has anyone felt advance warning of lung squeeze before?

[lemke]

You were probably feeling your BC constrict your chest as you were taking that last breath of air right before your head broke the surface.

On the other hand, since you are a new diver (not belittling you at all) you may have held your breath during the last few seconds as you were concentrating (and excited) about reaching the surface.

 

[TSandM]

If you are holding your breath with your lungs full, and the air is expanding, you might well feel like you need to exhale to release pressure. I felt that way during my CESA in my OW class, because I didn't exhale ENOUGH on the way up.

Pressure injury to the lungs is usually painful. A small pneumothorax may not be very symptomatic, but one of any size at all should impact your exercise tolerance.

Not a bad idea to check with the doc, but I suspect you're fine.

And the person who said 4' is enough to cause lung overexpansion injury is right.

 

[Ayisha]

hello, I am newly OW cert & have been going out for a few group dives, on the last one a week ago i experienced what i best describe as a lung squeeze during the last 6 feet of ascent into a choppy sea (felt sort of like that initial pressure you start feeling on your ear, when you are a bit late to equalize due to task loading)


it felt so minor i didnt pay much attn to it at the time, but when i later read up about lung expansion theory i got worried & set an appointment with a diving doctor for later this week. the first night that lung felt a little tender, but this tenderness is gone now.


for the past few days i have kept my daily hour of jogging & have noticed no breathlessness.


in the meantime i have been searching all over the forums for a experience like mine as i am counting the suspenseful minutes till the doc gets to have a look at me. has anyone heard of someone who felt a lung squeeze (advance warning of pressure which was released in the nick of time[i hope])? or with lungs is it just either you get hurt or not hurt? i am not looking for advice just if this possibility makes sense (just like ear squeeze is distinct from ear rupture)

thanks

I had a similar experience in my open water class that I may have written on this board, and I definitely wrote on local boards. I believe I very nearly had a lung over-expansion injury that day. I felt my lungs expanding painfully and like they were being squeezed by my ribcage and it was all I could do to try to exhale on my ascent.

I had not had an asthma attack in 15 years and that morning, I was in someone's car that had animal hair in it, which is probably my quickest trigger for an allergic reaction. I had some mild discomfort but didn't think too much about it. I was supposed to take my inhaler preventatively before diving, but I had forgotten it in the hotel room. During the dive, I kept having full floods and didn't know why. The first day it was also happening, but it had never happened in the pool (without the hood) or on discovery dives in warm water. I was repeatedly readjusting and clearing my mask, and it was becoming constant. As I was waiting for my turn to do the CESA at about 15 feet in 39 F water, the mask was flooded each time as soon as I just cleared it, and it was getting harder to exhale fully. The instructor came over and looked for hair or any source of the leakage and couldn't find anything, but the mask was being pushed down to my lips. I could now barely breathe and I gave a thumbs up. The instructor shook his head. I gave a thumbs up again and the instructor shook his head again. I gave an out of air signal and the instructor looked at my gauge, which was at 1500 psi and he shook his head. Now I could not breathe at all and there was little to no air going in or out of the regulator. I gave a thumbs up again and started to move up, with the DM in tow. I exhaled with all my might slowly to the surface, and it felt like almost nothing was being released, and my lungs were expanding painfully in my chest. The surface didn't bring any relief, and as I was being towed to shore on my back, my breaths were shallow and fast. It took a couple of hours for my breathing to become normal. I took my inhaler when I returned to the hotel room.

When I returned to the shop the next day, I told the owner that the hood was pushing my mask off constantly. He told me to trim the hood, which no one else told me during the weekend. I trimmed my hood and tried it in the shop's pool, and it was perfect. I did a shore dive to complete the remaining skills with an instructor a couple of weeks later, and all went well. That was over 12 years ago, and I went on to be an avid diver, not allowing myself to get into that situation again.

I learned that no matter how long it's been since having an asthma attack, it can happen. The triggers were in place by being exposed to an allergen and putting myself in respiratory distress and not ending the dive until it was excruciating to breathe. I learned to recognize the symptoms and not allow myself to progress down that path. I also learned to follow the doctor's orders to take the inhaler before diving in cold or salt water or in current (basically always), and to always carry an inhaler in my dive bag.

Actually holding your breath is one way to over-expand your lungs, but preventing enough air from escaping can also be done by being very congested or having an asthma attack.

 

[Bazzer69]

But is, unfortunately, enough to cause a lung over-expansion injury if someone breathing compressed gas holds a full breath and surfaces. Around 4 feet is enough to cause serious damage - the lungs aren't built to take any significant over-pressure.

Edit: As bl6394 said, there are no nerve-endings in your lungs, so you don't get any advance warning. If you felt something in your chest, it's more likely to have been your ribs, or, indeed, indigestion - it does happen. See the doc anyway if you're worried - better to know than guess on the basis of what a bunch of strangers on the interwebs say...

No nerve endings in your lungs? If you ever have to have tubes put into your lungs to drain them, I hope you never have to, you will find the pain when having them removed is a eleven!

 

[g1138]

High waves can create a pressure wake equivalent to 4ft difference.
Holding your breath at the peak of a wave can cause an lung expansion injury once the wave passes and you hit the trough.

Since you're here, you're worried, and you're going to see the doctor, I think you're out of danger. Go see the doctor and see what he/she says.
I think the waves and your ascent just coupled to put some stress on your lungs.

Sometimes when I was in high seas, I could feel my airway changing drastically as I went into a wave. That drastic change can put an unnerving feeling in your chest. I think that's what happened to you and what you're still feeling, is being slightly sore from the ordeal.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Or shall we look for zebras today intead of horses? How about trying this on for size: Spontaneous mediastinal emphysema

By the way, gang, I'm getting a bit concerned about our OP. He hasn't returned to tell us either how he is feeling now and/or what the doctor had to say.

 

[fire_diver]

Or shall we look for zebras today intead of horses? How about trying this on for size: Spontaneous mediastinal emphysema

By the way, gang, I'm getting a bit concerned about our OP. He hasn't returned to tell us either how he is feeling now and/or what the doctor had to say.

Concerned about what?! That he died, days later, with no post dive symptoms, from something that may not have even been a medical event?

Reality check; there are thousands and thousands of people who sign up for membership here, make a couple posts and then never return again.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Yes, i was quite worried a zebra had carried him away.

 

[espadin]

By the way, gang, I'm getting a bit concerned about our OP. He hasn't returned to tell us either how he is feeling now and/or what the doctor had to say.

I m still here, doc cleared me, didnt find anything in the imaging.

i almost regret reading up so much about pneumothorax, there is a minute chance of it happening to anyone & there is not much you can do about it underwater apart from not ascending. very scary stuff

does the padi rescue course cover the in water (at depth) self first aid for this?

thx

 

[beanojones]

The pressure difference at 6 feet of depth isn't all the different from being at the surface. I doubt you had any lung issues.

As GrimSleeper pointed out, this is bad info.

The other way of saying this is this is why divers should not ever think of showing their friends how to dive. We spend a lot of time learning to prevent and control problems, and unfortunately lung expansion injuries can be basically instantly deadly in the depths where most people breathe off scuba for the first time.

If anything the rate of change in last 6 feet is the very fastest change so it is the most important 6 feet.