Blood in mask

[blacka]

I am fairly new to spearfishing, and am wondering if anyone has ever experienced this. When i dive, I have blood in my mask that comes from my nose, it doesnt hurt or anything, also, does anyone's head hurt when they go below say 20/30 feet? Thanks in advance for ur replies.

 

[Tony Babowicz]

That sounds like sinus squeeze. There is lots of information about this on deeper blue. Do a search, its not uncommon.
Are you having equalisation problems?

 

[agbiv]

Happened just once. Right after I "thought" I was over sinus infection & dove. Get clear before going deep.

 

[blueface]

I am fairly new to spearfishing, and am wondering if anyone has ever experienced this. When i dive, I have blood in my mask that comes from my nose, it doesnt hurt or anything, also, does anyone's head hurt when they go below say 20/30 feet? Thanks in advance for ur replies.

It's very common with scuba divers. I drive a dive boat and see it everyday. None of the instructors or dive masters seem to think it's a big deal. I have not seen a free diver get a nose bleed but I suppose it's a squeeze like the other guy said. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it as long as there's no pain and it's not chronic.

 

[trux]

Sinus squeeze is probably not the best term here, though a possibility too. More likely it is simply a mask squeeze - I guess you do not equalize your mask when descending. As you descend, the ambient pressure presses the mask onto your face, but if it lacks elasticity, and does not compress well, underpressure builds in it, and can lead to burst capillaries in eyes, nose, or sinus.

Under sinus squeeze we usually understand something else - when the sinus or parts of it are enclosed due to mucus, infection, or physiological predisposition, and suffer from barotrauma on descent or on ascent (reverse squeeze) due to the impossibility to equalize the pressure inside of the enclosure. It is usually rather painful, though.

The solution is simple - blow little bit air into your mask each time you equalize your ears (each couple of meters of depth). Using a well compressible mask, such as the AquaSphere Sphera or Sommap Flow is another possibility that allows you descending rather deep without the need to equalize the mask.

 

[Tony Babowicz]

Trux, I agree that blood from nose could likely be mask squeeze. However, he asks if anyone experiences pain at 20/30 ft. I used to experience this before I had an 11mm cyst removed from my frontal sinus cavity. It took tremendous effort to equalise my sinuses and if I ever missed one, I would feel the pain. I would also bleed on occasion.

 

[e.m.p!]

I had the same a week after a blocked nose. I thought to be fine to go for a dive, but ended up with a bit of a 'stuffed' nose and some blood in the mask.
Didn't bother me and I kept on diving and never had the problem again. Guess it's just a matter of waiting till a cold is really over.