Poll: Have you ever experienced a Reverse Block?

[mempilot]

I used to get it every once and a while until I did my deco class. Hand over hand on the rope for the ascent keeps mine from happening anymore. I watch my vertical rates much closer now. I had an accute baratrauma once, ... once. It was from going down to fast, but I don't screw around with my vertical rates anymore. No more setting the anchor for me. The doc says I have small eustachian tubes. You know what they say, small feet...

 

[Rick Inman]

Happened today. Four in our group in 4 foot vis, and on the way back through our silt we lost Stowey. I buddy with him a lot (about once a week) and knew he'd just meet us at the beach, but with the newb, I went throught the drill anyway. We did 3 @ 15, then I signed wait here, surfaced to NOT find Stowe, then came back to 15. From 15 to the surface my ears started to hurt. It had never happened to me before and felt so much like descending that I automatically tried to clear and made it worse. Youch! At the surface, while looking for Stowey, I was yawning, swallowing, wiggling my jaw, all to no avail.
When I went back to 15 feet it went away. We slowly made our way back to the beach.
The pain never returned, but fortunately, Stowey did.

 

[Snowbear]

Yup!

 

[diverrick]

I had one in the late 70's Hurt like nothing I ever felt before or after.
I actually made the guy driving on the way home, pull over, and I ran back down the hill in a pathetic attempt to relieve the pain. Felt like my upper teeth on the Left side were going to blow right out of my head! By the time we made it to Petaluma I could not go on, and we were considering going to a hospital. We chose instead to call my home town doc, who told me to get a bottle of sinus spray, and "put the whole thing in your nose" I did and when I heard the air suddenly release, it was sweet! That put me off of diving for about 10 years. Hope that never happens again.

 

[FreeFloat]

1. Experienced a sinus squeeze while freediving (hey, it counts). Thought my head would implode at depth. Pressure eased off somewhat after ascending but enough of an ache remained to halt any further attempts at diving that day. Lesson learned: make absolutely sure your sinuses are clearing when recovering from a cold, not just your ears!

2. Experienced an ear squeeze while trying to descend. After numerous equalization attempts, finally got the ear to "behave". Had a wonderful dive - until the ascent. The ear wouldn't/couldn't clear on the way up. No actual pain (just a lot of pressure) until the drive home - which should have been about an hour, but due to a snowstorm, turned into 3 hours helplessly snarled in crawling traffic. 3 hours spent in agony. Lesson learned: if at first the ear don't clear, DON'T FORCE THE DIVE!!!

 

[lhpdiver]

I had a head cold for the last 2 weeks. Had trouble clearing on Saturday and on the second dive had bad sinus/tooth block. Quite abit of blood in the mask as well. Woke up Sunday and my sinuses hurt when I put my head between my knees. Took an Allegra and a snort of Flonase. Had two fairly interesting dives and never thought of my sinuses. This morning I'm 100% ok.

 

[sbloomer]

I've had sinus "blow-up" ascending from 40 meters. I felt 100% throughout the entire dive, although sea water often causes a "snotty" nose with me - as it did then. All was ok until about 8 meters when it felt like someone was trying to drive a chisel into my forehead. I wanted to return to 15 meters to see if would open up, but couldn't due to a relatively tight schedule. Needless to say I could barely concentrate on the stop. I was in blinding pain for about 10 minutes in the boat, when all of a sudden it opened up (whew!!), but I was spewing blood for the next half hour or so. Man, what a mess... Well, it put a stop to my diving for a couple of weeks, but funnily enough, I haven't had any sinus related problems since then, in any form!

 

[CRDiver]

I used to get them all the time, still do at a minor level. I'm a 100% cold water diver, and within minutes of a dive, I start to congest. I use Allegra-D every day I dive and haven't felt any negative side-effects. The first time it happened (on my third checkout dive), it scared the hell out of me, but once you feel it starting to come on, it's not that hard to deal if you can slow your ascent.

 

[CRDiver]

I should correct my first message. I often suffer from reverse *squeezes*, not blocks. I can work through a squeeze; blocks are a *****.

 

[PaulB]

I can honestly say that a reverse block is one of my biggest fears when diving. Thankfully I've never had one and I try not to put myself in the situation in which I could get one (diving with a cold) When I have to dive with a cold I use sudafed. I just never want to experiance that pain.