Breast pain from DCS?

[petermichelle]

Ok now I'm pretty scared. I've had this symptom on my past two dive trips. Each time I've been well within limits and I've hydrated well. On both occasions the symptoms have gone away after about an hour so I did not associate it with DCS. I've been asking women all over the place and posted questions on this forum looking for someone else who's experienced this. I've never come across anyone before who've had this breast pain and divemasters have told me it could be just an irritation from salt water.

So what do I do now that it's been a month since my last trip and I've had no treatment? And what do I do about my next trip planned for next month? Help?!

 

[JTemple]

First thing to do is remain calm. Some cases of very mild DCS can resolve themselves, which seems to be the case for you. But something is causing this to happen, so you should try to find a diving doc in your area, or at least see your regular practitioner, as there is always the possibility that the next time, it won't be such a mild case. You owe it to yourself to get properly checked out, and while it is a controversial position, I suggest pushing your Doc to test you for a PFO.

 

[petermichelle]

Ok now I'm pretty scared. I've had this symptom on my past two dive trips. Each time I've been well within limits and I've hydrated well. On both occasions the symptoms have gone away after about an hour so I did not associate it with DCS. I've been asking women all over the place and posted questions on this forum looking for someone else who's experienced this. I've never come across anyone before who've had this breast pain and divemasters have told me it could be just an irritation from salt water.

So what do I do now that it's been a month since my last trip and I've had no treatment? And what do I do about my next trip planned for next month? Help?!

 

[petermichelle]

Whoops -- I appear to have repeated my previous message somehow. Anyway, thank you for the response JTemple. This is very good advice and I will definitely get checked out. One other question -- is it all possible that this is related to my regulator? The past two dive trips I used a rather old reg that a friend gave me. I did have it serviced before using it. But I am curious as this is the old change to my diving. I have otherwise been diving for 3 years without incident. Any help or opinion from scubaboarders is welcome.

 

[BubbleBlocker]

This issue has been raised in the journal of Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine. specifically (Undersea Hyperb Med. 2006 Mar-Apr;33(2):77-9) Decompression illness presenting as breast pain.Trevett AJ, Sheehan C, Forbes R. Stromness Surgery, John Street, Stromness, Orkney, Scotland, UK KW16 3AD:

"We present two cases of decompression illness in women in whom the initial symptom causing distress after completion of the dives was breast pain. Both women were also subsequently found to have a patent foramen ovale. We postulate that breast pain may be an unusual under-recognized manifestation of decompression illness."

I also know of a SCUBA instructor and another woman who relatively recently experienced repeated episodes of severe breast pain after diving and both were found to have patent foramen ovale (PFO) (*see below) upon appropriate investigation.

Count me in among the women who have experienced DCS-related breast pain and were subsequently found to have a PFO.

Thanks for the reference, Doc.

 

[marcbs]

After reading the above heart related threads I wonder if the old maxim an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If bring pro-active about one's health makes sense, what type of pre-diving heart tests/evaluations might make sense? I would imagine a tremendous difference would apply to a healthy non symptomatic diver versus one who might have heart risk factors.

Marc