Ear/Sinus problems after Scuba diving - Sinus Problems Message Board

jeffbob · 04-01-2006, 05:35 PM

I went on a scuba diving trip (while in great health) about 6 weeks ago. I felt fine after the dive but about a week later I started to get "brain fog" for about an hour per day for the next week.

I then took two flights on consecutive days and my problems progressed to blocked nose, ears, sinus headaches, and also brain fog. I was given antibiotics and decongestants. These helped but not completely. I went back to the Dr. and was given a steroid nasal spray. This also helped, but I am still sufferring from blocked ears. The blockage starts to disappear a bit after taking decongestants (nasal and sudafed) but it comes right back after they wear off.

I'm a 24/M whose has always been healthy. Sometimes, I have allergies and a stuffy nose, but I have never felt this bad for more than a few days.

I plan on going to an ENT in a few days but am looking for support in the meantime. Does anybody have any other ideas to unblock ears or what I am sufferring from? I am worried about overusing the decongestants. I am starting to get frustrated. Thanks for your help!

leslie lou · 04-04-2006, 09:00 AM

sounds like you have ETD. do you still have the brain fog?

jeffbob · 04-04-2006, 12:36 PM

Thanks for the response!

For the most part the brain fog is gone, however I just started feeling dizzy again. I took a sleeping pill for the past few days so maybe that's the cause. I went to dinner with a friend yesterday and it completely exhausted me. It was in a restaurant with poor acoustics and I was completely drained at the end of the meal. When I got outside in the fresh air I felt much better. It's frustrating because I've never felt bad for more than a couple days. I am going to the ENT today.

Thanks again.

hbep · 04-04-2006, 03:37 PM

Hello,

Sorry your post got missed. It does sound like your eustachian tubes have been disturbed by the diving. Eustachian tube dysfunction can take a while to clear. Hopefully the ENT can shed some light on the situation. They can run pressure tests to establish if you have that or not. Inhaling steam, breathing it in through your mouth and out through your nose can help. Sometimes if you plug one nostril alternately on each side it can aid the procedure. Somehow the eustachian tubes need to drain. If it becomes an ongoing problem you can have tubes put in to drain them.

Hope the ENT has helped,

best,

Subs30 · 04-04-2006, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffbob

I went on a scuba diving trip (while in great health) about 6 weeks ago. I felt fine after the dive but about a week later I started to get "brain fog" for about an hour per day for the next week.

I then took two flights on consecutive days and my problems progressed to blocked nose, ears, sinus headaches, and also brain fog. I was given antibiotics and decongestants. These helped but not completely. I went back to the Dr. and was given a steroid nasal spray. This also helped, but I am still sufferring from blocked ears. The blockage starts to disappear a bit after taking decongestants (nasal and sudafed) but it comes right back after they wear off.

I'm a 24/M whose has always been healthy. Sometimes, I have allergies and a stuffy nose, but I have never felt this bad for more than a few days.

I plan on going to an ENT in a few days but am looking for support in the meantime. Does anybody have any other ideas to unblock ears or what I am sufferring from? I am worried about overusing the decongestants. I am starting to get frustrated. Thanks for your help!

Hi

Check out: (from Northwestern Univ Web Site--in sticky above)

....."Barotrauma

Barotrauma refers to injury sustained from failure to equalize the pressure of an air-containing space with that of the surrounding environment.

The most common examples of barotrauma occur in air travel and scuba diving.

Although the degree of pressure changes are much more dramatic during scuba diving, barotraumatic injury is possible during air travel.

Barotrauma can affect several different areas of the body, including the ear, face and lungs. Here we will focus on barotrauma as it relates to the ear

Symptoms of Barotrauma

Symptoms of barotrauma include "clogging" of the ear, ear pain, hearing loss, dizziness, ringing of the ear (tinnitus), and hemorrhage from the ear.

Dizziness (or vertigo) may also occur during diving from a phenomenon known as alternobaric vertigo. It is caused by a difference in pressure between the two middle ear spaces, which stimulates the vestibular (balance) end organs asymmetrically, thus resulting in vertigo. The alternobaric response can also be elicited by forcefully equalizing the middle ear pressure Politzer maneuver, which can cause an unequal inflation of the middle ear space....".........