Typical heal time after bloody sinus event?

[bluebanded goby]

Five days ago while freediving I found I got a sharp pain at my left eyebrow whenever I tried to descend below 6 feet or so. After a few shallow forays I found a moderate amount of blood in my mask, and discontinued any further diving attempts. It has all the classic signs of a frontal sinus infection, so I'm assuming it's just that. Now that I recall, I did have a headache (unusual for me) the day before the dive outing.

I haven't had much of any symptoms since then, although that area has been just a little achey today. Also today some old brown blood came out when I blew my nose. A friend, meanwhile, is inviting me to freedive next week. Obviously I don't expect an Internet diagnosis, but does something like this usually take longer to heal? Also, I'm trying to calibrate if and whether to see my doctor (not wanting to run in unnecessarily, but not wanting to let a condition go either). For what it's worth, I've been taking Allegra, doing a daily saltwater nasal douche and using Flonase spray (I don't tolerate pseudoephedrine well). Thanks for any input!

 

[Laurence Stein DDS]

Dear BBG,

I'm a dentist so I should not provide medical information for this condition. So no info for treatment. However I am aware of some of the side effects of Flonase. I need to know this in the normal treatment of my patients. They, on occasion present iwt nose bleeds or are taking this medication. Flonase is a topical steroid spray. It has a number of side effects. Nosebleed, (epistaxis) is one of them.

http://flonase.ibreathe.com/28/ This is the website for Glaxo Welcome drug mfg. This is their dise effects disclaimer:

The most commonly reported adverse events in patients receiving FLONASE (100 mcg and 200 mcg) in clinical trials were headache (7% - 16% vs 15% vehicle placebo), pharyngitis (6% - 8% vs 7% vehicle placebo), and epistaxis (6% - 7% vs 5% vehicle placebo). Effectiveness depends on regular use.


Kinda funny how their side effects and your symptoms nearly match? Hopefully, you were not taking the medication before your nosebleed episode. If you were, however, you might be experiencing a drug side effect. If you WERE NOT
taking the med before the dive just be aware that a nose bleed is a possible side effect.

Get well soon--we all get antsy being stuck out of the water.

Larry Stein

 

[Laurence Stein DDS]

I seem to be having a dyslexia problem tonight. Pardon the spelling errors

Larry Stein

 

[rcohn]

I've had sinus blocks when freediving, once with blood in the mask. It's taken me a few days to heal. When I've started again too soon (next day) I've been able to dive for awhile 30- 40 minutes but then it blocked up again. Don't push it you only will make it worse.

Of course this is just my experience, YMMV.

Ralph