Laryngitis, cough after dive

[Seahorse50]

My husband and I are new to diving, we got certified in March in Mexico and just completed a 2 tank dive in Florida a week and a half ago. Both times we have had a dry irritated throat, laryngitis, and then developed cough that is productive, post nasal drip for a couple weeks after. No problems diving other than the new diver nervousness and that dry throat feeling while diving. Equalizing was fine. We did follow our dives with a plane ride home but that was over 24hrs post dive. Is this common? And Im a little nervous for our next dive (which will be in NE waters) i know to wait till this all clears up before another dive.

 

[Malpaso]

Limited experience here, and I'm sure you'll get a lot more information from others, but I always get some degree of dry throat after every dive. Remember you're breathing dry air. I always try to hydrate a lot before each dive. Usually that helps to some extent.

 

[Ratio]

The only advice I have is to make sure that you're looking at everything if it's a recurring issue.

I have a good friend who developed an unproductive cough and laryngitis after diving. She was around dive number 400 when this started happening, and it only happened after a dive trip where she was diving 2-4 times a day for a week. At one point, her cough persisted for three months without diving. She tried several things like using steam inhalers between dives to ameliorate the issue, but nothing really worked in the long term for her.

It ended up that her laryngitis was caused by the combination of using Advair and diving. The dry air exacerbated a side effect of the drug that she didn't normally have an issue with.

The cough ended up being an allergic reaction to her SO's cat that again was something that she didn't notice except when diving.

She switched asthma meds and dumped her boy toy, and now she's diving happily again... But it did take her two years to figure it all out because she didn't consider that it was anything except for breathing dry air.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Will go along with the dry throat sensation during and shortly after dives being from breathing the dry air during the dives. The rest of it sounds like a cold or virus caught on the plane.

 

[flots am]

My husband and I are new to diving, we got certified in March in Mexico and just completed a 2 tank dive in Florida a week and a half ago. Both times we have had a dry irritated throat, laryngitis, and then developed cough that is productive, post nasal drip for a couple weeks after. No problems diving other than the new diver nervousness and that dry throat feeling while diving. Equalizing was fine. We did follow our dives with a plane ride home but that was over 24hrs post dive. Is this common? And Im a little nervous for our next dive (which will be in NE waters) i know to wait till this all clears up before another dive.

You might want to see a doctor.

Dry air from the tank causes a dry throat, but it goes away quickly. You can usually prevent it by making sure you're well hydrated. Also, sudafed will give you a dry throat (and dry everything else), so if you're taking it, you might want to talk to your doc about why and what you can do about it.

There is nothing I'm aware of in SCUBA that would cause a 2 week post-nasal drip.

flots

 

[chillyinCanada]

I understood the OP to say that both buddies are experiencing the laryngitis and other cold like symptoms.

 

[flots am]

I understood the OP to say that both buddies are experiencing the laryngitis and other cold like symptoms.

If only there were people who went to school to learn about medicine, then the OP could go to one of these people and see if the problem could be identified.

It's easy for both people to get sick on a flight, or pick up a respiratory illness from the regulator [-]disease[/-] rinse bucket.

flots.

edit:

I reread the question and apparently this happened both in Florida and in Cozumel. If the OP owns their own equipment, I'd have to guess that the regs need cleaning or that they're using one of those "moisturizing" inline filters that's contaminated, or maybe doing something weird like inhaling the BC air. Somehow whatever they have is travelling with them.

Other than that, the only useful suggestion I have is the "see a doc" part.

 

[Seahorse50]

Thanks for the advice
Already have MD appt (figured that one out myself) Just didnt know if any of this can be dive related esp with breathing compressed air. Our 1st trip was rented equipment, 2nd trip was our own new equipment, just kind of weird we both had the same symptoms after diving

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Thanks for the advice
Already have MD appt (figured that one out myself) Just didnt know if any of this can be dive related esp with breathing compressed air. Our 1st trip was rented equipment, 2nd trip was our own new equipment, just kind of weird we both had the same symptoms after diving

Not much to add to flot's post above except to say that it's highly unlikely that this is a compressed-gas injury.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[Instructor_Tom]

where you diving while taking allergy medicine and where the dives long dives, do you have acid reflux. all of which could contribute to a dry and irritated throat after diving.

I've actually encountered an issues where after an hour and a half on a dive I had issues with a swollen uvela. today I have not been able to isolate the cause, but after several weeks of allowing it to heal I resumed diving and have had no issues since


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