reactive
08-21-2008, 15:39
I was wondering if you guys could give me some insight to a problem I experienced. It seems like a typical sinus squeeze, but I was wondering how I could have prevented it, or better handle it in the future.
On August 1, I was passing through the area on my way to visit my mother so I decided to make a pit stop at CSSP. It was a beautiful day, the water felt great and the park was mostly vacant and the visibility was around 20 feet. I couldn't have asked for more. I was personally feeling great. I was well hydrated and my sinuses (at least I assumed) were clear. I could breathe without any restriction from both nostrils and I had no allergies or anything to lead me to believe there was any sinus blockage in my head.
We started our decent over the shark and as soon as I got down to around 12 feet, I felt a very prominent dull pain behind my left eye. I hung out at that depth for a a minute or so to see if the pain would pass. I signaled to my dive buddy by pointing at my ear, followed by a thumbs up and we made an accent. I told him what I was experiencing and he asked if I wanted to call the dive. I told him that my ears were perfect, I had no problem clearing, it was just this pain behind my eye. So after about a 5 minute break sitting at the surface revising our plan, I tried to descend again. This time I got to about 15 feet and the pain came back. I sat at 15 feet for about a minute, and the pain started to relieve itself slightly. At that point, I descended a little further to about 25 feet (right above the thermocline). At this point, i was able to swim around pretty comfortably. There was some remnant pain, but it wasn't like what I had experienced the first time. we checked out the shark and got bored with it relatively quickly so we decided to go check out the sunken boat. We made a safe and normal ascent and swam on the surface over to the next bouy where the boats are. We made a game plan on the surface and started our descent. This time, right around 10 or so feet, the pain came back. This time it was much worse than before and I experienced it behind both eyes. It was so bad this time, that I called the dive. For the rest of the day I had a horrible headache and felt like I wanted to pop out my eyes to relieve the pain.
I realize that my first mistake and potentially the most dangerous mistake was to push myself beyond my means and experience by not calling the dive when I first felt the pain. I felt bad because it was a big deal because of all the trouble we had finding the place to jump in the water for 3 mintues and turn around a leave. It was stupid and my lesson is learned.
My question though is, how can I prevent such pain behind my eye like this to begin with? Especially when I felt absolutely fine all that day before the dive. I was well hydrated and felt no blockage. I almost feel nervous to plan another dive trip in case this happens again and I've wasted time and money of me and my dive buddy. Now I will say, that my dive buddy didn't pressure me to continue at all. He asked over and over again if I wanted to call it off, but it was me that persisted. I normally take a sudefed about an hour before I dive regardless of how I'm feeling. This time I didn't have any on hand and I didn't take any.
Have any of you experienced this before? Is this something that will affect future diving or was it possibly just a fluke?
Thanks for all your time and input regarding my issue.
-Adam
On August 1, I was passing through the area on my way to visit my mother so I decided to make a pit stop at CSSP. It was a beautiful day, the water felt great and the park was mostly vacant and the visibility was around 20 feet. I couldn't have asked for more. I was personally feeling great. I was well hydrated and my sinuses (at least I assumed) were clear. I could breathe without any restriction from both nostrils and I had no allergies or anything to lead me to believe there was any sinus blockage in my head.
We started our decent over the shark and as soon as I got down to around 12 feet, I felt a very prominent dull pain behind my left eye. I hung out at that depth for a a minute or so to see if the pain would pass. I signaled to my dive buddy by pointing at my ear, followed by a thumbs up and we made an accent. I told him what I was experiencing and he asked if I wanted to call the dive. I told him that my ears were perfect, I had no problem clearing, it was just this pain behind my eye. So after about a 5 minute break sitting at the surface revising our plan, I tried to descend again. This time I got to about 15 feet and the pain came back. I sat at 15 feet for about a minute, and the pain started to relieve itself slightly. At that point, I descended a little further to about 25 feet (right above the thermocline). At this point, i was able to swim around pretty comfortably. There was some remnant pain, but it wasn't like what I had experienced the first time. we checked out the shark and got bored with it relatively quickly so we decided to go check out the sunken boat. We made a safe and normal ascent and swam on the surface over to the next bouy where the boats are. We made a game plan on the surface and started our descent. This time, right around 10 or so feet, the pain came back. This time it was much worse than before and I experienced it behind both eyes. It was so bad this time, that I called the dive. For the rest of the day I had a horrible headache and felt like I wanted to pop out my eyes to relieve the pain.
I realize that my first mistake and potentially the most dangerous mistake was to push myself beyond my means and experience by not calling the dive when I first felt the pain. I felt bad because it was a big deal because of all the trouble we had finding the place to jump in the water for 3 mintues and turn around a leave. It was stupid and my lesson is learned.
My question though is, how can I prevent such pain behind my eye like this to begin with? Especially when I felt absolutely fine all that day before the dive. I was well hydrated and felt no blockage. I almost feel nervous to plan another dive trip in case this happens again and I've wasted time and money of me and my dive buddy. Now I will say, that my dive buddy didn't pressure me to continue at all. He asked over and over again if I wanted to call it off, but it was me that persisted. I normally take a sudefed about an hour before I dive regardless of how I'm feeling. This time I didn't have any on hand and I didn't take any.
Have any of you experienced this before? Is this something that will affect future diving or was it possibly just a fluke?
Thanks for all your time and input regarding my issue.
-Adam