Tear Duct? Pain

[switch06]

Just got my OW cert in the Caymans. On our boat dives, one off Hepp's Wall and the other to Doc Poulson, I had pretty intense pain in the corner of my eye (tear ducts?). I ascended a few feet, and it slowly went away, and I continued down. At first, I thought it was just a mask squeeze, but the pain was still there when I equalized my mask. We dove 5 or 6 more times while in the Caymans, and the pain was almostnonexistant with a slower descent down the line. Was wondering if anyone knew what the deal was, and if this is common. Thanks.

 

[fisherdvm]

Likely a sinus squeeze. Them little sinuses can be a real pain.

 

[whoji]

Sounds like a squeeze, I occasionally get one in my left eye socket behind the eyebrow.
Just keep it slow and steady on the descents and ascents.
Dont be afraid to thumb a dive either if its too bad.

 

[robint]

my other thought, if not a squeeze, is that there was some bacteria in the mask causing an infection in your tear ducts. Was it a rental mask? Your own? Were you spitting in the mask or using a defog solution?
A pet peeve of mine is seeing people spit in their masks - lots of bacteria in your mouth and you are putting it into your mask! I have had an infection in my tear ducts (long before diving) and it isn't pretty and took over a month and antibiotics to fix. Ever since then I am funny about anything in my eyes, especially after having a dive instructor lecture us in OW class about how unsanitary spit is in your mask!

Just my 2 cents

robin

 

[SelkieDVM]

Don't you know that human spit is sterile? Sorry - it's a little pet peeve of mine when I hear people say that dog mouths are sterile. Seriously, though, I agree spit as a defogger is not very sanitary (though I use it anyway). However I wouldn't expect pain due to an infection to change with depth.

 

[robint]

Don't you know that human spit is sterile? Sorry - it's a little pet peeve of mine when I hear people say that dog mouths are sterile. Seriously, though, I agree spit as a defogger is not very sanitary (though I use it anyway). However I wouldn't expect pain due to an infection to change with depth.

yeah, the fact that the slow descent didn't cause any pain leads me to think it was a squeeze, however, I thought I should mention the sanitation thing just in case. (BTW, I have seen rental masks at some tropical destinations sitting in a bin with green fuzz growning on them as they were never ever washed, let alone cleaned between users. Ugghhh)

 

[switch06]

On the first 2 dives, which I had no pain at all, were shore dives with slow descents, whereas the boat dives were descents on a mooring line. The mask was my own, and I had used defog, although I found on the night dive that night and the dives the next day that I like spit a lot better, no clue why. Thanks for the advice on mask sanitation though (never really thought about all the nasties in spit).