bluebanded goby
Contributor
For reasons that are not entirely clear -- although possibly related to a neck injury a couple of years back -- I tend to get mild twinges (i.e. stiff feelings) and tinglings in my left hand and arm from time to time. These come and go, usually lasting for minutes rather than hours at a time, although now and then I'll get a tingling sensation in fingers that lasts for a day or so.
I also get numbness in my hands at night, which seems to be related to sleeping position (interestingly, when I sleep on my side it's not the hand that I'm laying on that goes numb, but rather the one on top). This numbness generally clears up if I shift position or move the hand vigorously.
All of this poses an interesting situation for me because, once or twice, these twinges have begun fairly shortly after a dive. Since they are relatively subtle, so far I've always waited to see if they worsen before seriously considering DCS as a possibility; generally they have gone away completely within a few minutes. Also, most of my diving recently has been very shallow (30 fsw or so), so DCS has seemed pretty farfetched.
I'd like to get back into some deeper diving, however, but on the other hand I don't want to be worrying about this needlessly. Are there any ways to distinguish stiffness, tingling and numbness related to DCS from that with other causes?
In particular, I'm interested to know: If a particular pain or sensation comes and goes, does that pretty much effectively rule out DCS? I think someone mentioned to me once that DCS symptoms generally do one of several things after they appear: they either worsen, or stay the same, or resolve and don't come back. But they don't come and go from one hour or day to the next. Is that true?
Thanks for any ideas on figuring out how to deal with this.
I also get numbness in my hands at night, which seems to be related to sleeping position (interestingly, when I sleep on my side it's not the hand that I'm laying on that goes numb, but rather the one on top). This numbness generally clears up if I shift position or move the hand vigorously.
All of this poses an interesting situation for me because, once or twice, these twinges have begun fairly shortly after a dive. Since they are relatively subtle, so far I've always waited to see if they worsen before seriously considering DCS as a possibility; generally they have gone away completely within a few minutes. Also, most of my diving recently has been very shallow (30 fsw or so), so DCS has seemed pretty farfetched.
I'd like to get back into some deeper diving, however, but on the other hand I don't want to be worrying about this needlessly. Are there any ways to distinguish stiffness, tingling and numbness related to DCS from that with other causes?
In particular, I'm interested to know: If a particular pain or sensation comes and goes, does that pretty much effectively rule out DCS? I think someone mentioned to me once that DCS symptoms generally do one of several things after they appear: they either worsen, or stay the same, or resolve and don't come back. But they don't come and go from one hour or day to the next. Is that true?
Thanks for any ideas on figuring out how to deal with this.