bluebanded goby
Contributor
During my first year of scuba and free diving, I didn't have any significant problems with clearing, sinuses, etc. Then as of last December I started noticing a lot of problems with my left frontal sinus. During the period between then and now I've been freediving exclusively, on a total of three occasions. When I've tried to get deeper than about 5 fsw, I get a strong pain in my left eyebrow area. On one occasion I ended up with a fair amount of blood in my mask.
I tried descents in a swimming pool this week, and noticed a pain in the same area. I've come to the conclusion that I probably have what has turned into a chronic frontal sinus problem.
I'm going to book an appointment to see my family doc and most likely request a referral to ENT, but since my HMO often tries for doing the most with the least I wanted to throw out a question or two here first. It appears from a bit of searching on the web that in a case like mine an ENT doctor might typically do an examination of the sinus area with an endoscope. At least in some cases it seems as though a simple approach is to insert a stint (i.e. a little tube that will keep the sinus open).
Does this seem like a reasonable thing to ask about? Is this usually done as an outpatient visit? Are there any other treatments that I might ask about? This seems like a simple enough procedure that I'd be game to try it, although I'm gun shy on more extensive surgery unless it's really called for. I've been told that I quite quite a deviated septum, for example, but I'd prefer not to have surgery on it unless I really, really had to. Thanks in advance for any input on this.
I tried descents in a swimming pool this week, and noticed a pain in the same area. I've come to the conclusion that I probably have what has turned into a chronic frontal sinus problem.
I'm going to book an appointment to see my family doc and most likely request a referral to ENT, but since my HMO often tries for doing the most with the least I wanted to throw out a question or two here first. It appears from a bit of searching on the web that in a case like mine an ENT doctor might typically do an examination of the sinus area with an endoscope. At least in some cases it seems as though a simple approach is to insert a stint (i.e. a little tube that will keep the sinus open).
Does this seem like a reasonable thing to ask about? Is this usually done as an outpatient visit? Are there any other treatments that I might ask about? This seems like a simple enough procedure that I'd be game to try it, although I'm gun shy on more extensive surgery unless it's really called for. I've been told that I quite quite a deviated septum, for example, but I'd prefer not to have surgery on it unless I really, really had to. Thanks in advance for any input on this.