I Hope I Didnt Mess Up

[ingreevox]

WHILE ENJOYING MY FIRST INLAND DIVE SINCE MY CERTIFICATION, I DOVE 3 DIVES OVER 2 DAYS.
THE FIRST DIVE WAS TO 50 FT, NO PROBLEMS.
DIVE #2/ THE NEXT DAY/ WAS TO 65 FEET, WITH A 35 FOOT ENDING, AND UP.
THE LAST DIVE WAS NEVER DONE. i COULD NOT CLEAR BELOW 15 FEET, AND HAD TO ABORT THE DIVE.

BEING A PRO MUSICIAN, I HAVE SUFFERED SOME TINNITUS IN MY EARS, BUT SINCE THE DAY AFTER THE DIVE, MY EARS HAVE FELT STOPPED UP.
I AM NOT DIZZY, BUT IT FEELS LIKE AN ALLERGY THING, AND I HOPE IT WASNT A DIVING THING.
I OBEYED MY PADI TABLES, BUT I AM A NEWBY, SO I MAY HAVE GOOFED, EVEN THOUGH I DONT THINK I DID.

HELP
DOUG

 

[BillP]

Howdy ingreevox:

Welcome to Scubaboard! You don't really ask a question, so it's a little hard to figure out just what you're looking for, but I'll take a stab at it.

Since you posted in the Ask Dr. Deco forum rather than the Diving Medicine forum I'm going to assume that you want to know whether you've suffered a decompression injury due to dissolved nitrogen. Rest assured that having your ears feel like they're "stopped up" in the absence of other findings would be a very unlikely symptom of a decompression illness.

On the other hand, middle ear barotrauma- a pressure injury to the ear from inadequate equalization- is the most common dive medicine malady and is frequently associated with the feeling of your ears being "stopped up", particularly after needing to abort a dive after having trouble clearing.

You can find quite a lot of information on middle ear barotrauma and ear clearing in the "Diving Medicine" forum. A quick search of "barotrauma" yielded page after page of good information at:

http://www.scubaboard.com/search.ph...d=114079&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

A quick search of DAN's website gave this link:

http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/medical/faq/faq.asp?faqid=19

And Scubadoc has a lot on ear problems and diving on is website at:

http://scuba-doc.com/entprobs.html

We're glad to have you here on Scubaboard. Some tips for future reference: The Dr. Deco forum is primarily for discussions about decompression physiology. The Dive Medicine forum is more appropriate for diving medicine questions like tinnitus and barotrauma. (Both the Ask Dr. Deco and Diving Medicine forums have links at the top explaining their intended purposes.) Feel free to ask any questions (or add comments) if you like, but if you give the "Search" function at the top of the board a try you'll likely find the information you're looking for. One last general Internet use suggestion. Typing in all caps is considered "shouting" by many Internet users and some will tell you it's rude. If you take the time to make your posts more legible by properly formatting them, then responders might be more willing to take the time to give you good responses.

HTH,

Bill

The above information is intended for discussion purposes only and is not meant as specific medical advice for any individual.

 

[Dr Deco]

Dear ingreevox:

One could safely say that you did not have a decompression sickness problem. . As BillP said, you did not have a specific question so we will guess that you are wondering if anything was wrong. He has added so much that I have little to add.

Problems can arise from ascents with pressures developing unequally in both ears. These then lead to barotrauma problems. In the ASK DR DECO section, we generally discuss questions dealing with the physiology of decompression as contrasted with the medical aspects of diving. I myself am not a clinician, although there are others who are able to answer medical queries.

Dr Deco
-- on vacation this week :mean:

 

[ingreevox]

THANK YOU FOR ANSWERING EVEN THOUGH I AM ON THE WRONG PAGE

I HAVE A FOLLOW UP IF YOU DONT MIND, I INVESTIGATED ALL THE LINKS YOU SENT, AND I APPRECIATE YOU SENDING EM....

IT SEEMS TREATABLE, AND I IMAGINE I SHOULDNT DIVE NOW....
HOW LONG DOES THIS TAKE TO GO AWAY, OR CLEAR, AND IS THIS COMMON?

I AM GOING TO SEE AN AUDIOLOGIST FOR A PERSONAL OPINION

THANKS AGAIN , AND DOC ENJOY THE VACATION

DOUG
INGREEVOX

 

[ingreevox]

DEAR DR DECO,
FOLLOWING UP ON OUR CONVERSATION, I DID SEE A DOCTOR, AND I DID GET A BAROTRAUMA, NOT BAD , THANK G, BUT ENOUGH TO MAKE ME BE A BETTER DIVER NEXT TIME.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP, BOTH OF YOU
D