Got vertebral degenerative changes? Your risk for spinal cord DCS may be elevated.+

[Kevrumbo]

I've got Cervical Radiculopathy (Pinched Nerve) and have been procrastinating surgery a la QB -Peyton Manning for over a year now, but still managing with my weak right index finger & occasional numb forearm. (The only way I know it's not type II DCS post-dive is if the right arm numbness goes away immediately upon flexing my neck & head down and forward. . . ).

Guess I'll be using a lot more Nitrox and considering O2 deco even for consecutive recreational dive days on vacation. . .

 

[boulderjohn]

I've got Cervical Radiculopathy (Pinched Nerve) and have been procrastinating surgery a la QB -Peyton Manning for over a year now, but still managing with my weak right index finger & occasional numb forearm. (The only way I know it's not type II DCS post-dive is if the right arm numbness goes away immediately upon flexing my neck & head down and forward. . . ).

Guess I'll be using a lot more Nitrox and considering O2 deco even for consecutive recreational dive days on vacation. . .

It's an interesting situation, isn't it? Make sure that when you put your head down and forward, you do it slightly away from the affected arm.

 

[Kevrumbo]

It's an interesting situation, isn't it? Make sure that when you put your head down and forward, you do it slightly away from the affected arm.

Yes . . .the way I've been "tolerating it" all this time (and putting off the surgical procedure) is changing my sleeping position --I try not to lie prone on my stomach anymore with my neck & head torqued to either side on the pillow.

[Now if only I can get my ruptured left cornea to heal & clear up without resorting to transplant surgery for that as well . . . ]

 

[boulderjohn]

Further thoughts on this:

Thought One: As I understand it, the people studied had been treated in the past for DCS, and that group was detected as having a higher incidence of spinal cord stenosis.

Thought Two: As someone who suffers from this, I have had (on occasion) problems following a dive trip. After a couple of days of carrying around heavy tanks while on shore, I have problems of having numbness or pain in one arm. It starts hours after diving. It is on and off for a few days, and then I am better. I have had the same thing happen after carrying my granddaughter a long distance on my shoulders, and I have had the same thing after carrying a golf bag for 18 holes of golf. It doesn't happen every time--in fact, only in a small minority of cases--but it does happen.

Thought Three: Someone recently started a thread in which he is attacking DAN. As a part of it, he released a letter from DAN in which they were arguing for truly competent medical diagnosis before chamber treatment for DCS. In the letter, DAN argued that false positives can lead to unnecessary hyperbaric treatment. The most common reason for an incorrect diagnosis of DCS, they said, is spinal cord stenosis.

Putting them together, do we know that the group treated for DCS actually had DCS, or was their treatment an unnecessary intervention of a spinal stenosis problem?