diving with Dci

[Rod]

Can anyone tell me the answer to this? If you get Dci and continue diving would the signs/symptons change at all.

 

[Spectre]

Originally posted by Rod
Can anyone tell me the answer to this? If you get Dci and continue diving would the signs/symptons change at all.

Very Very Very ugly question. Some people subscribe to the concept of in-water recompression for treating mild cases of DCI, but it is an extremely dangerous practice and you really have to know what your doing, and have a support diver that knows what they are doing. So in a nutshell, don't do it.

Now that said... if you ever have a sore shoulder or something to that effect, and you go on your second dive, and you hit 60 ft and your sore shoulder goes away.... spend the rest of your dive slowly ascending to the surface and get yourself to a chamber to get checked out ASAP.

 

[Dr Deco]

Dear Rod:

This comes under the category of what to do when you deco computer goes out of range. Once a free gas phase has formed, the deco algorithms no longer hold.

• The algorithms are based on the concept that all nitrogen is dissolved. There is a very strong suspicion that this is not completely correct, and micronuclei are present in tissues. These act as “seeds” for the decompression bubbles, and can influence the course of future decompressions.
• Safety stops and slow ascent rates control the growth of micronuclei, but there is no way to control a large free gas phase if you have DCS.
• To continue diving when you have DCS puts you in a egregious out-of-range situation. In military of commercial diving, the individual would be repressurized to redissolve the free gaseous nitrogen. This would “reset” the system. The recreational diver has no way to do this except to wait at least 24 hours on the surface.
• It must be remembered that if micronuclei are bad, a giant nucleus that is responsible for the pain of DCS must be even worse. It is the nidus of an even bigger bubble upon subsequent decompressions.

You really do not want to re-enter the water when you have DCS. :boom:

Dr Deco
:doctor:

 

[Rod]

Dr Deco

Thanks for your reply and that makes a lot of sense. I guess in my own mind,the reason i ask this question is that i do around 300 dives a year for over 10 years. July of 2001 i came back from a trip to PNG. I felt an odd weird sensation in my right arm and both lower legs it was ultra mild. These sensations did not occur until i got to bed that night about 10 hours after the fight home and around 40 hours since the last dive so i slept on it thinking it was a bit of paranoia. I felt oka when i got up but decided to visit the chamber anyway just to be on the safe side.I saw Dr Mike Bennet great guy and we did the standard test and said i checked out as if had no symptons and gave me the option of the chamber or go home and stay out of the water for a couple of weeks. I decided i wanted to go in the chamber to see if this would resolve these sensations. It had no real change on me,i decided not to dive for the reccommended 4 weeks in fact i did not dive for six. My girlfriends a chiro, believes my problems probably stems from lifting lots of heavy weights and poor stretchings habits over the last 15 years.I have done around 200 dives dives since than deep dives,o/w training dives etc with know ill effects ie I still feel the same sensation in my right arm which i feel mostly when i,m lying down. But that said i notice a tingle when have dived beyond 40 metres but when i come back up the sensation goes without a trace. This completely confounds me. Thanks Rod

 

[Dr Deco]

Rod:

From the timetable that you mentioned, it seems a bit late for the appearance of DCS (fourty hours post dive). This would be especially true if the symptoms appeared after a plane flight (at reduced pressure in the cabin), as you indicated.:mean:

I am not surprised that the “test of pressure” was negative.

Dr Deco
:doctor: