Deviated septum/mucus vs diving

[polyrandom]

I dived lots years ago and I am trying to dive again. I have a deviated septum and my nose always gets allergy.

I still can breath in/out through my nose but there will little amount of mucus and the mucus will accumulate. On the land it is pretty easy to solve but I am not sure if it will become a problem under the water.

Also, just because of the allergy, I sometimes will cough slightly for no reason. If I cough once of twice under the water, will it be a big problem?

I will definitely go to see a doctor but I would also like to hear from you divers

 

[bleeb]

You might want to look in the Dive Medicine forum. I don't remember seeing anything directly addressing your specific questions, but nose and sinus issues are discussed a lot. You can also ask a moderator to move this thread there. Some diving docs hang out there, and would be more likely to see your question if the thread were moved.

 

[TravelDive]

Scuba Article

I wrote about my issues with a Deviated Septum and diving above. I can't post the excerpt since I will get flamed again probably!

It's not easy, but there are solutions!

 

[vixtor]

I have a similar problem - on land, my nose is always a little congested and sometimes I cough because of the deviated septum. I have no intention to fix it (scared of surgery), but it doesn't bother me too much.

In water, the least that could happen is that you will have some mucus accumulate in your nose and the nose pocket eventually. Just blow&wash it on surface. When there is more, maybe you will get some congestion. A few times I had a congested nose enough to make me unable to equalize the ears. Those times, I just removed my mask and blow my nose underwater. It fixed the problem

Now, another thing - here, on scubaboard, I have read once a huge thread about washing the inside of the nose with salt water (it was something like "blowing salt water up my nose"). Although I usually don't bite such strange ideas, I was somehow seduced by the fact that so many fellow divers did it and felt great. I have tried it (just with a normal, 20ml syringe - a spoon of salt in a cup of warm water). It really changed my life - the effects of mucus, congestion and cough were dramatically reduced, so much that in the last 6 month I did this almost every day. Maybe you'll want to try this..

I found the thread: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...od-anybody-else-doing.html?highlight=neti+pot

 

[TravelDive]

Glad you liked the article, any problems just give me a shout. It's a horrible feeling not being able to dive. The surgery is not too scary but the bad news is you will problably need to use sprays for the rest of your life to control symptoms!

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

Now, another thing - here, on scubaboard, I have read once a huge thread about washing the inside of the nose with salt water (it was something like "blowing salt water up my nose"). Although I usually don't bite such strange ideas, I was somehow seduced by the fact that so many fellow divers did it and felt great. I have tried it (just with a normal, 20ml syringe - a spoon of salt in a cup of warm water). It really changed my life - the effects of mucus, congestion and cough were dramatically reduced, so much that in the last 6 month I did this almost every day. Maybe you'll want to try this..

I found the thread: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...od-anybody-else-doing.html?highlight=neti+pot

Glad you found my old thread. I rinsed again this morning. I confess I have gotten lax and don't do it every day anymore. Just a couple of times a week now or when I am starting to feel the allergies kick up, like I am now I go back to rinsing every day until I feel better.

To say it has changed my life is an understatement.