luvspoodles
Contributor
Well, I have feared posting my story, but I know that I need to, because I am in need of some answers and I have always obtained such wonderful advice and answers here on the board. I've also had some rude answers, which is why I am hesitant to post this, so please don't post if you are going to be rude. Here goes:
My husband were diving for 6 days in Cozumel last week. We did 14 dives. Two dives a day and 2 night dives. On the day of our last dive my ears felt full of water but did not hurt I talked to some people and they said that it was probably swimmers ear, so I dove. After the dives, my ears felt sharp, intense pain. We were told to go and visit the best dive doctor on the island, so we did. He said that I had ear barotrauma from not equalizing properly. He gave me an ani-inflammatory and a fever-reducer/pain killer. He also said something very funny. He had a screensaver of the chamber on his computer and I said "I am glad I am not going there." He said "You dive-you eventuallly go to chamber. I no joke." (in his mexican accent it was hilarious! I didn't realize at the time what would happen to me. So anyway, the pain just gets worse and it feels like someone is knifing me in my ears, mostly my right one. We see another doctor and this doctor says that my barotrauma has now turned into an infection and is oozing yellow clear stuff. So he gives me some antibiotics. The pain gets so bad that we call the first doctor and he says to go get a better painkiller, so we go to the corner 7-11 type place and buy a better painkiller (according to the girl at the counter who also sells chips, donuts, cola...) So I take this and it is our day to finally fly home, hooray! Never have I so desperately wanted to leave a tropical island. We get on the plane and I feel okay mentally, but desperately tired and in horrific pain. I also had not slept a wink in the past 2 nights from the excruciating pain. Our first plane ride is okay, but my ears did hurt on the descent. We had a layover in Houston and we were considering taking me to the emergency room there, thinking they would admit me to the hospital right away due to the extreme pain, but I just wanted to get home and go to a hospital in my area. Boy I wish I would not have gotten on that plane...So we get on the next plane and we are about 2 hours into the ride and suddenly my right ear pops and I feel absolutely NO PAIN. Then I start to notice a dull pain in my arm, in the elbow joint. Then my arm starts to tingle. It is funny because my husband is watching a movie a couple of seats in front of me and I tell him that I think I have DCS, and that I must have had a air bubble in my ear that moved to my arm and he tells me to relax (He knows I'm a little bit of crazy). The next thing he sees is my breathing O2. You should have seen the look on his face! So I tell the stewardessess that I need to call DAN. My arm just felt not right. And I am totally dizzy. I am freaking out, not breathing heavily, but my pulse is very high. But no one will call DAN, they want to call their own paramedics. So the paramedics meet me at the airport and I tell them my symptoms, and they say that there is no way I could have DCS, I would be flailing about and almost dead. I said that is simply not true, but they would not believe me. So they take me to Kaiser Oakland, and they put the intravenous line right on the pain in my right arm, so now I no longer know if my arm still hurts or if it is just the nail sized needle in my arm. My husband tells the doctor to call DAN, she says "Well, I don't know anything about DCS, let me look it up on the computer." So she finally calls DAN, where they say that it is not nearological, but sets me up with a trip to the chamber doctor for 11 oclock the next day. It was currently about 12 at night. So I go to the doctor, and he says that it is probably not anything, but that I should do a short chamber ride (about 3 hours) anyway. So I do. The next day I don't want to go again, I hated it, and now I feel like I have invented the whole thing in my head. Another doctor says that is sounds like I did have DCS due to the pain and tingling in one arm. I said "But couldn't I have been hyperventilating?" He said that because it was just the one arm that it probably was. So I took another ride. So here I am now, depressed and feeling like my husband ought to drive me right over to the nuthouse. Maybe I got so freaked out about my ear popping and told myself that the bubble had moved (not possible I found out) that I imagined the DCS? And I was on about 6 different drugs at the time...maybe I went crazy? Maybe the barotrauma in my ears and the popping caused the extreme dizzyness? Now I feel like I should never dive again, and I am so sad, because diving is the one thing that has given me self-confidence over the last year and a half.
Anyway, I will give you some details that I know will be asked.
-We did no decompression diving. I have an Oceanic computer (very liberal) that put us mostly in the green. We went 2 dots into the yellow twice but ascended a bit and it went down to only a dot in the yellow. We did loooong dives. About an hour each time. The first dive would be about 80 to 90 feet and the second would be about 60 feet.
-I never made rapid ascents. I violated the ascent rate only twice coming out of caves.
-We had long surface intervals-about an hour to 90 minutes or more each time.
-I did stay hydrated during the dive days (although probably not enough) There were times when I should have drank more water.
-I stopped drinking water after my last dive and had my first alcoholic drink of the week. I didn't know at the time that I could still be at risk of DCS after my diving is done.
-One day the ocean was so rough that I did have to jump from the boat onto the pier, and I hurt my legs, but I could have hurt my arms as well.
So what I would like to know from you is...
-Do you think I could have been so crazy from the ear barotrauma that I made it all up in my mind?
-Have any of you had the DCS and then rationalized it afterward, telling yourself that it really didn't happen?
-Now my other arm hurts-is it possible for the bubbles to move even after 2 chamber rides when the arm didn't even hurt in the first place and its been 5 days since my last dive?
-I worry I may have a PFO. Is it common for people to get only 1 hit and not get hit again? My doctor says that if I have a hit again I should get checked for a PFO. Is my diving over?
-How do I regain my sanity? I am a teacher, and I need to go back to work. My ears still hurt a alot and I am dizzy(I am guessing from the barotrauma).
-Have any of you had the barotrauma, and what symptoms has it given you?
-Last, how many cases of DCS really are just sore muscles? Do you think I could have just hyperventilated and made it up?
Anyway, if any of you are still with me after this loooong post I still appreciate it. Thank you so much for your time.
My husband were diving for 6 days in Cozumel last week. We did 14 dives. Two dives a day and 2 night dives. On the day of our last dive my ears felt full of water but did not hurt I talked to some people and they said that it was probably swimmers ear, so I dove. After the dives, my ears felt sharp, intense pain. We were told to go and visit the best dive doctor on the island, so we did. He said that I had ear barotrauma from not equalizing properly. He gave me an ani-inflammatory and a fever-reducer/pain killer. He also said something very funny. He had a screensaver of the chamber on his computer and I said "I am glad I am not going there." He said "You dive-you eventuallly go to chamber. I no joke." (in his mexican accent it was hilarious! I didn't realize at the time what would happen to me. So anyway, the pain just gets worse and it feels like someone is knifing me in my ears, mostly my right one. We see another doctor and this doctor says that my barotrauma has now turned into an infection and is oozing yellow clear stuff. So he gives me some antibiotics. The pain gets so bad that we call the first doctor and he says to go get a better painkiller, so we go to the corner 7-11 type place and buy a better painkiller (according to the girl at the counter who also sells chips, donuts, cola...) So I take this and it is our day to finally fly home, hooray! Never have I so desperately wanted to leave a tropical island. We get on the plane and I feel okay mentally, but desperately tired and in horrific pain. I also had not slept a wink in the past 2 nights from the excruciating pain. Our first plane ride is okay, but my ears did hurt on the descent. We had a layover in Houston and we were considering taking me to the emergency room there, thinking they would admit me to the hospital right away due to the extreme pain, but I just wanted to get home and go to a hospital in my area. Boy I wish I would not have gotten on that plane...So we get on the next plane and we are about 2 hours into the ride and suddenly my right ear pops and I feel absolutely NO PAIN. Then I start to notice a dull pain in my arm, in the elbow joint. Then my arm starts to tingle. It is funny because my husband is watching a movie a couple of seats in front of me and I tell him that I think I have DCS, and that I must have had a air bubble in my ear that moved to my arm and he tells me to relax (He knows I'm a little bit of crazy). The next thing he sees is my breathing O2. You should have seen the look on his face! So I tell the stewardessess that I need to call DAN. My arm just felt not right. And I am totally dizzy. I am freaking out, not breathing heavily, but my pulse is very high. But no one will call DAN, they want to call their own paramedics. So the paramedics meet me at the airport and I tell them my symptoms, and they say that there is no way I could have DCS, I would be flailing about and almost dead. I said that is simply not true, but they would not believe me. So they take me to Kaiser Oakland, and they put the intravenous line right on the pain in my right arm, so now I no longer know if my arm still hurts or if it is just the nail sized needle in my arm. My husband tells the doctor to call DAN, she says "Well, I don't know anything about DCS, let me look it up on the computer." So she finally calls DAN, where they say that it is not nearological, but sets me up with a trip to the chamber doctor for 11 oclock the next day. It was currently about 12 at night. So I go to the doctor, and he says that it is probably not anything, but that I should do a short chamber ride (about 3 hours) anyway. So I do. The next day I don't want to go again, I hated it, and now I feel like I have invented the whole thing in my head. Another doctor says that is sounds like I did have DCS due to the pain and tingling in one arm. I said "But couldn't I have been hyperventilating?" He said that because it was just the one arm that it probably was. So I took another ride. So here I am now, depressed and feeling like my husband ought to drive me right over to the nuthouse. Maybe I got so freaked out about my ear popping and told myself that the bubble had moved (not possible I found out) that I imagined the DCS? And I was on about 6 different drugs at the time...maybe I went crazy? Maybe the barotrauma in my ears and the popping caused the extreme dizzyness? Now I feel like I should never dive again, and I am so sad, because diving is the one thing that has given me self-confidence over the last year and a half.
Anyway, I will give you some details that I know will be asked.
-We did no decompression diving. I have an Oceanic computer (very liberal) that put us mostly in the green. We went 2 dots into the yellow twice but ascended a bit and it went down to only a dot in the yellow. We did loooong dives. About an hour each time. The first dive would be about 80 to 90 feet and the second would be about 60 feet.
-I never made rapid ascents. I violated the ascent rate only twice coming out of caves.
-We had long surface intervals-about an hour to 90 minutes or more each time.
-I did stay hydrated during the dive days (although probably not enough) There were times when I should have drank more water.
-I stopped drinking water after my last dive and had my first alcoholic drink of the week. I didn't know at the time that I could still be at risk of DCS after my diving is done.
-One day the ocean was so rough that I did have to jump from the boat onto the pier, and I hurt my legs, but I could have hurt my arms as well.
So what I would like to know from you is...
-Do you think I could have been so crazy from the ear barotrauma that I made it all up in my mind?
-Have any of you had the DCS and then rationalized it afterward, telling yourself that it really didn't happen?
-Now my other arm hurts-is it possible for the bubbles to move even after 2 chamber rides when the arm didn't even hurt in the first place and its been 5 days since my last dive?
-I worry I may have a PFO. Is it common for people to get only 1 hit and not get hit again? My doctor says that if I have a hit again I should get checked for a PFO. Is my diving over?
-How do I regain my sanity? I am a teacher, and I need to go back to work. My ears still hurt a alot and I am dizzy(I am guessing from the barotrauma).
-Have any of you had the barotrauma, and what symptoms has it given you?
-Last, how many cases of DCS really are just sore muscles? Do you think I could have just hyperventilated and made it up?
Anyway, if any of you are still with me after this loooong post I still appreciate it. Thank you so much for your time.
, I blew out my ear last Christmas (the damn thing still hurts) I wondered about a lot of the same things you did. All is well now and that's what's most important. Mentally you may need some work until the fear factor pipes down a little. One question I have for you (and I'm not chastising you) Girl, what in the world were you doing in a cave? 
