question about joint pain

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Gordon

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hi
a relative newbee to diving - only a few years of experience
background:
I had a close call with DCS while learning the use of a drysuit - missed my safety stop due to uncontrolled ascent ;-0 about 6 months ago
after talking to DAN and my Doc we all decided that I was
ok and just don't do it again - perhaps I had very minor symptoms - perhaps in my mind?

anyhow later on (weeks after) I experienced joint pain in right elbow -
I was due for a full physical - so had that and it appears
I'm very healty - ibuproffen made joint pain go away
but now its come back some and even same arm shoulder pain
could be arthritis (me 40-something) and work out/active

question:
If I had some nitrogen bubble damage would it reveal itself
later on like this?
or does DCS show symptoms immediatly or not at all?
once someone gets nitrogen bubbles in their joints/system
is it addative? for when you dive again and are they stuck in your system for life? or can the body
eliminate some minor nitrogen bubbles over time?

just want to know better what to watch for as I'm planning a few dives -

is their a non-invasive test for nitrogen bubbles
that us "old folk" can have done at physicals?

thanks
gs
 
Gordon:

You can rest assured that after a period of time as you have encountered (several weeks), joint-pain DCS would not appear in your elbow. It is not necessary that DCS signs and symptoms appear immediately after ascent, but it is common that 90% appear within the first hour. They can appear in diminishing percentages as long at 24 hours. Longer than this really only appear if one ascends in an airplane. This might be three or four days at most.

Fortunately, there is not an additive effect of nitrogen bubbles. They do not stay around in your body. Definitely, they do not stay around for life. One caution here is that while bubbles do not stay forever, if there has been damage to nerves, this injury will persist. Thus one must always use caution if there has been DCS involving the nervous system.

Even micronuclei shrink because of the effect of surface tension. (Micronuclei must be regenerated by movement of the muscles, tendons, and ligaments.) Over a period of time, gas bubbles will be eliminated from the body. Curiously, it is when there has been a disruption of normal decompression that formed gas bubbles can enter the picture. Thus, if one has missed a decompression stop, free-gas bubbles could grow and enter into the next dive. This is why many meters will not function if there has been a violation of the algorithm (= decompression calculation method) in the deco meter.

There are not any tests for residual gas bubbles that can be performed at a physical exam. This is basically because there are not any bubbles - - old diver or young.

How nice![sp][sp] :mean:
 
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