• Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    • Join over 44,280+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
    • Participate in and browse from over 516,210+ posts.
    • Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
    • Post your own photos or view from 7,441+ user submitted images.
    • All this and much more...

    You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!

Sinus Squeeze that won't go away.

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

JoshuaBland

Member
Oct 25, 2021
19
0
11
20
ive been having a really annoying problem with a pain in my sinuses just above my left eye. I assume its sinuses inflammation and its happening on decent. first you need some background

I've been freediving for about 3 years, pb is 16m. I tend to be a relative stuffy person, being caused by allergies or something else I'm not sure. either way I've never had any issues with my sinuses and equalization (once I learned it). only time I had an issue was last January, I was diving (way overweighted) and was trying to take a picture. I sank deeper then I wanted and didn't equalized, this caused a bit of a "ear squeeze" and ended my dive for the day.

That said, This past July I went freediving with a friend of mine and I was unable to get deeper then 5m. I got a super sharp pain just above my left eye. In the moment I assumed I didn't equalize or it was a one off thing. tried to dive again and it was even worse. so I gave up and just snorkelled for the day. I figured I was just sick and gave myself 2 weeks before diving again, but the same thing happened again. I gave about another month and this time was able to get to 6m, however I could still feel pressure in the area and had to equalizer a bit harder to keep it away. since then the problem just keeps happening and wont go away. I don't want to cause damage so haven't been able to dive much since July. ive noticed lately that the area above my eye can sometimes be tender to the touch and this is months later.

i'm curious if anyone has experienced anything like this or has any advice. Ive tried saline sprays and decongestants but it Hasn't fixed the problem. I wonder if I should go see a doctor, however my health care system is extremely slow and can take months just to get a test done. any input, advice, or people/resources that might help is appreciated.

I don't want this to end my diving.
 
Hello, maybe you have chronic sinusitis, I recommend you goint to an ENT doctor, probably he will put you on a treatment of nasal steroids (you need to take them daily, and maybe forever, or at least during long periods of time; since they act locally, they are not absorved by the body as the oral steroids, so they are quite safe and usually don´t cause adverse effects). The doctor also will order a CT scan to see if you have swollen nasal mucosa obstructing a sinus ostium, nasal polyps, etc, and depending on the results he could perform a surgery; probably your case is a chronic sinusitis associated to allergies, in other words, a permanent inflammation that is obstructing the passages of the sinuses (maybe the ostiums are inflammed, or the turbinates), and a treatment with nasal steroids should solve this problem, if not a sinus surgery could solve the problem, since it will help to open the passages. The best thing you can do is goins as soon as possible to the doctor!
I give you this advice because at the age of 25, I started to have similar problems, the main cause was a change of residence, I lived all my life in an island, where the humidity is very high, going to live far away from the sea affected me (the humidity was lower) and I started to develop nasal stiffness, I didn´t care much until one summer, I started experience pain in the back of my eye every time that I tried to submerge, I have spearfished since I was a child and I never had any problems equalizing, I had not the need to perform any time of equalizing maneuver since I didn´t experience any pressure in my middle ear or sinuses, so starting to have problems to equalize was a new thing to me, luckily I managed to find a good ENT doctor who performed a sinus surgery on me, and combinated with a permanent treatment of nasal steroids I can freedive again without any problems.
Good luck!!
 
It looks like you have tried a saline spray, have you tried the a nasal flush (irrigation) method? I prefer the squeeze bottle myself as it really helps me move mucus out during sinus infections which have caused me to have severe sinus pressure, ear infections and ruptured ear drums if I don't address the issue forthwith.
 
ive been having a really annoying problem with a pain in my sinuses just above my left eye. I assume its sinuses inflammation and its happening on decent. first you need some background

I've been freediving for about 3 years, pb is 16m. I tend to be a relative stuffy person, being caused by allergies or something else I'm not sure. either way I've never had any issues with my sinuses and equalization (once I learned it). only time I had an issue was last January, I was diving (way overweighted) and was trying to take a picture. I sank deeper then I wanted and didn't equalized, this caused a bit of a "ear squeeze" and ended my dive for the day.

That said, This past July I went freediving with a friend of mine and I was unable to get deeper then 5m. I got a super sharp pain just above my left eye. In the moment I assumed I didn't equalize or it was a one off thing. tried to dive again and it was even worse. so I gave up and just snorkelled for the day. I figured I was just sick and gave myself 2 weeks before diving again, but the same thing happened again. I gave about another month and this time was able to get to 6m, however I could still feel pressure in the area and had to equalizer a bit harder to keep it away. since then the problem just keeps happening and wont go away. I don't want to cause damage so haven't been able to dive much since July. ive noticed lately that the area above my eye can sometimes be tender to the touch and this is months later.

i'm curious if anyone has experienced anything like this or has any advice. Ive tried saline sprays and decongestants but it Hasn't fixed the problem. I wonder if I should go see a doctor, however my health care system is extremely slow and can take months just to get a test done. any input, advice, or people/resources that might help is appreciated.

I don't want this to end my diving.
Yes, you DEF should see a DIVING doctor. The pain you describe sounds like a classic sinus squeeze. But the fact that it still manifests months later needs investigation. If I were you, I would not be diving again until I knew what was going on. You risk either an ever longer term damage, or permanent damage.
Get it checked out. Not by a GP (they will have no idea) by a diving physiologist.
 
Go see a doctor.

Meanwhile, you can try using a Neti pot. They are really cheap and you can get them at Walgreens, CVS or Amazon. Search in YouTube "Neti pot" and you'll see how it works. It will help you to remove all the mucus from your sinuses.
 
DeeperBlue.com - The Worlds Largest Community Dedicated To Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing

ABOUT US

ISSN 1469-865X | Copyright © 1996 - 2024 deeperblue.net limited.

DeeperBlue.com is the World's Largest Community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving, Ocean Advocacy and Diving Travel.

We've been dedicated to bringing you the freshest news, features and discussions from around the underwater world since 1996.

ADVERT