Spitting Blood after Free Dives???HELP

[TicoDiver80]

I have recently began to push myself more in free diving in the last six months. Two weeks ago I did a personal best free diving the cave at Blue Springs in Orange City. I did three practise dives to "warm up." On the fourth I passed 45ft and came up just fine. On the 5th and final I made around 55 ft or so. I came up feeling good as well. I started to feel like I had congestion so I began spitting out. Shortly after I began spitting out blood for a duration of about 30 minutes first it stopped and then it came back a few more times. Besides the blood which alarmed me some, I felt perfectly fine. If any one can steer me the right way, I'm not sure if I got squeezed or if it had to do with the fact that I didn't tuck in my chin during the dives.

This past weekend I went back again just to practise decending slower and work on my ear equalization and after doing just another 45ft dive I came up feeling fine and started spitting out blood again after a couple minutes. Thanks for any help!

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

Ouch that really sucks!

Hope you get better soon.

 

[The Killer's me]

Hi Ticodiver,

As you said, you are doing PBs and thats the reason for it.

Pushing to hard can cause a squeeze to the lungs since it is not used to the depth...

How long have you been freediving?

You need to rest and get your system checked by a Dr.

Until then dive safe.

 

[haughki]

Hi Ticodiver,

Spitting up blood obviously isn't good. Sounds like the blood is coming from your throat or lungs, not your sinuses or ears. You might have had a trachea squeeze or a lung squeeze.

The depths you're talking about are pretty shallow to get a lung or trachea squeeze, but these things vary a _lot_ from person to person. Keeping your head neutral could help if there's a problem with your trachea.

Do you know the difference between the Valsalva and Frenzel equalization techniques? It's definitely possible that, as you're getting deeper, you having more trouble equalizing, and that as you "struggle" to equalize, you're putting a lot of stress on the soft tissues in your throat and lungs.

In any case, you should be really careful with this issue. You really should back off the depth and work on your equalization technique and overall physical abilities before working at these depths again. If you keep diving to the point that you bleed, this issue could become chronic.

I agree that going to see a doctor is a good idea. Getting a pulmonary function test would probably be a place to start. I'm also curious about your overall health and physical conditioning...?

Finding some good freediving instruction would probably help a lot too. Full disclosure: I teach for Performance Freediving. I think we do a good job, but there are other great teachers and organizations out there. I think you would find a freediving class really helpful.

Hawkeye Parker
San Francisco, CA