Is it painful?

[eluzgin]

I just wonder all those overexpansion injuries
or nitrogen boiling in your blood we learned about.
Did anyone experience something like this?
How painful is it?

[BabyDuck]

evidently all the way from 'i'm not really sure if anything's wrong but i feel funny' to screamingly, agonizingly, hideously painful, but i haven't experienced it myself thank goodness.

[Ber Rabbit]

"Shadow Divers" has a really good description of a DCS hit in it. Granted this is a hit from missing decompression stops on a really deep dive but the book is worth the read.
Ber

[RoatanMan]

How painful is it?

As compared to... what? On a scale of 1 to 11?

[The Natural]

Well they call it the "Bends" because your bent over in pain.

[Kevfin]

It is just one of those things, I take people at their word... it's very painful!
I don't really want to find out.
If you plan on missing a couple of decompression stops or getting the bends, I suggest buying insurance first... (DAN or Dive Assure)

[KelpCoasters]

"Shadow Divers" has a really good description of a DCS hit in it. Granted this is a hit from missing decompression stops on a really deep dive but the book is worth the read.
Ber

Chrissy Rous (the son) reportedly begged to be shot while bent. He later died.
Extreme scenario, but well worth using as a reference.

[roturner]

I just wonder all those overexpansion injuries
or nitrogen boiling in your blood we learned about.
Did anyone experience something like this?
How painful is it?

Never had DCS. From what I've heard the pain can be bad enough to make you cry.

I did blow a sinus from a reverse block once, though. Having a 9 inch long red hot rusted inch thick spike pushed up my nose and out my forehead by Darwin's Satanic twin would have hurt less.

Much less.

At one point I stopped and really seriously considered drowing as an alternative to ascending any further.

R..

[Rick Inman]

I just wonder all those overexpansion injuries
or nitrogen boiling in your blood we learned about.
Did anyone experience something like this?
How painful is it?

Mine was a Central Nervous System hit, and I had no pain at all. Extreme fatigue and nauseousness, impaired function of the limbs, etc. But no pain.

I was lucky (not that I believe in luck:05: ).

[AXL72]

I heard of a story about a dive instructor being a heavy drinker, and on one week's set of dives, potentially overstepping the limit of depth and repetitive dives. Apparantly, he survived his bends, but he had permanent nerve damage that left him permanently paralyzed. Let alone the pain, the permanent damage of paralysis adds insult to injury and a lifelong mental pain of another sort.

There are ways to reduce the risk of the bends, if you are truly concerned. Lessons learned include the following, although I am sure most divers may find the risk reduction extreme:

-Avoid drinking alcohol before the dive (I am extreme in that I avoid it all together within 24 hours, but I know others have no problems with a lesser interval)

-Stay hydrated with plenty of water, in the morning and on the dive boat. (If you over do it, the worst that comes out of it is a constant run to the head on the dive boat. *highly recommended to wait till the boat is no longer moving before heading to the head :'(....and please avoid pissing in the water with a column of divers below you, por favor .

-Dive within your limits, and don't focus on just going deeper for the sake of bragging rights. Focus on what you want to see and experience on the dive. If you can see the same stuff at 80 ft that you can see at 100 ft, shoot, you might want to opt to be content with the 80 ft. (yes I know this is a bit extreme and overly cautious, but you do conserve on air and extend your no decompression dive time...it is just an example)

I am sure there are other things you can do to reduce the risk. Just remember that hydration helps avoid it. Alcohol is a dehydrator (avoid it when possible before the dve). Also, that extremey dried and filtered scuba tank air you breath underwater is a very effective dehydrator to your body in that it picks up moisture from your warm and moist lungs and esophogous before being expelled into the environment with its newly acquired moisture. Keeping hydrated also keeps the fluids in your bloodstream elevated so that the ratio of disolved Nitrogen to the volume of blood (fluid) is reduced. If the ratio is elevated....then you have a higher (not gauranteed) chance of falling prey to the bends. So, also take advantage of a cup of water between dives on a two tank dive.

Hope this helps.