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pfloyd

Jumping with a cold?

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I have a cold, but if the weather is right I want to jump anyways. Thoughts or comments based on personal experience would be great!

Note: Stuffy head, runny nose.. hopefully its not so bad by Friday and sat.
My drinking team has a skydiving problem

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I have a cold, but if the weather is right I want to jump anyways. Thoughts or comments based on personal experience would be great!

Note: Stuffy head, runny nose.. hopefully its not so bad by Friday and sat.



Don't jump with a cold. Sorry to be the one to break it to you. If you chose to jump with a cold some of the things that can happen include, perforated ear drums, ruptured sinus, dizzyness, sever pain, bleeding from the nose, etc. The list goes on.

If your head is stuffed up you should not be skydiving. It is a very large risk to your health.

99.9% of the people on this site are not qualified to tell you that it is ok to jump. The only person who could tell you its ok to jump with a head cold / stuffy head etc is a doctor that has both evaluated you and understands aviation and specifically the problems involved with jumping when your sinuses and ears do not clear.

I am not a doctor, but I am not advising its ok to jump. That much I am qualified to do! The sky will always be there, losing your hearing would sure suck now wouldn't it!
~D
Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me.
Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

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hmm...for starters...how about the risk of blown sinus'? As much as you want air, wait until you're better.



Sounds like good advise, thx Fast and ladyskydiver.. hopefully I will be better by this weekend, if not I will be watching clips from skydivingmovies.com with a bag of popcorn and a tear in my eye..lol:D

.. I just got my A and I really want to do some 2,3 or 4 way jumps.. I hate getting sick!
My drinking team has a skydiving problem

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I would recommend waiting until your cold has gone. Many medicines have side effects that could be very dangerous when skydiving so I will not suggest them.

If you are like me chances are you will jump in spite of your cold so I would recommend this recipe -at your own risk ;):

Boiled water: 100 cc
salt: 1/3 tea spoon
mix

5 drops into each nose the night before jumping, repeat before driving to the airport or drop zone
repeat before taking off
repeat at 5000 ft
repeat each hour if possible

While doing it, keep your head as you keep it while arching so the drops get well inside your nose

It has worked for me even for scuba diving when we are exposed to 4+ atmospheres

If your temperature is over 99.5 F definitively DO NOT JUMP.

Hope it helps

( I am a doc :)
Gonzalo

It cannot be done really means I do not know how to do it ... yet

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I did it one time just after I had got my A. The ride to altitude sucked so bad, but then again it was October in Montana and we had no door on the plane.

The jumps were fine but the pain I had after was worse that any other cold pain I have ever had. I wouldn't do it again.
“Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, th

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I have definitely been in your shoes.

At the very least, I have jumped with stuffed sinuses and upon opening realized that I felt like I had been shot right between the eyes.

In DeLand, I was under canopy after shooting a 4-way team jump. Again, I had that pain in my ear extending to the area between my eyes. It hurt so bad that I started doing the valsalva. They say not to do it 'hard' but I was desperate because the pain was getting so bad. Around 2,000 feet I heard that little 'squeal' you get when your ear finally clears. It did feel better.
Back on the ground I noticed some blood on my slider. It was from my ruptured eardrum. At the DeLand walk-in clinic, (a must see for anyone interested in the whole cultural experience), Dr. Vavashita informed me to NEVER skydive again. Used to this kind of response from doctors. I'm still skydiving. But I did take some days off and was still able to make the nationals the next week.

Today I still carry a small bottle of nasal spray in my bag. Not that it's the whole answer. It's no substitute for sitting out if needed. My story is pretty benign, but I was out $100 for the doctor visit. Could've been much worse.
"Any language where the unassuming word fly signifies an annoying insect, a means of travel, and a critical part of a gentleman's apparel is clearly asking to be mangled."

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IDr. Vavashita informed me to NEVER skydive again.



:S that's what my (subsitute) dr said too after I blew my earddrum :S "Are you crazy, you can get hurt you can die" Etc etc. This coming from a young guy with pics of freestyle mountain climbing on his office walls :S

My own dr said "Try not to do that again and don't shower with a ruptured earddrum. Have fun"
They're not all bad ;)

ciel bleu,
Saskia

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I know a jumper or 2 that that happened to, so no, not made up.



Sorry, but that sounds very "urban legend"

A ruptured eardrum, yes. There's medical precident and logic behing that.

A "blown sinus"? What does that even mean? Some medical evidence that this can happen, please. Sinuses are cavities in the skull. Are you saying that people suffer skull fractures from jumping with a cold? I'm highly skeptical.
Owned by Remi #?

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A "blown sinus" can be called "Barosinusitis", "Sinus barotrauma" or "aerosinusitis". A medical source which describes the condition, it's consequences, and management is:

http://www.emedicine.com/ent/topic595.htm

My favorite quote from this source is “In severe cases, especially with rapid onset, the sinus mucosa is stripped from the subjacent bone, resulting in severe pain and hematoma formation.”

Given that the bony walls of some of the sinuses are very thin, I would not be surprised to hear of a fracture due to barotrauma, but I cannot provide a link to this now. Jumps with unusually large altitude changes (exit to ground level) such as high altitude jumps would make the pressure differentials between the sinus and the ambient air greater and thus increase the distress and risk of tissue damage.
The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

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“In severe cases, especially with rapid onset, the sinus mucosa is stripped from the subjacent bone, resulting in severe pain and hematoma formation.”



"hematoma formation"

That's a bruise, right?

While that sounds painful, I still think the risk of a ruptured eardrum is much more serious. The pressure difference necessary to result in a skull fracture must be HUGE compared to eardrum damage.

I found this on Skydive Radio:

http://www.skydiveradio.com/shows.htm

Show 54. AN EENT explains that sinus pain from jumping while congested is real. The risk of rupturing an eardum is real. Sinus damage is not.

Edit to make clicky
Owned by Remi #?

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I've jumped with a cold before. You can do it as long as your not stuffed up. If you're stuffed then nothing above 5k feet. good luck.



Yeah ... a cold is just a nuisance. Sinusitis is a malfunction ;)
Gonzalo

It cannot be done really means I do not know how to do it ... yet

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Given that the bony walls of some of the sinuses are very thin, I would not be surprised to hear of a fracture due to barotrauma, but I cannot provide a link to this now. Jumps with unusually large altitude changes (exit to ground level) such as high altitude jumps would make the pressure differentials between the sinus and the ambient air greater and thus increase the distress and risk of tissue damage.



It is not likely to happen. Air pressure drops 50% for each 18.000 ft of altitude. 1 atmosphere is 14.7 pounds/inch2 so if you jump from 18.000 ft AGL the air pressure difference is just 7.35 pounds/inch2 that is not usually enough to crack the sinuses


. . . but the human body is not foolproof and someone will manage to crack it ;)
Gonzalo

It cannot be done really means I do not know how to do it ... yet

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If you feel lousy and congested on the ground and get to altitude and then feel great then DON'T JUMP. The plane ride down will be painful but not nearly as painful as the jump.



Maybe you are right but in my case is very difficult to tell the difference: I always feel great up there :P
Gonzalo

It cannot be done really means I do not know how to do it ... yet

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