Greetings wreckhunter01 and welcome to SB! I can tell you are a fellow allergy person who loves to dive. In the many things I have tried, the best investment yet was to visit a "diving" ENT. His advice totally changed my equalization issues. What he did was instructed me what medications to use and when / how to use them in my particular case. This is very important to understand because some medications are not dive friendly!! This is why it is important to seek professional advice and it does not hurt to consult D.A.N. "Divers Alert Network" they can help you determine what is dive friendly and what is not.
Now there are some easy, helpful hints to try;
1. Cut your dairy intake
2. Drink lots of water
3. Use a ear drying / cleaning solution "ENT approved ofcourse"
4. Sinus rinse
5. Cut your Beer intake "the yeast can not be helpful to allergy symptoms"
6. Practice equalizing out of water to try different techniques and condition the tubes in your ears
7. Never force it " only bad things come from it!!!!"
Those are just very general hints there are some really good threads on SB about this topic and some very nice professional health care members who could be of more help.
From one diver to another, "I am not a doctor" I have found the acai berry blend MONI*VIE to be a huge help! It reduced the medications to almost 0! No joke! It is not cheap but sitting dives out is not either. It is a natural product and has lots of other benefits.
The allergy issue is a case by case, every one is different but I understand your plight very well. I hope this has given you a starting point, I am sure others will be posting soon with some great information. Good luck and do not let this get you down it is manageable my best advice is see the ENT, be proactive, stay in the water as much as possible! It gets better the more practice we have! Safe diving to you.
CamG Keep diving....keep training....keep learning!
