Barotrauma on my open water dive.

[Linedog]

Well I guess it had to happen, I was carrying a touch to much weight and when we did the controlled desent down the line to 40 feet I let out to much air and sank to fast. At about 20 feet it felt like someone was driving a nail into my ear. I started adding air and swimming up to slow my desent and go up a few feet. It took me a few seconds to clear, then all was good I thought. The rest of the day it felt like I had water in my ear, cleared a little on Sunday but never went away. Kept getting worse during the week so I went to see my Doc, yep Barotrauma, Prednazone for three days lots of liquids, and no diving for three weeks just to be sure. No ones fault but my own, my instructor was with two of us and the second I started to drop faster than her she grabed me to slow down. This is a leason that could have been worse but I still learned a great deal from it!

 

[Lee Taylor]

Be careful with that. Ear durms can rupture. What some people feel is worse than "ear squeeze" on the way down is "reverse block" on the way up.

 

[Protist]

Usually, I will just hold my nose shut with my fingers and continually equalize my ears as I descend. This way I NEVER feel the ear squeeze.
But you Live..Learn...then dive again... Hope you feel better.

 

[TSandM]

It's unfortunately pretty common for new divers to be overloaded by everything required in their first OW dives, and leave equalizing until they actually have ear pain.

It is possible for most people to descend at any desired rate (including, as I did last week, pointing a scooter straight down and taking off) if they equalize frequently enough. (And for the scooter descent, that was darned near continuously!)

I'm sorry you had enough damage to have to avoid diving for a bit. But in the meantime, you might benefit from watching THIS video (warning, it's long) and reading THIS piece about equalization techniques. Remember, equalizing should be done BEFORE there is discomfort!

 

[NauticalDelicious]

This must be a rite of passage. I have it too, after the very first beautiful magical wonderful dive of lifetime! Why'd I wait so long to get Certified? Bummer to have to sit out and fantasize but I will study the books and try to understand the Scuba lingo. People tell me to take Sudafed before the Dive and that makes me tweaky, even the non-drowsey - - So Mucinex a day before and day of the Dive. Any other hints to avoid Barotrauma? Ouchie.

 

[pushc6]

My first dive I was focusing on everything else I almost forgot to equalize, but boy did I get a reminder haha Didn't forget to equalize after that haha.

 

[toddthecat]

Just be lucky that you didn't rupture an eardrum!!! I know a guy that has done it more than once and the scarring inside his ear has caused a decent amount of hearing loss. TSandM is right, it sucks if OW divers are presented with so much information that they forget to equalize I hope it doesn't turn you away from diving!

 

[Tricia]

Re the "reverse block" - I was on a boat this summer where it happened and the poor woman was sobbing with pain. While we waited for the dive doctor to come up from his dive to help her, another diver who had suffered it once before (and who happened to also be a doctor) gave her Affrin (sp?), one of those little bottles you stick up your nostril and sniff. Within a minute, she was crying - but with relief. Not all dive boats have this in the medical kit, so next time, I'm bringing it with me!

Trish

 

[CheddarChick]

Great save Tricia, Thanks for posting it!!!

 

[DiveMom1]

This has happened often within my group of dive buds. I'll add that to my small beach first aid kit. [my trauma bag stays in the van as not to scare new divers] LOL