Weird Narcosis Experience?

[Duke Dive Medicine]

I was actually thinking about that last night for a while, and my friends situation could have been a middle ear squeeze rather than cold water vertigo. I am reading It doesn't take much to get vertigo if the pressures in your middle ear are not equal.

This would make sense on why he couldn't come up, because a reverse squeeze would make the situation worse. I think this is why that mask is so important for my son, his middle ear will not equalize upon ascent without it.

Crazy how similar their descriptions of the symptoms were. I was skeptical at first of him, as you can imagine I thought he wouldn't want to dive again because he got into a fight with a bull shark.

Alternobaric vertigo can happen when one ear equalizes before the other. It doesn't need to get to the level of barotrauma to cause problems. It's pretty rare, I've only seen it personally a handful of times, but it can be a frightening experience, especially under water.

Differential diagnosis of vertigo can be difficult. Diving-related causes can include cold water ingress into the external ear canal or middle ear in the setting of tympanic membrane rupture (caloric vertigo); alternobaric vertigo as described above; inner ear barotrauma; contaminated breathing gas; hypercapnia (CO2 toxicity) and decompression illness. A diver who experiences vertigo that doesn't resolve quickly should seek immediate medical help.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[AfterDark]

Sounds like hydrogen psychosis to me -- Crazy Eye!

That's Saccadic eye movements, look at the blood shot eyes, he's stoned.

The OP diver tells a very dramatic story!

 

[Jcp2]

I get alternobaric vertigo occasionally and for me, it is consistently between 15-25 feet. I can feel it coming on as a slight pressure differential in my ears, so I slow down/stop, mark up and down, and wait out the spin cycle. It seems like a long time, but is really less than 5 seconds, and the pause is not noticed by anybody else. Probably under reported.

 

[Storker]

Unless you are actually looking for it, most first timers wont even notice they are narked.

This.

Back when I had a lot fewer dives under my weight belt, I didn't notice narcosis that often. These days, I notice it more or less every time I'm around or below 30m. My 3* instructor suggested that it was because with more experience, I actually have disposable mental bandwidth, so it's easier to notice when I'm losing it.

After all, if you essentially have nothing, losing some isn't very noticeable.

 

[wedivebc]

She said the water was 20 degrees. Without mentioning units one would assume metric based on the fact she used meters to describe depth. 20 degrees celcius is about the time I switch from 3mil to 7mil wetsuit. 20 degrees Fahrenheit would cause the ocean to be a solid block of ice.

 

[Bigbella]

That's Saccadic eye movements, look at the blood shot eyes, he's stoned.

The OP diver tells a very dramatic story!

Just a gag . . .

 

[AfterDark]

There is also the vertigo that I experienced on land. I spent the day laying on my stomach getting up only to dry heave after bouncing off the walls on the way to the bathroom. Worse day I can remember.
MD told me a crystal(s) got stuck on hairs in my inner eye used for balance, causing mixed signals to the brain and basically resulting in seasickness. Evidently this can strike anyone at anytime, not very comforting.

 

[lowwall]

Rod Serling might take offence, giving his show to Hitchcock.

But Hitchcock did direct something appropriate to this thread:

 

[Diver below 83]

But Hitchcock did direct something appropriate to this thread:
View attachment 561914

Good find.

 

[eleniel]

There is also the vertigo that I experienced on land. I spent the day laying on my stomach getting up only to dry heave after bouncing off the walls on the way to the bathroom. Worse day I can remember.
MD told me a crystal(s) got stuck on hairs in my inner eye used for balance, causing mixed signals to the brain and basically resulting in seasickness. Evidently this can strike anyone at anytime, not very comforting.

It's pretty common and generally easy to treat (my mom had it). @IncreaseMyT posted a link a few pages back that actually mentions the treatment for the loose crystals version.