DCS & Neurological Complications...??? Request for help.

[Duke Dive Medicine]

SHHHHHH....., you're most welcome, that's why we're here. Unfortunately, recovery from residual symptoms is highly individual and there is no rule of thumb. The closest I can get is "weeks to months to years". Neuropsychiatric testing could objectively measure your current condition, with periodic followups to monitor your improvement. Headaches as residual symptoms of DCS are unusual so there may be something else at work there.

DAN has recommended a safety stop for quite some time so if that's what you were talking about then by all means do so if you return to diving.

I hope this answers your questions, if not, feel free to post again.

Best regards,
DDM

p.s. my wife used to work for UNC so we were a two-campus household for a while

 

[Frontpointer1000]

Are you affiliated with Intermountain? If so they have a hyperbaric fellowship that's tied to ours. A diver/ED/critical care/undersea medicine doc would be a great combination!

Best regards,
DDM

I had no idea they have a Hyperbarics fellowship. I would love that! Especially if there is a travel portion examining chambers in thailand, the red sea, the great lakes, etc.

Sign me up.

 

[cerich]

Hi All,



Cold helped the nitrogen loading? Air temp was 40s-50's in wetsuits. My BMI, 6" tall, 205 lbs BTW. Apparently, hot tubs aren't a good idea after diving either, and hitting the hot tub topped my to do list when I got back to the hotel on that cold mountain. The first dive the next day (dive 4) was the dagger and continuing to dive was flat out stupid. Hindsight, I should have backed off the gas pedal big time and see no reason to not follow DANS more conservative decompression guidelines. If I am given the go ahead to dive again, which I feel slipping thru my fingers with each additional headache, I plan to avoid altitude dives and implement very stringent, possibly multi level deco stops (true stops)...great opportunity to hover & meditate (eyes open of course).


Sincerely,
S

Just some comments to the dive stuff, cold doesn't help nitrogen loading, cold causes vascular constriction that will impede off gassing. As Duke confirmed, the hot tub is generally a bad post dive practice, the heat has the opposite effect of the cold and at risk of oversimplification you can start to off gas too rapidly, causing bubbles to aggregate and problems.

It's too early to give up on diving, you simply aren't far enough down this path to know. However that said I do believe that positive attitudes and goals help people recover from stuff..so, stay postive!

I echo Duke on getting training before doing deco.

On the training side...reading between the lines of your posts it sounds like you were with a group that planned this, and there was peer pressure, trust me and normalization of deviance to good dive planning and execution. Possibly some in the group think that the planning and safety margins were sufficient, they really were not. Diving multiple dives to the limits on multiple days is silly even in the warm water of the Caribbean, doing it in a cold mountain lake while diving wet is a bit beyond silly. Something to think about and something that hopefully others can learn from.

 

[Frontpointer1000]

I agree with Cerich above.

Aside from the physics and physiology of diving, I'm personally and especially interested in high(er) altitude diving. Living in Utah, my lowest elevation dives are several thousand feet. Highest at this point is in the 7000 ft range. I love it cold and high.

I had two dives planned this am. Solo, mildly chilly, elev. *only* 3000 ft., in a new-to-me lake. In the end I skipped them bc I hadn't gotten much sleep and would be diving with 4 hrs sleep and too many red bulls on board yesterday. It was this thread that kept playing in my mind. Too many variables pushing my safety threshold, so i elected to forego the diving until next week. So thank you for helping me!

SHHHHHH... what was the lake you were diving?