Paranoid of getting the Bends

[banjoman1948]

This is the second time this has happened to me in as many years. I got bends symptoms (aka Decompression Sickness – DCS) but didn’t really have DCS. I’ve been diving steadily for the last seven years and have logged over 135 dives. I’m 59 and in very good health.

I was on a boat dive out of Jupiter, FL doing two drift dives in about 90 swf. Before the dives the Dive Master instructed that those of us breathing air should keep our bottom time to 25 minutes.

On my first dive my maximum depth was 91 swf although I kept my nominal depth between 77 and 83 swf. After 25 minutes I started my ascent at a rate under 1 ft every 2 seconds. Keep in mind this was a drift dive, so there was no anchor line to make my ascent on. It was purely finning up and keeping an eye on my depth gauge. At 30 swf I made a safety stop for one minute and a five minute safety stop at 15 swf. My total surface-to-surface time was 38 minutes. I had a 1 hr, 2 min surface interval between dives.

On my second dive my maximum depth was 78 swf keeping a nominal depth between 66 and 75 swf. Again, after 25 minutes I ascended at the same rate making a one minute safety stop at 30 swf and a five minute safety stop at 15 swf. My total surface-to-surface time was 37 minutes.

As I was driving home, I started getting a rash on my chest and abdomen about two hours after the last dive. An hour later I got those headaches that cause part of your vision to get blurred. Needless to say, I thought, “Oh s__t! Am I getting the bends?” But after a while, both of those symptoms went away. Then I started feeling tingling sensations in small areas of my arms and legs, but there was no joint pain. I was also feeling extremely fatigued. Let me caveat that by saying I had a 3 hour, 15 minute drive each way to Jupiter and had to get up at 4:30AM to make it to the boat.

That night I woke up at 2AM and started getting really scared because I had a 2 hour flight scheduled for 7PM that day and still had some tingling in my bicep and still felt wiped. I tried to reason that my flight was more than 30 hours after my last dive but that didn’t help. I called DAN (thank goodness I had DAN!) and relayed my situation. The dive physician on the line believed I didn’t have DCS, but suggested I go to the emergency room in the morning.

After spending four hours in ER where they took blood, x-rays, and an MRI of my head, the attending physician who had experience in dive medicine said it didn’t look like I had DCS and cleared me for flying that night.

Now my wife, who hates me diving to begin with, went ballistic since this was the second time something like this has happened and strongly recommended I give up diving.

Sorry this is so long, but this forum is a good place to vent and I need some good feedback. I plan to suspend diving for the next month but don’t plan on giving it up. I know I’ll be paranoid about getting those symptoms again even though I plan to dive conservatively once I get back into it. Has anyone out there had similar situations?

[danvolker]

This is the second time this has happened to me in as many years. I got bends symptoms (aka Decompression Sickness – DCS) but didn’t really have DCS. I’ve been diving steadily for the last seven years and have logged over 135 dives. I’m 59 and in very good health.

I was on a boat dive out of Jupiter, FL doing two drift dives in about 90 swf. Before the dives the Dive Master instructed that those of us breathing air should keep our bottom time to 25 minutes.

On my first dive my maximum depth was 91 swf although I kept my nominal depth between 77 and 83 swf. After 25 minutes I started my ascent at a rate under 1 ft every 2 seconds. Keep in mind this was a drift dive, so there was no anchor line to make my ascent on. It was purely finning up and keeping an eye on my depth gauge. At 30 swf I made a safety stop for one minute and a five minute safety stop at 15 swf. My total surface-to-surface time was 38 minutes. I had a 1 hr, 2 min surface interval between dives.

On my second dive my maximum depth was 78 swf keeping a nominal depth between 66 and 75 swf. Again, after 25 minutes I ascended at the same rate making a one minute safety stop at 30 swf and a five minute safety stop at 15 swf. My total surface-to-surface time was 37 minutes.

As I was driving home, I started getting a rash on my chest and abdomen about two hours after the last dive. An hour later I got those headaches that cause part of your vision to get blurred. Needless to say, I thought, “Oh s__t! Am I getting the bends?” But after a while, both of those symptoms went away. Then I started feeling tingling sensations in small areas of my arms and legs, but there was no joint pain. I was also feeling extremely fatigued. Let me caveat that by saying I had a 3 hour, 15 minute drive each way to Jupiter and had to get up at 4:30AM to make it to the boat.

That night I woke up at 2AM and started getting really scared because I had a 2 hour flight scheduled for 7PM that day and still had some tingling in my bicep and still felt wiped. I tried to reason that my flight was more than 30 hours after my last dive but that didn’t help. I called DAN (thank goodness I had DAN!) and relayed my situation. The dive physician on the line believed I didn’t have DCS, but suggested I go to the emergency room in the morning.

After spending four hours in ER where they took blood, x-rays, and an MRI of my head, the attending physician who had experience in dive medicine said it didn’t look like I had DCS and cleared me for flying that night.

Now my wife, who hates me diving to begin with, went ballistic since this was the second time something like this has happened and strongly recommended I give up diving.

Sorry this is so long, but this forum is a good place to vent and I need some good feedback. I plan to suspend diving for the next month but don’t plan on giving it up. I know I’ll be paranoid about getting those symptoms again even though I plan to dive conservatively once I get back into it. Has anyone out there had similar situations?

Get checked for a PFO. Over 25% of all divers have them, and this would easily cause your problem..If it is the cause, your choice is either to have the PFO "repaired", or to give up scuba diving....you could still freedive though :-)

[PCBCaptChris]

I remember I always used to get this shoulder ache almost everytime I went diving. I assumed it was a reoccuring DCS problem. Then I dove a pure O2 rebreather a few times and had the same ache. Turns out it was just a normal joint pain...

Sounds like you get worried a lot. Maybe you should just dive in a really conservative way to remove any doubt that you are ok.

[PCBCaptChris]

There are subclinical DCS signs/symtoms as well that often do not get/need normal treatment.

[danvolker]

Prior to the PFO checking, I should ask what your fitness level or body fat level is---not to be cruel, but people who are severely overweight "can have" such poor perfusion --poor bloodflow between tissues, that normal dive tables could be too aggressive for them. If this is unlikely to apply to your bodyfat level and or fitness, then I am back to the PFO checking..
Dan

[jfcl01]

Over 50% of reported DCS cases in the US are in divers who did not offend the table limits-so said a neurologist during a Feb. 2008 lecture on neurological complications of diving.

[banjoman1948]

What's involved with getting checked for a PFO?

[eelpout]

The test to get is a TEE.

[banjoman1948]

Sorry, but when I Googled PKO and TEE I got back Pretty Kinky Offer and Total Energy Expenditure. Could you elaborate on what these are? Thanks.

[PCBCaptChris]

patent foreman ovale - condition where the Foreman Ovale, an opening between the right and the left atria, fails to close after birth. It allows blood to circulate between the right and the left atria in unborn children.

Here's the first thing that cam up when I googled it: Patent Foramen Ovale (http://www.scuba-doc.com/pfo.htm)

[mkutyna]

Actually, it's Patent Foramen Ovale

Patent foramen ovale - MayoClinic.com (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/patent-foramen-ovale/DS00728)

[PCBCaptChris]

Actually, it's Patent Foramen Ovale

Patent foramen ovale - MayoClinic.com (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/patent-foramen-ovale/DS00728)

I think that was what I said?

[banjoman1948]

I had a cardiac catheterization done in 2005 to check the arteries going to the heart since heart disease runs in my family. It also showed blood flow within the atrium. The report never mentioned anything about a PFO.

I think the stress of the long drive to Jupiter and pushing the limits of my no-deco dives on air contributed a lot to the symptoms. It may not have been DCS but it sure scared the beegeemers outa me. Maybe I should look into Nitrox.

[danvolker]

I had a cardiac catheterization done in 2005 to check the arteries going to the heart since heart disease runs in my family. It also showed blood flow within the atrium. The report never mentioned anything about a PFO.

I think the stress of the long drive to Jupiter and pushing the limits of my no-deco dives on air contributed a lot to the symptoms. It may not have been DCS but it sure scared the beegeemers outa me. Maybe I should look into Nitrox.
One reason around 25% of all divers have PFO's, is that they are very hard to discover medically, without a VERY SPECIFIC test...a test which is also quite expensive and uncomfortable. And of course, dive shops and training agencies would not be particularly thrilled to suddenly loose 1/4 of their business if PFO testing became mandatory, and people with PFO's were not allowed to scuba dive....and actually, this would destroy much more than just the 1/4 of present dive population, since the cost of the testing would be so high( not to mention the uncomfortable testing), that they might actually loose another 25% to 50% of new divers --this would put most dive shops out of business, along with most of the dive industry, so figure the "dirty little secret" of the PFO will stay with diving for many years to come.
Meanwhile, it would be crazy NOT to assume you have a PFO, given your present history.
Regards,
Dan

[banjoman1948]

Is the test you're referring to called a Transesophageal echocardiography? From the info I got from the above web site, this test involves swallowing a flexible tube with a recording device that captures ultrasound images. This is the best test for detecting a patent foramen ovale.

This doesn't sound too uncomfortable.

[james223]

Hello, I have had similar experinces over the last few years. If you had DCS symptoms then you must accept the fact that you got bent. The only way to diagnos the bends for sure is if the symptoms are relieved when you get treated in a chamber. On sept 30 of 2007 I took a hit and went to the chamber for the second time in 2 years. The dives I got Bent on were perfect dives without any problems.
I went to a cardiologist and was tested for a PFO and I had one. ON March 11 this year it was repaired . The procedure was simple only medically invasive.
The repair consist of a cathether in your femoral vein that goes up threw your inferior venacava in to your right atria. They place a seal threw the PFO that opens up on the left side of your septum in your left atria. When they pull the cath back out the seal also opens on the right side causing a sandwich keeping the PFO flap closed.after 6 weeks the the heart tissue grows over the mesh seal closing the PFO permanently. You spend 1 day in the hosp and take plavix for 90 days and asprin for 6 months. You can be back in the water in 3 months.

[nereas]

This is the second time this has happened to me in as many years. I got bends symptoms (aka Decompression Sickness – DCS) but didn’t really have DCS... Has anyone out there had similar situations?

This is another example of why diving deeper than 50 ft should be with nitrox.

And if the boat does not offer nitrox, you should be on a different boat.

And also if you are not certified for nitrox you should get the training, or else stay shallower than 50 ft. Particularly if you plan to dive repetitively while deeper than 50 ft.

[jpesq1]

This is the second time this has happened to me in as many years. I got bends symptoms (aka Decompression Sickness – DCS) but didn’t really have DCS. I’ve been diving steadily for the last seven years and have logged over 135 dives. I’m 59 and in very good health.

I was on a boat dive out of Jupiter, FL doing two drift dives in about 90 swf. Before the dives the Dive Master instructed that those of us breathing air should keep our bottom time to 25 minutes.

On my first dive my maximum depth was 91 swf although I kept my nominal depth between 77 and 83 swf. After 25 minutes I started my ascent at a rate under 1 ft every 2 seconds. Keep in mind this was a drift dive, so there was no anchor line to make my ascent on. It was purely finning up and keeping an eye on my depth gauge. At 30 swf I made a safety stop for one minute and a five minute safety stop at 15 swf. My total surface-to-surface time was 38 minutes. I had a 1 hr, 2 min surface interval between dives.

On my second dive my maximum depth was 78 swf keeping a nominal depth between 66 and 75 swf. Again, after 25 minutes I ascended at the same rate making a one minute safety stop at 30 swf and a five minute safety stop at 15 swf. My total surface-to-surface time was 37 minutes.

As I was driving home, I started getting a rash on my chest and abdomen about two hours after the last dive. An hour later I got those headaches that cause part of your vision to get blurred. Needless to say, I thought, “Oh s__t! Am I getting the bends?” But after a while, both of those symptoms went away. Then I started feeling tingling sensations in small areas of my arms and legs, but there was no joint pain. I was also feeling extremely fatigued. Let me caveat that by saying I had a 3 hour, 15 minute drive each way to Jupiter and had to get up at 4:30AM to make it to the boat.

That night I woke up at 2AM and started getting really scared because I had a 2 hour flight scheduled for 7PM that day and still had some tingling in my bicep and still felt wiped. I tried to reason that my flight was more than 30 hours after my last dive but that didn’t help. I called DAN (thank goodness I had DAN!) and relayed my situation. The dive physician on the line believed I didn’t have DCS, but suggested I go to the emergency room in the morning.

After spending four hours in ER where they took blood, x-rays, and an MRI of my head, the attending physician who had experience in dive medicine said it didn’t look like I had DCS and cleared me for flying that night.

Now my wife, who hates me diving to begin with, went ballistic since this was the second time something like this has happened and strongly recommended I give up diving.

Sorry this is so long, but this forum is a good place to vent and I need some good feedback. I plan to suspend diving for the next month but don’t plan on giving it up. I know I’ll be paranoid about getting those symptoms again even though I plan to dive conservatively once I get back into it. Has anyone out there had similar situations?
Please do yourself a favor and get checked for PFO. If you look at some of the posts on the e diver list there is a pretty good discussion of this problem. It affects one out of four people and many unexplained diver deaths are probably attributable to it.

[Noboundaries]

Marked for future reference.

[DA Aquamaster]

Even without a PFO, some dive tables are a bit aggressive for the average diver.

US Navy tables were originally developed on a test population of male navy divers with an average age of 23. Even at that the acceptable hit rate was around 1% on deco dives and rose to 4% on repetetive dives. Navy tables were the rule when I started diving, but no one dove them aggressively. Out of recognition that they were not intended to be 100% safe when pushed to the limits and when used for repetitive divind, you added some safety margin by not diving square profiles and using the next greatest depth and/or next greatest time. In the mid eighties recreational versions of the tables got updated with reduced NDL's based on doppler ultrasound testing.

Dive computers for the most part use even shorter NDL's as ever dive is in effect a square profile with a dive computer.

I noted that when I had a heavy dive weekend with a computer - perhpas 6-8 dives total over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, that I would have flu like symptoms and body aches on Monday morning and often a headache on Monday or during the weekend. Diving my computer more conservatively and even better adding a AL 30 od 50% for a deep stop, slow ascent and safety stop along with drinking a lot more water during the weekend left me feeling normal on Monday morning.

The problem I find at 43 is separating normal aches and pains from a very active and physical weekend from sub clinical DCS. I find it helps to take inventory of what aches and what does not before and after a dive and to also keep new aches in perspective with a comparison to the aches and pains I'd get climbing, hiking or cross country skiiing on a non diving weekend.

In my experience headaches are more likely to be caused by dehydration and/or from CO2 retention. Keep yourself well hydrated and don't attempt to stretch your gas by pushing longer than you should between inhaling and exhaling. Being dehydrated also increases your risk of DCS so staying hydrated has a double benefit.

So hydrate well, dive conservatively with a deep stop at 1/2 max depth for a minute or two, a slow ascent and a nice long relaxed end to the dive at 15-20 ft. Using nitrox while diving air tables will also build in some conservatism. During a week long dive trip, it is not a bad idea to take Wednesday off to just off gas and see the sights.

[japan-diver]

According to your description I beleive your were bent, you suffered a minor skin bends hit, many of these types of hits go unreported and even when reported they do go away on there own. The rash on the chest is a classic sign of this type of hit. There are a few preventive measures-

1. Nitrox is a great assest in the range you are diving
2. Slow ascent rates- with a safety stop at 50% of max depth and short stops every 10 ft from there up (30 seconds to a minute), final stop at 15-10ft depending on surface conditions for 3-5 minutes. If you do not have a watch or computer that can be set to an ascent rate of 30ft per minute get one- even if you just use it to monitor ascent rates its worth it. I find many divers who are watching their watch and depth gauge think they are going up much slower then they really are. Its hard to ignore the beeping computer if you are paying attention- one that downloads and give you good feedback on exact ascents rates is also good so you can really see what you are doiing.
3. Hydration- you were up earlier to drive to the boat, out on a boat all day in the sun diving twice breathing dry air. Lots of water, drink a lot the day before diving and continue throughout the day, especially after the first dive.
4. Fitness level- be honest with yourself and if you need to exercise more do so the better in shape you are the better your body will handle the dives.

Your dive profiles sound conservative enough for a resonably in shape person but some of these added safety factors may help.

[dumpsterDiver]

Wow! all good advice (for once).

Get checked
Use Nitrox
Do deep stop
Follow a computer for help in maintaing ascent rate.
Drink a lot on the way to the dive site and on the boat.
Are you in shape?

[TSandM]

This sounds like mild DCS to me, and as an ER doc, I can tell you that most of us have little or no training in recognizing or managing it, so the fact that you were cleared out of the ER gives me little confidence that we can be sure it wasn't the bends.

Do you dive a computer? What did your computer think about the profiles and the ascents?

You did quite a bit more deco than standard recreational training would suggest, but the distribution of it was rather Haldanian, in that you went shallow fairly quickly and did your time there. What bubble model theory says is that there is a flaw in that approach, which is that pushing the gradients (as you do by getting up shallow) results in the growth of microbubbles, and the gas trapped within them is far more difficult to offgass than gas which remains in solution. This is the purported benefit of deeper stops, and I wonder if you might have been better to have spread your time out between 50 fsw and the surface, rather than doing it shallow.

What I think you do know, as a result of this, is that for your particular physiology (and at least on that day, with fatigue and maybe a bit of dehydration in the mix), these profiles were overly aggressive. One of the things that experts in decompression say over and over again is that there is much we don't know, and some things are variable from individual to individual. Even experienced technical divers adjust their decompression profiles to the data they gather on themselves.

Diving Nitrox should help a lot, if you want to continue doing these types of profiles. Ensuring you are in good physical condition to dive (not fatigued, dehydrated, or badly out of shape) will help as well. Changing your ascents to a more gradual curve MAY help, and adding additional decompression time, particularly on the second dive, is probably wise as well.

If you have another episode like this, a PFO test may be in order. The difficulty with recommending PFO screening is that, although the relative risk seems to be higher in people with PFOs, there are clearly many, many divers out there with PFOs who are not getting DCS, and some divers who are getting DCS who don't have PFOs. The transesophageal echo is an expensive test which is often not paid for by insurance, and has some minor risks. Transcranial Doppler may be almost as accurate, but is available in far fewer places.

Having had a cardiac cath gives you very little information. To see a PFO, you have to create conditions that promote right to left shunting, and you have to be able to see the shunt. Contrast arteriography is not the best way to do this, and rarely, during a cath, are you asked to Valsalva or otherwise raise right sided pressures.

[nereas]

I think that was what I said?

You must have been thinking of George Foreman!;)

[nereas]

...On my first dive my maximum depth was 91 swf although I kept my nominal depth between 77 and 83 swf. After 25 minutes I started my ascent at a rate under 1 ft every 2 seconds. Keep in mind this was a drift dive, so there was no anchor line to make my ascent on. It was purely finning up and keeping an eye on my depth gauge. At 30 swf I made a safety stop for one minute and a five minute safety stop at 15 swf. My total surface-to-surface time was 38 minutes. I had a 1 hr, 2 min surface interval between dives.

On my second dive my maximum depth was 78 swf keeping a nominal depth between 66 and 75 swf. Again, after 25 minutes I ascended at the same rate making a one minute safety stop at 30 swf and a five minute safety stop at 15 swf. My total surface-to-surface time was 37 minutes.

As I was driving home, I started getting a rash on my chest and abdomen about two hours after the last dive. An hour later I got those headaches that cause part of your vision to get blurred. Needless to say, I thought, “Oh s__t! Am I getting the bends?” But after a while, both of those symptoms went away. Then I started feeling tingling sensations in small areas of my arms and legs, but there was no joint pain...

That night I woke up at 2AM and started getting really scared because I had a 2 hour flight scheduled for 7PM that day and still had some tingling in my bicep and still felt wiped... I called DAN ... and relayed my situation. The dive physician on the line believed I didn’t have DCS, but suggested I go to the emergency room in the morning.

After spending four hours in ER where they took blood, x-rays, and an MRI of my head, the attending physician who had experience in dive medicine said it didn’t look like I had DCS and cleared me for flying that night.

Now my wife, who hates me diving to begin with, went ballistic since this was the second time something like this has happened and strongly recommended I give up diving...

I would call these "mild" DCS sypmtoms, aka Type 1 DCS.

And I would agree with the DAN doc, that you would not need recompression treatment.

But you clearly should modify your diving procedures, like I said, such as adopting nitrox, which effectively decreases your maximum depth by reducing the inert gas (N2) uptake.

I have dived your dives many times on air without problems of any kind. And I am about your age as well. But I only dive air when I cannot get nitrox.

Everyone immediately thinks of PFOs whenever someone shows mild or strong DCS sypmtoms from an otherwise ordinary dive. It could be that, and it also could be simply that you were dehydrated that day. A lot of things can cause mild DCS symptoms.

[banjoman1948]

There has been quite a good bit of information conveyed in this forum. I do have a dive computer, but I don't have the software to download my dive profiles onto my PC. That's going to be my next dive equipment purchase.

The next thing is to sign up for nitrox classes. I've had a lot of people in my age group (55 and older) say breathing nitrox is better for you. I know I'll have to convert my air tanks to nitrox which can be done at the local dive shop. Do I have to get my regs and hoses cleaned as well?

[TSandM]

In general, you don't have to have Nitrox compatible regs/hoses. The reason you have to have your tanks and valves O2 cleaned is because a lot of shops mix Nitrox by partial pressure blending -- they put pure oxygen in the tank and top it off with air to make the mix. Thus everything in the tank and valve has to be clean enough to tolerate pure oxygen under high pressure. Stuff past the tank valve (first and second stages, and hoses) will never see any more than 40% O2.

[nereas]

For recreational nitrox, your regs and hoses should be fine as they come from the manufacturer.

Check with your dive shop about your tanks.

Enjoy the class! It is the gate to even better understanding of how scuba gasses work inside of your human system. You will get a better appreciation of no-decompression limits, their depths, and their times.

[Iceguy4]

Is the test you're referring to called a Transesophageal echocardiography? From the info I got from the above web site, this test involves swallowing a flexible tube with a recording device that captures ultrasound images. This is the best test for detecting a patent foramen ovale.

This doesn't sound too uncomfortable.

I just had the test...kinda hurts but you have to stay awake to swallow the device. They gave me something in my IV line...didn't work. Why don't they use kriptonite. everyone knows thats the only thing that works!!!

[banjoman1948]

How did you make out with the test? Did they find a PFO?

[Web Monkey]

This is the second time this has happened to me in as many years. I got bends symptoms (aka Decompression Sickness – DCS) but didn’t really have DCS. I’ve been diving steadily for the last seven years and have logged over 135 dives. I’m 59 and in very good health.


I don't think anybody has mentioned this, but 91' for 25 minutes is past the edge of the no-deco limit on the SSI Air Tables.

Besides getting checked for a PFO, which you said you did, you might want to consider diving well within the table limits and using Nitrox.

The very same dive on EAN36 would have had an NDL of 40 minutes, not 20 minutes, and put you in the middle of the table.

Terry

[banjoman1948]

Terry,
91' was my max depth which I was at for less than a minute. Most of my bottom time was between 77' and 83'. At 80' for 25 min the SSI Air Tables show that I would be at group F when I surfaced. My surface interval would have brought me down to group E with a residual nitrogen time (RNT) of 26 min. My second dive at 70' for 25 min plus the 26 min of RNT would have put me just beyond the no-deco limit of group J. If I go to the Navy tables for 70' max depth (http://www.ndc.noaa.gov/graphics/USNDeco40_70.jpg) I would have needed 8 min at 10' of deco time whereas I had 5 min at 15'.

I agree with you that I uncontiously pushed the no-deco limits and would have been better off using Nitrox. I've signed up for a Nitrox class and plan to be more conservative in my dive planning. Thanks.

[nereas]

...I agree ... that I ... pushed the no-deco limits and would have been better off using Nitrox. I've signed up for a Nitrox class and plan to be more conservative in my dive planning...

As Capt. Jack Sparrow (played by Johnny Depp) in Prates of the Caribbean 1, 2, and 3 would say: "Oh good, no worries then!"

This is a happy ending.:eyebrow:

[dreammermaid]

Hi, my name is Leila and I got badly bent about 3 years ago. I started a group to find out more about decompression sickness. Luckily I am mostly better and have been diving again for the last 1 1/2 years with few problems.
Recently in thailand diving multiple times a day for several days on air, I had some minor problems which resolved themselves but which sound similiar to yours. I was advised that although a PFO didn't cause me to get the bends, it likely was causing the other problems. They were, reddish skin, puffing and symptoms of a migrain (fairy dust) without really much of a head ache. I also learned that if you clear your ears by holding your nose and breathing to equalize your ears, it causes more bubbles to flow between the 2 sides if your hole is smallish and closed most of the time. I do this a lot.
So, I'll probably get checked out soon.

PS:
you can visit my group at

DCSsupportGroup : Scuba_Diving_DCS_Support_and_Research (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DCSsupportGroup/)

(there are a lot of good links and although you must register to post, you can access everything without registering. In the uploaded files section is a great presentation about DCS uploaded by a member.)

Everyone is welcome

Thanks, Leila :dance:

[cavediver08]

If your problems of getting rashes and tingling sensations continue to occur, I strongly recommend you are tested to see if you are allergic to neoprene, my father is and didn't know until recently... He always broke out in rashes after every day of diving we made...Good luck mate.