Anxiety about DCS

[DogDiver]

Been bent twice. First was a vestibular hit. Second a full blown neuro hit. Both times I didn't have to ask myself if it was DCS. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind I got hit. Mixed gas stage decompression cave diving.
Please to all. When in doubt, call DAN

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

Good advice about calling DAN. Better advice is to make sure you are a member especially if you will be doing any international diving.

Like the rest, I doubt it's DCS. While some will vehemently disagree, I usually take a blast of Afrin or similar nose spray about 30 minutes before the first dive of the day. It helps clear things up and make equalizing much easier. On vacation dives, I will also take a Allegra or Zirtec type pill as well. Some say it can increase the chances of a reverse squeeze, but with our dive schedules, we quit diving well before they wear off. Talk to your ENT about anything before you act.

I'm sure DAN can recommend a physician in your area that is familiar with Scuba.

Good luck, safe diving.
Jay

 

[GreggS]

While reading this thread, I couldn't help but think about an experience my wife and I had this past July. We were on a charter dive boat out of Little River, SC. There were around 16 divers on the boat. Out of those were a man and his teenage son from Canada. As soon as we got to the dive site, they both started throwing up. It was a little choppy that day, but not too bad. Anyway, the Canadians were real troopers and donned their dive gear and got into the water. I don't know how deep they got or if they ever reached the bottom (50 feet at this dive site) but I doubt they did. I never saw them down there. I do know they were already on the boat when my wife and I got finished with our dive.

The entire time during the SI, they were both throwing up. When it came time for the second dive, they staying on the boat. After the second dive ended and the boat started back in, the father apparently got over his sea sickness and came up to where I was standing talking to one of the DMs on board. He was clenching and opening his hands and asked what the symptoms of decompression sickness are. He stated that his arms were tired and his stomach muscles were hurting. We looked at each other, then at him and told him his stomach muscles were hurting from puking his guts up and his arms were hurt from hanging over the side of the boat while performing the said puking.

I felt sorry for him being sick like he was and missing pretty much the whole dive experience, but I still got a chuckle out of it.

 

[boulderjohn]

One of the things we do really, really well in scuba instruction is make divers terrified of getting DCS. By that, I mean we probably do it a bit too well. If you have been on ScubaBoard for a while, you will have seen countless threads in which people are afraid that they got DCS on a really mild dive on which there was next to no possibility whatsoever. There was a recent thread from someone who thought he might have gotten it in a swimming pool, which is pretty much impossible.

Now, I am not saying we should not have a little such fear, but it is important that it be realistic. I once had a buddy suddenly sprint to the surface from 80 feet because he had looked at his computer and seen he had only two minutes until he was in deco. He was sure that entering deco was going to cause an immediate and painful death, so he sprinted to the surface to avoid it.

The irony is more than that he was in no real danger of DCS and that his computer would have given him more time as he did a nice, slow, casual ascent. In fact, he could have ascended to a shallower depth and continued the dive for quite a bit more time. the real irony is that in trying to prevent that DCS, he made a panicked sprint to the surface, which a joint study by DAN and PADI showed was a factor in the most common fatal scuba accidents. His irrational fear of DCS had caused him to do the most dangerous thing he could have done under the circumstances.

Perhaps we should put more emphasis on descending without causing barotrauma and making safe ascents and a little less on the dangers of DCS.

 

[tc]

DAN has a whole section that goes over ears-

Ears & Diving - DAN Health & Diving

 

[sealark]

sinus squeeze possible plus not equalizing properly. Nothing to do with DCS. Keep ahead of the pain when descending. Not much you can do if it hurts when ascending if a squeeze other than slow down.

 

[Rred]

One more with the choir.

Join DAN. Email DAN. Call DAN. Read the wealth of material buried on their web site. Ask them for a referral to a local doctor who can evaluate your ears and spend time discussing diving medical issues with you. There are all sorts of ways to make diving safer by being more conservative AND ALL SORTS OF RULES TO FOLLOW FOR SAFETY.

One of those is that if you can't equalize properly, you ABORT THE DIVE. And your class should have taught you that failing to abort the dive could result in exactly the problems you had, and if they happen while you are in the water, they can lead to panic and drowning.

That shouldn't increase your anxiety though, because the point is that as easily as diving can kill you, you can also easily avoid problems by knowing and following the rules. And adding a safety margin to them. You just have to decide, are you going to be cavalier and lax about it? Or are you going to remember, the ocean really doesn't care, it takes who it wants. The trick is, to show it some respect and not give it reason to want you.

 

[Neilwood]

One of the things we do really, really well in scuba instruction is make divers terrified of getting DCS. By that, I mean we probably do it a bit too well. If you have been on ScubaBoard for a while, you will have seen countless threads in which people are afraid that they got DCS on a really mild dive on which there was next to no possibility whatsoever. There was a recent thread from someone who thought he might have gotten it in a swimming pool, which is pretty much impossible.

Now, I am not saying we should not have a little such fear, but it is important that it be realistic. I once had a buddy suddenly sprint to the surface from 80 feet because he had looked at his computer and seen he had only two minutes until he was in deco. He was sure that entering deco was going to cause an immediate and painful death, so he sprinted to the surface to avoid it.

The irony is more than that he was in no real danger of DCS and that his computer would have given him more time as he did a nice, slow, casual ascent. In fact, he could have ascended to a shallower depth and continued the dive for quite a bit more time. the real irony is that in trying to prevent that DCS, he made a panicked sprint to the surface, which a joint study by DAN and PADI showed was a factor in the most common fatal scuba accidents. His irrational fear of DCS had caused him to do the most dangerous thing he could have done under the circumstances.

Perhaps we should put more emphasis on descending without causing barotrauma and making safe ascents and a little less on the dangers of DCS.

Agreed. With your buddy, the rapid ascent was probably more likely to cause DCS to to the rapid decompression.

What most people either don't have taught to them or haven't picked up in the tuition is that the rate of ascent is very, very important in prevention of DCS - it is not so much the amount of nitrogen in the body that is important but how fast it comes out that determines the DCS risk. Too quick an ascent and you risk bubble formation and potential DCS hit. You can dive all day at depth (assuming the right amount of gas) so long as you allow the right amount of time to off-gas on your return.

 

[Rred]

Years ago here in the US there was some question of whether there was any advantage to using the "French" aka "Club Med" method of a diagonal ascent, instead of a vertical one, at 60fpm. Now there is a lot of focus on 30fpm being "safer" (and somewhere are probably numbers to back that up) but I noticed that even in the new USN rev.7 Diving Manual they refer to 30-60fpm as being a safe range. "Safe" of course being a very relative concept, and the USN willing of necessity to accept a higher casualty rate than sport divers might chose to.

Only thing that I can really see requiring a computer for: the ascent rate monitor. Diving watches that offered it, to any extent, seem to have gotten very scarce. And of course those handy "follow your smallest bubbles" just aren't reliable enough.(G)

 

[TMHeimer]

While reading this thread, I couldn't help but think about an experience my wife and I had this past July. We were on a charter dive boat out of Little River, SC. There were around 16 divers on the boat. Out of those were a man and his teenage son from Canada. As soon as we got to the dive site, they both started throwing up. It was a little choppy that day, but not too bad. Anyway, the Canadians were real troopers and donned their dive gear and got into the water. I don't know how deep they got or if they ever reached the bottom (50 feet at this dive site) but I doubt they did. I never saw them down there. I do know they were already on the boat when my wife and I got finished with our dive.

The entire time during the SI, they were both throwing up. When it came time for the second dive, they staying on the boat. After the second dive ended and the boat started back in, the father apparently got over his sea sickness and came up to where I was standing talking to one of the DMs on board. He was clenching and opening his hands and asked what the symptoms of decompression sickness are. He stated that his arms were tired and his stomach muscles were hurting. We looked at each other, then at him and told him his stomach muscles were hurting from puking his guts up and his arms were hurt from hanging over the side of the boat while performing the said puking.

I felt sorry for him being sick like he was and missing pretty much the whole dive experience, but I still got a chuckle out of it.

Good story. Just had to reply because I am Canadian and am sure that in 2011 I was on THAT boat and at THAT 50' site in Feb. No, no puking--don't get seasick.

My old goofy story was my very first dive--it was at Vortex Spring in FL. Went down to 54' (for maybe 3 minutes, then back up to 20+ feet---- and then did my square tables profile). Found that I was WAY over the limit and had my wife check me often for any visible DCS symptoms. Another case of don't know what you don't know (man we abuse that phrase).