The terrible feeling of " Not enough air "

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Obviously medical pros “legally” have to tell you to “never dive with it” bcuz they don’t wanna be sued.

But a lot of people dive with nasal congestion anyway.

I’m just saying if you’re gonna dive anyway, at least try to do it mostly-safely by taking the decongestant an hour before then right before you go down. It does help
 
Obviously medical pros “legally” have to tell you to “never dive with it” bcuz they don’t wanna be sued.

But a lot of people dive with nasal congestion anyway.

I’m just saying if you’re gonna dive anyway, at least try to do it mostly-safely by taking the decongestant an hour before then right before you go down. It does help
I describe that as “never dive relying on a decongestant... and make sure it is long acting.”
Assuming use of Sudafed PSE, It sounds like your advice of two tablets an hour apart is for 30mg, which is directed “2 tablets every 4 to 6 hours.” There are also 12 hour and 24 hour versions, and those are single tablet doses. Do NOT double up a dose!!!
The danger of decongestant use is having it wear off underwater and getting a reverse block, so the case can be made for using the time release long acting versions if you are going to use anything.
 
Everyone does what they feel is best for them with but coming from someone with allergies that knows all about being stuffy, I'd rather loose the hundred bucks for the dive than have any issues. To each their own. Everyone has to know their body and tolerance.
 
Everyone does what they feel is best for them with but coming from someone with allergies that knows all about being stuffy, I'd rather loose the hundred bucks for the dive than have any issues. To each their own. Everyone has to know their body and tolerance.
I think everyone has to make their own risk analysis based on circumstances at the time.

If I am planning diving at home (within 2-3 hrs), then I will not dive congested. I can easily go back to the site in the future.

If it is part of a trip abroad that I have planned for a year and spent £1-1.5K on, my risk analysis might be somewhat different.

Mild congestion can be dealt with by a number of actions such as decongestants (I would opt for long acting in preference to short term ones), adjustment of dive plan (more conservative with allowances for slower descent/ascent), briefing of buddy or DM (if a group dive) to inform them if I might have to cut a dive short, carrying more gas to allow for ascent issues (larger cylinder or possible pony). A friend did exactly that on a trip a couple of years ago and managed the situation without any significant issues.
 
I like "it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood" :D
 
Do some snorkelling, perhaps with a snorkel that is a bit restrictive. When snorkelling your body (lungs) are being slightly compressed due to water pressure whilst the air you breath is at slightly lower atmospheric pressure. This helps you improve your breathing.
 
I have this exact issue! Plus I am somewhat claustrophobic.
I was able to work it out during my pool dives with a lot of time spent just concentrating on buoyancy... hovering close to the bottom without touching and using my breathing to hold or change my height in the water. When I was concentrating on all that, I was able to not be as concerned about the breathing... but if I started thinking about it, I would begin to panic a bit... So I ended up breathing a lot during all this. I emptied a tank of air to 750psi when everyone else had 1500-1800 left on day one. Then on day two I emptied it to 500psi and we still had another 30-45 minutes of work to do in the water and had to swap tanks.
At that point, I started really concentrating on my breathing, attempting to slow things down... and the more I just made laps around the pool slowly, working on breathing slow, the easier it got. That last tank I ended up using much less air than previously, and I had to do the share air as donor and receiver, controlled emergency ascent, and retrieve unconscious diver all during that last tank.
I had other issues at my open water checkout but I was more relaxed about the breathing on the one dive I was able to make once I had a few minutes to concentrate on breathing again.
I sure hope this gets easier to deal with over time and more experience.
 
I don’t think this was mentioned yet: when I started, I was taking ‘too’ deep breaths because the PADI material emphasises to take slow deep breaths.

I found that it actually made me feel a bit short of breath if I take too deep breaths. It is much better if you breathe a bit more like when you are just doing out of the water.
 
Figured I would give an update to my original post at the start of this thread. I have successfully with flying colors passed my Open Water Certification. I finally got through my 4 open water dives. My wife (advanced open water diver) and I scheduled private open water dives 1-4 for me at a geothermal crater. These dives went perfect. Very relaxing and calming to be in 93 degree water. I had no issues what so ever with my breathing or anything else.....

Since these dives I have climbed back into colder water in a pool and put on the dreaded 7 mil wetsuit and hood (I forget to mention this in my original post). I was able to stay at 10 feet in the pool for 24 minutes breathing and did just fine. Still feel a little uncomfortable with all that heavy constricting neoprene on but its not so bad that i feel like i cant dive. The longer i stayed in it at the bottom of the pool the better it felt.

In the end.... I cant wait to get back in the water. Super excited to go diving with my wife !
 

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