Sorry this is a long post - wanted to include all the details, here goes:
A few years back I was taking a PADI Rescue course. It was quite an intensive course for myself and three buddies as we'd told our instructors to 'show no mercy' . We were working on our 'assisted ascents' off a dock in about 40' of ocean which was in the low 70s . We practiced and practiced in bringing each other up from about 25-30' - probably about 10-15 times a piece. Nice and slow most of time too - nothing crazy. We then did some surface rescue drills (a lot of swimming), panicked diver etc. which lasted a further hour or so. 3-4 solid hours in the water in total.
The conditions weren't awful but the sea was a little rough to swim through. I didn't have a computer at the time and when I asked about the risks of the ascents, and the general fatige from the exercises, my instructor said it shouldn't be a DCS risk and not to worry. Around 6pm, we all de-kitted and staggered to our respective homes to rest. I felt pretty fatigued, and I had drank a few litres of ocean, but nothing else until about midnight when I was woken by a dull ache in my right shoulder. I thought I'd been sleeping at a bad angle, tried to sleep again. About an hour later was woken again - pain greater this time - I started to think about DCS and made sure the phone was by the bed in case it got out of hand (I was living alone at the time). I then took some asprin (regular dose) which I though might help kill some pain. Around 3am the pain was bad enough to make me feel generally sick and physically vomit - it kind of felt like hot metal burning inside my shoulder (it was only there all along). I tried lying, sitting, standing - nothing helped at all. Just as I was about to call the local chamber I fell asleep in one of the 'lulls' in the pain and from being so damn tired. Then I just woke up the next morning feeling perfectly ok.
When I got back to the class later that day, I mentioned what I had suffered, and the instructor told me it couldn't have been DCS and that it was probably just strain from lugging our tanks around before and afterward (we did a bit of that - but I'm fitter than that) basically told me I was being a wus. Weird thing was that one of my fellow classmates, in fact the guy I was doing most of the ascent drills with, quietly said he had EXACTLY the same symptoms for the same duration but in the other shoulder from mine. He was fine the next day also, and he held back from talking about it to our instructors given their earlier attitude toward me.
So mild DCS do you think, or just a weird set of coincidences ? I'm physically fit, but I was a smoker at the time. I may or may not have had a single beer before retiring the night of the incident.
Note: Now I am wiser from that experience, along with other minor incidents along the way, I would NEVER hesitate to call the chamber in future. I also invested in MEGA insurance right after it happened.
http://www.scubaboard.com/images/icons/icon_biggrin.gif
Big Grin
Thanks
Yag.
A few years back I was taking a PADI Rescue course. It was quite an intensive course for myself and three buddies as we'd told our instructors to 'show no mercy' . We were working on our 'assisted ascents' off a dock in about 40' of ocean which was in the low 70s . We practiced and practiced in bringing each other up from about 25-30' - probably about 10-15 times a piece. Nice and slow most of time too - nothing crazy. We then did some surface rescue drills (a lot of swimming), panicked diver etc. which lasted a further hour or so. 3-4 solid hours in the water in total.
The conditions weren't awful but the sea was a little rough to swim through. I didn't have a computer at the time and when I asked about the risks of the ascents, and the general fatige from the exercises, my instructor said it shouldn't be a DCS risk and not to worry. Around 6pm, we all de-kitted and staggered to our respective homes to rest. I felt pretty fatigued, and I had drank a few litres of ocean, but nothing else until about midnight when I was woken by a dull ache in my right shoulder. I thought I'd been sleeping at a bad angle, tried to sleep again. About an hour later was woken again - pain greater this time - I started to think about DCS and made sure the phone was by the bed in case it got out of hand (I was living alone at the time). I then took some asprin (regular dose) which I though might help kill some pain. Around 3am the pain was bad enough to make me feel generally sick and physically vomit - it kind of felt like hot metal burning inside my shoulder (it was only there all along). I tried lying, sitting, standing - nothing helped at all. Just as I was about to call the local chamber I fell asleep in one of the 'lulls' in the pain and from being so damn tired. Then I just woke up the next morning feeling perfectly ok.
When I got back to the class later that day, I mentioned what I had suffered, and the instructor told me it couldn't have been DCS and that it was probably just strain from lugging our tanks around before and afterward (we did a bit of that - but I'm fitter than that) basically told me I was being a wus. Weird thing was that one of my fellow classmates, in fact the guy I was doing most of the ascent drills with, quietly said he had EXACTLY the same symptoms for the same duration but in the other shoulder from mine. He was fine the next day also, and he held back from talking about it to our instructors given their earlier attitude toward me.
So mild DCS do you think, or just a weird set of coincidences ? I'm physically fit, but I was a smoker at the time. I may or may not have had a single beer before retiring the night of the incident.
Note: Now I am wiser from that experience, along with other minor incidents along the way, I would NEVER hesitate to call the chamber in future. I also invested in MEGA insurance right after it happened.
http://www.scubaboard.com/images/icons/icon_biggrin.gif
Big Grin
Thanks
Yag.
, but I'd pay good money for that whatever ! 
