divebunnie

OK so I have no excuse to have been a little quiet over the last month, I have been out of the water for the last week! But… I guess as a result I also didn’t have a particularly vast amount of stuff to talk about.
I do have a little warning to share with all you dive professionals out there though. And I guess those of you who are so keen on the sport that you just keep going, even when your body is telling you to stop.
As you can imagine, there is quite a bit of pressure (mostly self inflicted) on instructors and guides to keep diving and accepting all the work that comes your way. Well, I had been doing this for some time, really glad of any work that I have been offered. I knew I had come back after a couple of colds a little early, but I could still equalise, so thought nothing more of carrying on. Well, it kind of hit a head last week, when I got one week of work merging straight into another and my ears started actually hurting. They had been feeling muffled for some time, but I had carried on… ooops. Against all my better judgement and any advice that I give to other divers!
When I eventually did get around to seeing the doctor I was so sure that he would say that I was being very sensible, but because there was no major pain, I was not to worry.
How wrong was I? I was told in no uncertain terms that I had given myself a chronic barotrauma and that whilst there was no perforation at present, I ran the risk of messing my eardrum up completely if I didn’t take some time out straight away. Ooops!
The good news is that I followed the doctor’s advice and all is now back to normal. I should be in the water by Monday. He did give me a few tips though, which I will share here:
Chew sugarfree gum, not only exercising your eustacian tubes, the xylotol acts like a natural antibiotic.
Drink warm drinks
Eat lots of protein
Boost your vitamin C intake
All common sense things, granted, but if they can help another diver avoid damaging their ears, that can only be a good thing.