Reverse Block?

[Jaimie]

Hey everyone!
I just joined the forum and I am almost cerified as a new OW diver
I completed all my pool dives with no issue....the first time we went out to do our first two open water dives in the same day...the first time went well and after a SI we proceeded to do our second dive for the day.
once i descended i tried to equalize...i had a bit of trouble at first but i thought i got it...all went well during the dive...
maybe i ascended too fast...although we weren't very deep...
once out of the water it felt like my ear was full of water, kinda hard to hear out of and crackling when i swallowed and stuff..
i was really worried...also i was supposed to dive the next day to complete the OW certificate.
the next day i went to tell the divemaster that i wasn't going to dive because of it. he said that i experienced a reverse block...altho i'm not sick or anything?
i went and purchased ear drops for my ears...it seems to have cleared up a bit but it's been almost 2 days since...should i be concerned? how long does it normally take for it to go away completely?
first time diving and i experience this it's not painful or anything just overly annoying.

i thought it was baratrama or something but he told me it's not.

thanks in advance

 

[Erku]

That sounds a lot like what my wife and I are just finishing recovering from, which I believe to be barotrauma - not reverse block. Reverse block requires that your sinuses and Eustachian tubes become extremely congested while underwater. To my understanding it's quite rare. Your instructor might think that you mean a ruptured ear drum, where barotrauma is just a stretched one and not all that serious. when you dive deep enough to hurt your ears without equalising, and stay there a long time, I think barotrauma is pretty easy to get.

Prevention of Middle Ear Barotrauma has a lot of reaaallly good info on your ears, equalising, and more. I just finished reading it, I'd recommend you do too

Disclaimer: I'm as new to diving as you are, so I could be entirely wrong.