I am betting the OP's issues are 'pressure' related and have nothing to do with narcosis.....I would suggest a call to DAN first and if they concur a follow up to a diving doctor if the OP feels it is something that will reoccur on future dives.
Depth and Safety Question
- Thread starter luv2diveWPB
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
It all has to do with initial instruction and how well the diver understood the materials to begin with and retained for use later down the road in a actual nitrox dive profile. Many new nitrox divers are confused from the beginning on this very issue.
Most likely because they don't dive with Nitrox, haven't taken the course, and therefore aren't sufficiently informed regarding something that they don't use but may use in the future.
Texasdiveguy:
Zen Man:
While reading the OP, my first reaction was sinus pressure. The fact that the pain decreased as depth decreased is consistent with that. It is also not inconsistent with narcosis, oxygen toxicity, a CO2 issue, etc. In other words, armchair diagnosis, in this case as in so many others, is fraught with difficulties, and we can debate, from afar, what it was and whether it will recur, and that would be pretty much an exercise in futility. Ultimately, a better way to evaluate the problem will be re-challenge. In evaluating adverse drug reactions, for example, one of the (many) criteria for assessing attribution of a reaction to a drug is whether the same symptoms / signs occur when the subject is given the same medication again. That is probably true here. Luv2diveWPB I would NOT conclude that this was narcosis, or sinus pressure, or a CO2 problem, or a tight-fitting mask. It could be any, or several, of these factors there is simply too little information available to you at this point to confidently determine the cause. I would also NOT conclude that it is going to be a recurring problem. It might be, but it might not be, and it is difficult to predict based on your experience. If it was me - and I emphasize that this is what I would do, not necessarily what anyone else should do - I would do the dive again, similar profile (descent rates, depth, gas, equipment), with an alert buddy just in case (given a concern about passing out). You may not be comfortable doing that, given the intensity of the experience, as you describe it. The alternative is to simply not dive below 100 feet again.Diver85:
lmorin
Contributor
It is highly unlikely that you were actually feeling pressure building in your brain. That would require pressure sensors in the brain of a type the brain does not have. My guess is a sinus squeeze. I have chronic sinusitis that, for the most part, has no effect on my diving other than being an annoyance. Once, however, I had a bizarre of something pushing on my eyeballs from inside my head while I was descending. Felt really, really strange and I thought I was in deep trouble, like my eyeballs were going to pop out. I stopped descending (at about 25 ft) and focused on the pattern of weirdness in my head. Realized that my entire sinus cavity was feeling under strong pressure. Ascended a bit and it eased, then went away rather quickly. No further problems during that dive or since.
OP
luv2diveWPB
Registered
Thanks again everyone I will do this dive profile again soon w/ a close buddy to see if it was just a sinus issue. From what I researched it does not seem that I experienced narcosis. Good diving to all
chipwd
Contributor
- Messages
- 372
- Reaction score
- 1
- # of dives
- 500 - 999
I would guess that what happened was a combination of a sinus problem and the start of narcossis.
I have had occasional sinus pain when descending even though I cleared my ears. I just ascend a few feet and re-equalize and the pain goes away and I'm free to descend again.
If this happened at the same time the OP was hitting 100' depth then the start of narcossis would add more symptoms (tingling, dizziness) and confuse the issue.
FWIW I always feel that tingle when I get narced and once felt a little dizzy, too.
I have had occasional sinus pain when descending even though I cleared my ears. I just ascend a few feet and re-equalize and the pain goes away and I'm free to descend again.
If this happened at the same time the OP was hitting 100' depth then the start of narcossis would add more symptoms (tingling, dizziness) and confuse the issue.
FWIW I always feel that tingle when I get narced and once felt a little dizzy, too.
BTW, please share with the SB folks how the next dive goes. We speculate a lot, and the only way to become more accurate (or, at least, less outrageous) is to learn, and your follow-up will be most helpful.
The pressure gradient between 100' and 105' should not be enough to cause a mask or sinus squeeze. I doubt it was either.
The closest I've experienced is when I go below a thermocline into cold water without a hood...but this wasn't noted. There is also the possibility that this was something outside of diving, and the fact it happened at 105' could be just coincidence...
Tom
The closest I've experienced is when I go below a thermocline into cold water without a hood...but this wasn't noted. There is also the possibility that this was something outside of diving, and the fact it happened at 105' could be just coincidence...
Tom
Bubbletrubble
Contributor
luv2diveWPB,
I'm curious about the specifics of your dive profile. Was it a steady initial descent to > 100 fsw...or was there a tiny "bounce" in your profile prior to getting that deep? The reason I ask is that such a profile may make the sinus pressure diagnosis more likely. I've found that even if I don't feel "stuffy" at the surface, having just a touch of sinus inflammation can cause painful sinus pressure after doing a small bounce: going down, ascending for 10-15 fsw, and then descending further. The more rapid the bounce, the more painful the experience can be.
Post-incident, have you had the opportunity to review the dive profile as recorded by your computer/dive logger? I'd be interested in what it shows.
Best of luck in figuring out what caused the episode. Be safe.
I'm curious about the specifics of your dive profile. Was it a steady initial descent to > 100 fsw...or was there a tiny "bounce" in your profile prior to getting that deep? The reason I ask is that such a profile may make the sinus pressure diagnosis more likely. I've found that even if I don't feel "stuffy" at the surface, having just a touch of sinus inflammation can cause painful sinus pressure after doing a small bounce: going down, ascending for 10-15 fsw, and then descending further. The more rapid the bounce, the more painful the experience can be.
Post-incident, have you had the opportunity to review the dive profile as recorded by your computer/dive logger? I'd be interested in what it shows.
Best of luck in figuring out what caused the episode. Be safe.
Similar threads
