Medical Question: Diving 1-yr removed from major sinus and throat surgery

[mfox007]

I can appreciate that.

I am definitely a "You won't know till you try" type of person, but I am also a cautious person. I will definitely give it a go, and cautiously push to see if I have any limitations. I asked the owner of the LDS I am going through for my resfresher if they dive regularly at the lake, and they do. So I hope to go out with them, and ensure I have no limitations with my OW skills, and hopefully will springboard me to start working towards the other certs I have in mind.

 

[diverjen]

I had pretty much this exact situation although the tonsils and adenoids came out about ten years before the other stuff. It was manifesting as incredibly painful sinus infections for me though, which of course was keeping me from diving. When I was feeling good though I did not notice problems equalizing. I had the turbinate reduction and septal deviation surgery November 1st, 2013 and my ENT cleared me for diving February 1st, 2014 - so a 3 month recovery to dive. I had a trip planned for Bonaire for late May. I did several pool sessions between February and our trip to check out my ears and nose and of course other dive gear and to refresh.

The day after surgery it was immediate to me how much I needed that surgery, even with the swelling from surgery everything was so much more open. The biggest thing was waiting until my nose felt like pinching on! I had no problems in any of the pool sessions or any of the 44 dives we did over 12 dive days in Bonaire this May/June. It's a whole new world being able to breathe - Welcome!

 

[mfox007]

Good to hear Jen!!

I remember the feeling that day I got the stints removed from my nose. It was a WHOLE new world! Amazing how effortless my breathing was.

I am hoping that will corilate into slower longer breathes under water. I was a little bit of an air-hog prior to my surgery.

I will definitely be doing some pool sessions, and some laves dives over the next month or so. As many as the wife will let me!!

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

When I consulted with the ENT, the first thing they did was a sleep study. On the AHI, I scored a 10 (So mild). As for my tonsils and adenoids, the way it was explained to me was: If I was using a scale of zero to 4 (zero being they were already removed, and 4 being completely restricting my airflow), I was a solid 3 to 3+. Hopefully that makes sense. When we did the CT scan, the results showed my septum had grown across my nasal passage (never broken my nose).

So after all these tests, we came to the following "possible" solution: With the constricted nasal passage due to the septum and adenoids, and the enlarged tonsils, if we did the septoplasty, tonsilectomy, and adenoidectomy that will increase my airflow and hopefully prevent the diziness and other effects while working out. It should also help reduce/eliminate the sleep apnea.

ALSO, one of the reasons I also went to the ENT was because at that point in time, I could not remember the last time I did not have a severely congested nose. The CT scan also showed poor drainage from the maxillary sinus cavity. One of the procedures we did was to improve the drainage of those cavities.

When doing my certification divies, I had some issues with congestion. It almost stopped me from doing the dives, but I pushed through.

Again, just trying to see if there is anything to be overly concerned about.

Thanks!!

Wow. So you had some significant airway obstruction with the tonsils the way they were.

Given the information you've provided, the major concerns in your situation would be the potential for air trapping in the area of the surgery, and impaired air flow to and from your lungs. Air trapping could result in barotrauma, and impaired air flow could lead to hypercapnia. Both of those would be good to discuss with your surgeon. It sounds like they've addressed the air flow issue; the question now is if there is sufficient flow to allow for unimpaired gas exchange, especially with increased gas density during diving. Your surgeon should be able to tell you whether there is any risk for air trapping. I hope this helps; DoctorMike (our resident ENT) was out diving last I heard from him so hopefully when he returns he can weigh in with more details.

Best regards,
DDM