but it also has a nasty side effect of raging ear infections (only listed on professional sites, not consumer side).
Yeah, the up down in depth on P1 to Olsen still gives me grief... there was a couple of times I almost crawled out at olsen....
hope my rambling helps some.

 

[doctormike]

Sorry to hear! If the problem is sinus equalization, then turbinate reduction might help - they are along side the sinus drainage pathways. If the problem is ear equalization, then I don't think that it would make any difference, since the ET orifice is behind the turbinates. As far as improving airflow goes, equalizing the ears involves 100% occluding nasal airflow so I don't know how turbinate reduction would make any difference...

 

[UCFKnightDiver]

Sorry to hear! If the problem is sinus equalization, then turbinate reduction might help - they are along side the sinus drainage pathways. If the problem is ear equalization, then I don't think that it would make any difference, since the ET orifice is behind the turbinates. As far as improving airflow goes, equalizing the ears involves 100% occluding nasal airflow so I don't know how turbinate reduction would make any difference...

@doctormike the idea was more to reduce the amount of congestion that I'm having with the thought that the congestion created during the dive is blocking the openning of the eustachian tube and preventing equalization. Not sure if that actually makes sense though...

Appreciate your reply all the same.

 

[doctormike]

@doctormike the idea was more to reduce the amount of congestion that I'm having with the thought that the congestion created during the dive is blocking the openning of the eustachian tube and preventing equalization. Not sure if that actually makes sense though...

Appreciate your reply all the same.

Not sure how that would work. Turbinate reduction is a procedure to shrink the nasal turbinates, which reduces their cross sectional area. That means that you can move air more easily in and out of your nose for nose breathing (something that isn't done in diving). It doesn't reduced infections or mucus production, but even if it did, the Eustachian tube orifices are back behind the turbinates.

 

[mbs]

Big fan of allegra-D 24 hour. Keeps me and buddy/wife nice and dry with no side effects. If it were me I would try drugs before more surgery... But that's me. Best wishes!!!

 

[UCFKnightDiver]

Not sure how that would work. Turbinate reduction is a procedure to shrink the nasal turbinates, which reduces their cross sectional area. That means that you can move air more easily in and out of your nose for nose breathing (something that isn't done in diving). It doesn't reduced infections or mucus production, but even if it did, the Eustachian tube orifices are back behind the turbinates.

Is there anything that I can do to reduce the production of mucus or congestion during the dive or help it drain more effectively to the throat? It feels like a bunch of flem and mucus is just sitting there in my nasal cavity and eventually blocks the eustachian tube from opening. When I get finished with a dive and to the surface, the left side of the nasal area just feels completely full of flem and mucous much more than my right side. I can then snort through my nose to clear it to the throat, but obviously that's not possible during the dive because I'm not breathing through my nose and can't sniff/snort during the dive.

Planning to try the Allegra-D based on several recommendations and maybe mucinex to try to reduce the thickness of the congestion.

 

[Angelo Farina]

As I already reported, my wife (at the time she was my girlfriend) had severe equalization problems at the beginning of our diving career, to the point that also she evaluated seriously various types of surgery.
When her nose was full of secretions, the solution was quite simple, indeed. She did remove the mask and clear the nose. This way, some salt water also comes in, and she did clear it again, two or three times. This "washes" the nose quite well.
Of course initially some people are not happy to have their nasal cavity flooded with sea water, but in the end this revealed to be the cure for her problem.
We did mostly dive in Liguria at the time, where the water is particularly clean and "healthy". To the point that now here in Italy they sell a sea-water treatment for these congestion problems, called Isomar, which is simply a small bottle of sea water (taken at "5 Terre", in Liguria) and a sprayer: Nose and Ears Daily hygiene Spray

 

[Tracy]

Nothing to do with balloon dilation, but a personal experience. I have fought equalizing issues since I started diving. I have spent a lot of time waiting on the line to descend at various depths. A few years ago, I was put on Amlodipine for high blood pressure. After about 6 months, I noticed I wasn't having any ear issues. The only thing that changed was my BP medicine. I spoke with the Doc about it, apparently it is a soft tissue relaxer and this was an awesome side effect. Three years later, I still have not had the first equalization problem outside of when I am congested.
Not suggesting you go on BP drugs, but if you are already on one, ask your doc about switching. It has done wonders for me.