yamuye symenah zacchaeus
Mallory Chowansky
Hey all, I'm new to the site. My name is Clarke and I'm just getting into spearfishing. I use a pole spear. Anyways, the past 3 times I've been out, after I get back on shore I'll spit and there will be blood in the mix. Or if I blow my nose, blood will come out. It's not like a nose bleed because I've gotten those before and there's no stopping, it's just some blood mixed in with my snot as gross as that sounds.
I'm 100% sure the blood is coming from my nose and not anywhere else. I do have a little bit of a cold. I looked up some things on the internet and apparently a tight mask and a cold + diving don't mix too well. I only dive like 12 to 15 feet at the most. I just want to know why I get the blood? And will this always happen? Should I wait until I'm not sick anymore to go spearing again?
Blood in the snot is usually associated with equalizing problems. Were you having difficulty equalizing and blow too hard? You can force it and dive like this, but if you always do it eventually you'll have a time where the effects will persist after the dive, and may completely prevent you from equalizing and diving again for a couple of weeks. It's not a big deal but best to stop and not dive for a couple of days until your passages clear up.
welcome to the board
as for the nose blood, i think it just happens to some divers perhaps related to thin capilaries or nasal membranes..based on the fact that you are congested I would say it is more related to that...esp at the shallow depths you are diving
Dan, how do you equalize? I don't mean to sound like a noob. But I just don't exactly know how to do it. Is it the same thing like popping your ears? I don't really have experience with equalizing. I've lived in Florida my whole life, been up north once in the mountains, and have never been on a plane LOL.
pinch your nose with you hand and GENTLY blow out your nose...your ears will "pop", this is equalizing, you should do it every three - five feet as you dive, or when you feel pressure. on land you are over pressurizing them and that too can be dangerous...your lungs can generate astounding amounts of pressure.
the mask air will be compressed as you decend, this creates a vacuum which will pull very hard against your face and tender membranes in your nose and eyes..after you clear your ears you release your hand from your nose and some air will be released from your nose into your mask and equalize it to the depth...very little air will do it.
hi clark first welcome and second lunker hit on with the way he say but i may add something to help you that i use , i have hard time in my left ear sometimes and if you move your head sideway pointing you ear up and do it gently this help to clear that side that is giving you problems . i hope this mya help . be safe you try to swallow in dry this is hard but no imposible , but with some practice it will come to you and that is save for outside the water. good luck .
You equalize by closing your mouth and your nostrils/pinching them together with your fingers, and forcing air into your upper cavities by flexing something in your throat/neck area. Some people can do this without pinching the nose.
Hi guys, I didn't want to start another thread and clog up the forum but need some advice from you all. Went diving two weeks ago and had some sinus pressure that usually just goes away and "squeaks" out when i get to a certain depth, however this last time I had bloody mucus coming out my nose and in my loogies when I hucked it out. I waited about a week and went on antibiotics per the doctor's orders and did the neti pot 2x a day 4 days before my last dive and took claritin D and mucinex to help thin my mucus. This past dive, sinus pressure wasn't as bad, but still had some blood coming out.
Talked to my dive buddies and had two different opinions. One said to not dive for a month to give the blood vessels time to heal and the other said that diving more often helps cleared him up when he had the same problem. Any advice from guys that have similar experiences?
I had this a couple of times. My feeling is to ease off on the diving. It helped mine go away. The simple logic is that you're stressing blood vessels which is causing the bleeding. If you keep stressing them, they don't get a chance to heal.
The negative pressure in the mask can pull some blood out from the nose/sinuses. The pressure from the mask will also make equalizing the ears more difficult. So when you feel the mask getting tight, it's better to first equalize the mask and then the ears.
There are 2 main equalizing techniques, Valsalva and Frenzel. Valsalva is not good for freediving. Frenzel can take some time to master, if you're not doing it naturally, however it is a superior technique. Also many people equalize partly with Valsalva and partly Frenzel.
Yes!!! Well, maybe not what you would consider a true bloody nose. About 2 weeks after RAI I began having like scabbing or crusting as well as bleeding in my nose, especially on one side. This went on for almost a month and finally went away. I didn't talk to any doc about it as I thought they'd just say it wasn't related, and I wasn't sure what anyone could do. I also thought it might be due to the heat in the house and at work. Anyway, it DID finally go away!
Yes! I had a terrible time with it after RAI Dec.1, 2010. My nose bleeding was bad on both sides and got infected with staph. It was very uncomfortable, too. I ended up having both sides cauterized shortly before Christmas with a different ENT b/c mine was out. But the scabs and mess continued so the day after Christmas I went in to see "my" ENT and got Bactroban for the infection. It cleared it right up. Try very hard not to mess with the nostrils. The first doctor chewed me out for blotting the inside edge of my bleeding nose with a tissue (you're only supposed to press the nostrils from the outside to blot - sheesh). I didn't appreciate his very negative and critical approach, but he was correct, considering my condition. However, he pompously declared that he had had RAI and had no such trouble and so it was not related. Really? I was very glad to see "my" doctor after Christmas, especially when he disagreed 100% and said it was a side effect of RAI. I hope yours will subside.
Yup, got the bloody crusting and clotting, no full blown bleeds, and the tip of my nose hurt. I rinsed with a nasal saline solution several times a day. It cleared up within a few weeks. Hang in there.
Yes, I had nosebleeds, too; they lasted about three weeks - would just come out of the blue. The loss of taste lasted a couple of months and came back slowly, but it did come back! In a few weeks you'll look back and realize how far you've come. Hang in there - it does get better!
Yes I thought it was just from the weather. But had RAI Jan 12th and nose issues started about the 20th. Not full blown bleeds but nothing but blood when I blow my nose and now it is dry and scabby (lack of better words) starting to get back to normal. I actually thought I was sick or that my allergies were way out of control, I was going to ask my allergist about this, but guess I got my answer without asking.
Yes I had the same thing with my nose. Sores inside and out, as well as blisters on my lip. Thankfully your taste is coming back, I had my RAI on 11/21 and still do not have my taste... I got sick the night of my treatment and wonder if that might not be why mine has taken longer. Hang in there and best of luck!
Same thing over here.I had nose bleeds after RAI and no Doctors i referred the matter to said if there was any connection with RAI, but now reading all these comments makes me wonder if there is in fact a strong connection.
yes, I had one side bleed for about 3 wks. It scared me because I've never had nose bleeds. My dr's said to put neosporin under my nose plus I switched my cortizone nose spray to one that wasn't as drying. The "Thyroid Cancer: A Guide For patients" book says under Nose Pain, "Glands located in the tip of the nose can take up radioiodine & thus be exposed to radiation, which can cause inflammation & be painful. This rarely occurs, except in patients who have received larger radioiodine dosages, Any pain localized in the nose usually lasts no more than a few days to a few weeks & then resolves completely. Occasionally a patient will have slight bleeding from the nose (epistaxis)." I was glad to read that because my doctors say they never heard of someone having a nose bleed from rai. This has been a good book for me to have. I think I purchased it from the thyca website.
I had RAI on 1-25 and I have had a dry crusty nose ever since. Also, I'm not sure if this is related but 3 days after the RAI I had blood draining out of my left ear! I went to my family DR and she didn't even consider that it could be related but gave me a list of blah blah blahs that it could be. Oh well, I guess this is just another one of those odd things that will go on my list.
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