Only skimmed this because it is above my paygrade, but seeing the name and photo of "Sudafed" brought back some memories and possibly a connection. Back in the mid 70's when I was a marine biology student, sudafed was commony used by scubadivers to clear conjestion before dives. On my check-out dive for my license, I had taken Sudafed (hay fever), but when I dropped to about 4 meters, I could not equalize the pressure in my sinuses. I drifted over to the anchor rop and pulled myself one painful centimeter at a time, until the pain was gone. I had equalized the pressure, or so I had thought. On coming back up from what was maybe a 30 meter dive, when I hit that same 4 meter level, I suddenly got vertigo (air expanding in the middle ear, offsetting a sense of balance), and my mask started filling with blood. I had 'balanced' the pressure going down by rupturing the blood vessels in my sinuses.
On the positive side, with what I thought was death closing in, I had one of those "near-death" experiences and literally saw my life flash before my eyes like a high speed movie trailer. That helped set me on another course of philosophy of science and then education. No regrets.
Just guessing that Sudafed's restriction of blood vessels had something to do with the rupture.
Hi Laura,
Only skimmed this because it is above my paygrade, but seeing the name and photo of "Sudafed" brought back some memories and possibly a connection. Back in the mid 70's when I was a marine biology student, sudafed was commony used by scubadivers to clear conjestion before dives. On my check-out dive for my license, I had taken Sudafed (hay fever), but when I dropped to about 4 meters, I could not equalize the pressure in my sinuses. I drifted over to the anchor rop and pulled myself one painful centimeter at a time, until the pain was gone. I had equalized the pressure, or so I had thought. On coming back up from what was maybe a 30 meter dive, when I hit that same 4 meter level, I suddenly got vertigo (air expanding in the middle ear, offsetting a sense of balance), and my mask started filling with blood. I had 'balanced' the pressure going down by rupturing the blood vessels in my sinuses.
On the positive side, with what I thought was death closing in, I had one of those "near-death" experiences and literally saw my life flash before my eyes like a high speed movie trailer. That helped set me on another course of philosophy of science and then education. No regrets.
Just guessing that Sudafed's restriction of blood vessels had something to do with the rupture.
Ah ... memories. 😂