Hi There! Thanks for reading.
I did a scuba certification class with a friend in florida in August, 2016 and we were at 20 feet for about 20 minutes when something happened, my rental scuba BC fully inflated and shot me up to the top. Being that I was getting certified, I did the text book reading but didn't think too much of it even though I was always told "don't come up too fast". The computer freaked out and when I got to the top my left knee started hurting instantly. I asked the instructor and he said at 20 feet no one gets DCS/DCI/Bends, and not to worry. They do certification at max 30 feet so they don't have to worry about Bends. I took his word. Over the next 24-48 hours the left side of my body started going numb! and I was really tired, I had stiffness around my knee area and bottom of foot, everything's only happening on my left side. After some denial and googling I called DAN, and DAN said not to worry at 20 feet nothing happens, it was probably sun and heavy equipment etc. but I can go to the ER if I wanted to get checked out. The ER I went to listened to me and gave me some oxygen, but in an open mask, they weren't sure if I had anything related to the scuba diving, especially since ... 20 feet, that was what everyone's holding on to, yet I experienced all of these things. Long story - they sent me to a hyperbaric chamber because I came back the next day (48 hours) with more numbness symptoms (It's like your foot falls asleep when you lay on it, but instead of coming back after hitting it - it just stayed numb). They did not do a Table 6, but I did about 10 sessions at 2-3 hours each. 2-3 days after getting out of the hospital where they gave me hyperbaric sessions I had -get this- major left testicular pain. I couldn't believe it, I called the hyperbaric doctor and he said to see a urologist. The urologist didn't really see anything and said to wait 2-4 weeks to see if the pain goes away and said it may be vericocele. A month later I feel much better and go biking but notice pain in the bottom left glute area, I don't think much about it, but after my bike ride the pain gets worse and worse and hits my left testicle area again. My primary doctor, the urologist, etc don't know anything about scuba diving, and see nothing in tests. I now also start feeling pain in my hip area, pain in the left knee again, everything's always on the left side, I get pin pointed pain in the hand and bottom of foot... I've never had anything like this before in my life! Some of the symptoms sometimes subside, sometimes get stronger. I also feel pressure in one area at the top of my head. LOL I am lol'ing as I'm writing this because... what the heck, this is so weird. Now it is January, the pain point in my left glute is still there, I'm talking about a 2 out of a scale of 10 but I'm afraid to bike, I'm afraid to really do anything that puts pressure on that point, and now I have New pain in my lower abdomen and a New pin pointed pain in my thyroid, like it is a slight choke. I ran into someone that had the bends over the course of these months and he said for a period of a year he also had random areas in his body that just got painful and it took about a year or so for his body to get back to normal...
Guys/Gals this is all so weird to me. I've never been a hypochondriac, when I go to my primary doctor, tests are all clear and he and the hyperbaric chamber doctor say there are no bubbles sticking around or moving around (they go away or dissolve within a short period of time after they occur if they had occurred) and since my spine and brain (!) mri come out clear months after the episode (except for a bunch of herniated disks that I always had) there is no sign of AGE or DCS... so this is so weird to me, and it all started after I got shot up - 20 feet that day. I've never had these weird pains all over. What they say is that it could be the herniated disks got exacerbated by the quick shoot up of 20 feet and me struggling around as I got shot up as the herniation is on the left... so could this all be from that, they still don't know because the herniation does not seem to touch the nerves in the mri... so.... yeah and it would not explain symptoms above the disks such as pressure point in the head.
Sorry for the long post, but does any of this make sense, scuba-wise? Since all medical tests are negative I'm trying to not think about it since the pain is always there ever since that one day in August(!) I wish I did not take the class
but also the pain is a 1-3 on a 10 scale that I can try to forget about it, which is what I'm constantly doing - but new pain areas emerge which is totally weird to me. Any thoughts would be highly appreciated! This is so weird to me and I'm just hoping that nothing else crops up. And hoping hoping that it somehow goes away. Thanks for listening. Oh - I saw a star fish and sea ray that day, that was nice
I did a scuba certification class with a friend in florida in August, 2016 and we were at 20 feet for about 20 minutes when something happened, my rental scuba BC fully inflated and shot me up to the top. Being that I was getting certified, I did the text book reading but didn't think too much of it even though I was always told "don't come up too fast". The computer freaked out and when I got to the top my left knee started hurting instantly. I asked the instructor and he said at 20 feet no one gets DCS/DCI/Bends, and not to worry. They do certification at max 30 feet so they don't have to worry about Bends. I took his word. Over the next 24-48 hours the left side of my body started going numb! and I was really tired, I had stiffness around my knee area and bottom of foot, everything's only happening on my left side. After some denial and googling I called DAN, and DAN said not to worry at 20 feet nothing happens, it was probably sun and heavy equipment etc. but I can go to the ER if I wanted to get checked out. The ER I went to listened to me and gave me some oxygen, but in an open mask, they weren't sure if I had anything related to the scuba diving, especially since ... 20 feet, that was what everyone's holding on to, yet I experienced all of these things. Long story - they sent me to a hyperbaric chamber because I came back the next day (48 hours) with more numbness symptoms (It's like your foot falls asleep when you lay on it, but instead of coming back after hitting it - it just stayed numb). They did not do a Table 6, but I did about 10 sessions at 2-3 hours each. 2-3 days after getting out of the hospital where they gave me hyperbaric sessions I had -get this- major left testicular pain. I couldn't believe it, I called the hyperbaric doctor and he said to see a urologist. The urologist didn't really see anything and said to wait 2-4 weeks to see if the pain goes away and said it may be vericocele. A month later I feel much better and go biking but notice pain in the bottom left glute area, I don't think much about it, but after my bike ride the pain gets worse and worse and hits my left testicle area again. My primary doctor, the urologist, etc don't know anything about scuba diving, and see nothing in tests. I now also start feeling pain in my hip area, pain in the left knee again, everything's always on the left side, I get pin pointed pain in the hand and bottom of foot... I've never had anything like this before in my life! Some of the symptoms sometimes subside, sometimes get stronger. I also feel pressure in one area at the top of my head. LOL I am lol'ing as I'm writing this because... what the heck, this is so weird. Now it is January, the pain point in my left glute is still there, I'm talking about a 2 out of a scale of 10 but I'm afraid to bike, I'm afraid to really do anything that puts pressure on that point, and now I have New pain in my lower abdomen and a New pin pointed pain in my thyroid, like it is a slight choke. I ran into someone that had the bends over the course of these months and he said for a period of a year he also had random areas in his body that just got painful and it took about a year or so for his body to get back to normal...
Guys/Gals this is all so weird to me. I've never been a hypochondriac, when I go to my primary doctor, tests are all clear and he and the hyperbaric chamber doctor say there are no bubbles sticking around or moving around (they go away or dissolve within a short period of time after they occur if they had occurred) and since my spine and brain (!) mri come out clear months after the episode (except for a bunch of herniated disks that I always had) there is no sign of AGE or DCS... so this is so weird to me, and it all started after I got shot up - 20 feet that day. I've never had these weird pains all over. What they say is that it could be the herniated disks got exacerbated by the quick shoot up of 20 feet and me struggling around as I got shot up as the herniation is on the left... so could this all be from that, they still don't know because the herniation does not seem to touch the nerves in the mri... so.... yeah and it would not explain symptoms above the disks such as pressure point in the head.
Sorry for the long post, but does any of this make sense, scuba-wise? Since all medical tests are negative I'm trying to not think about it since the pain is always there ever since that one day in August(!) I wish I did not take the class
but also the pain is a 1-3 on a 10 scale that I can try to forget about it, which is what I'm constantly doing - but new pain areas emerge which is totally weird to me. Any thoughts would be highly appreciated! This is so weird to me and I'm just hoping that nothing else crops up. And hoping hoping that it somehow goes away. Thanks for listening. Oh - I saw a star fish and sea ray that day, that was nice 
