Congested :(
Well, I was planning on doing some diving today.... But for the last couple weeks I have been congested and diving while congested is a bad idea.
Tuesday night when our dive club was doing the OW certification pool sessions I was like always helping the instructors keep an eye on the students.. being congested before getting in the pool, I knew I would most likely spend the rest of my evening in pain.
I was correct, I made it to the bottom of the pool with no troubles ( 13 ft ) sat there for awhile, then when all of the students got in the water I came back up to the surface... reverse block :|
For those not familiar with how pressure effects your body:
As you descend - the water pressure pushes in on your ear drum, to prevent pain you have to equalize that pressure by holding your nose and blowing against it gently.
If you are congested, as you ascend the pressure on the back side of your ear drum can't escape. So as you ascend your eardrum is pushed out past the normal position. When this happens a few things can happen, a rupture ( painful I know i've had a couple ) or it will just take awhile for the pressure to bleed out.
In my case this time around, I managed to get some of the pressure off of my eardrums by doing a very slow ascent. I was still in pain for a few hours afterwards, but not as bad as I would have been.
Next tuesday, i'll make sure to remember my sudafed ;)