Wear and Tear from Valsalva?

[Pezman]

Here's a dumb question. I've been using the Freznel technique for quite some time since it seems far more powerful and far more controllable than the Valsalva technique. However, one of my buddies is using the Valsalva.

Recently, he had some problems spitting up small flecks of blood and complaining of a feeling like bronchitis. The first time was related to an alergy attack (he also blew a sinus on the same day due to the allergy). A week later, the same bloody phlegm and bronchitis sensation, this time on a relatively shallow dive (less than 20M).

Due to the shallow depth and the relatively small amounts of blood, I'm hopeful that that this is not a lung-squeeze issue. I did a little experimenting with the Valsalva technique and it felt like it was much harder on the airway than the Freznel adn the stress seemed to extend farther down the airway. I was sore after just one puff. I couldn't imagine doing 30 or 40 dives with a few vigorous eqs per dive. Is it likely that the Valsalva could irritate already inflamed airways enough to cause trace bleeding?

Thanks,
mike

 

[Cliff Etzel]

Is he doing any amount of packing before each of his dives? I recently read some interesting accounts that seems to point to lung packing having adverse affects on the breathing passages (ie; coughing up blood, etc)

Might be worth looking into.

 

[A Brownsword]

I wonder if it might also be possible to get a bit of a chest squeeze and then exacerbate it a week later by diving to even relatively shallow depths (the greatest pressure gradient is at the shallowest depths, after all)?