Painful Throat/Chest Spasms

[Coopladoop]

No, but I change positions a lot during a dive. Diving with the ffm means almost constant adjustment, and we still get considerably shorter dives than a normal reg. It's pretty obvious what we lose a lot of gas this way over the course of the dive, and it degrades the dive since it's a constant thing to manage. We decided to set them aside for a year and re-evaluate after being the first people back on the boat consistently.

To your point, if I'm looking straight down without moving then it's easy enough to adjust and be happy. If I need to look around to maintain situational awareness or communicate with my buddy/group then all bets are off.

Hear ya 10/10 on that. We're mucking about with heavy(er) equipment down there installing piles, so she can be a pain to finnickle with sometimes once that venting starts. Easier to slap on and keep on while working than a regular reg though, so we're keeping with it for the time being. Our tanks are on the rig, marina barely pushes 20ft at her deepest so it's a quick pop to the surface for anything/to communicate with the chaps topside.

In regards to your earlier, hadn't thought about C02 buildup, that's a very good point. I'll reach out to OR now and see if they stock those parts, or who does- see about getting one on the way. Still floored by this happening though, I mean the sheer wall of hours spent with this thing with negligible issue til' suddenly this. Bugger.

 

[lowwall]

Please don't get back in the water until you've at least talked to DAN and followed their advice.

At best you've strained a muscle of some sort. At worst, I shudder to think. But there could be gas bubbles in places they don't belong.

 

[Coopladoop]

Please don't get back in the water until you've at least talked to DAN and followed their advice.

At best you've strained a muscle of some sort. At worst, I shudder to think. But there could be gas bubbles in places they don't belong.

Nail meet head!

Had a lengthy chat with DAN, what a great group of people. Hope to be signing up sometime before month's end.

Best theory right now is pulmonary barotrauma. All pulmonologists or related GPs are off-island due to the pandemic, save one last chap whose office runs Mon-Thurs. Edit: Actually, unsure if even this guy is still about. Tried reaching the office but picked up a case of voicemail saying their hours are Mon-Thurs and not to leave any messages! I've not gotten confirmation that he isn't from the other docs though, and will be able to determine as much definitively come Monday.

Will tough out the weekend and pray to Baby Yoda they answer the phone Monday and have availability. Also have a few phone calls/e-conferences scheduled with the chaps above, but I suspect the turnaround for those will be much longer than the coming Monday.

Have had a flurry of calls....can't remember if it was with DAN or the subsequent offices afterwards but- if I'm interpreting all of this correctly, the signs point to a trapped bubble of air in/outside the lung. This would correlate with the sensation I described as feeling a bubble trapped somewhere, or more accurately some sort of unresolved pressure refusing to release, a la "burp" analogy.

Thanks to everyone chiming in. Will check in come Mon.

 

[uncfnp]

Nail meet head!

Had a lengthy chat with DAN, what a great group of people. Hope to be signing up sometime before month's end.

Best theory right now is pulmonary barotrauma. All pulmonologists or related GPs are off-island due to the pandemic, save one last chap whose office runs Mon-Thurs. Edit: Actually, unsure if even this guy is still about. Tried reaching the office but picked up a case of voicemail saying their hours are Mon-Thurs and not to leave any messages! I've not gotten confirmation that he isn't from the other docs though, and will be able to determine as much definitively come Monday.

Will tough out the weekend and pray to Baby Yoda they answer the phone Monday and have availability. Also have a few phone calls/e-conferences scheduled with the chaps above, but I suspect the turnaround for those will be much longer than the coming Monday.

Have had a flurry of calls....can't remember if it was with DAN or the subsequent offices afterwards but- if I'm interpreting all of this correctly, the signs point to a trapped bubble of air in/outside the lung. This would correlate with the sensation I described as feeling a bubble trapped somewhere, or more accurately some sort of unresolved pressure refusing to release, a la "burp" analogy.

Thanks to everyone chiming in. Will check in come Mon.

Hoping for the best but after skimming the thread, especially your last post I wondered if crepitus might present with such an injury so looked it up. Take a look at this link, especially the sections Pathophysiology plus History and Physical. Crepitus in this case is a cracking that can be felt in the skin. It is literally caused by air trapped under the skin.

Pulmonary Barotrauma - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf

 

[RemcoDutch]

Aaah man, I am glad you decided to call DAN yesterday. Please keep us updated! Good luck!

 

[chillyinCanada]

Hear ya 10/10 on that. We're mucking about with heavy(er) equipment down there installing piles, so she can be a pain to finnickle with sometimes once that venting starts. Easier to slap on and keep on while working than a regular reg though, so we're keeping with it for the time being. Our tanks are on the rig, marina barely pushes 20ft at her deepest so it's a quick pop to the surface for anything/to communicate with the chaps topside.

In regards to your earlier, hadn't thought about C02 buildup, that's a very good point. I'll reach out to OR now and see if they stock those parts, or who does- see about getting one on the way. Still floored by this happening though, I mean the sheer wall of hours spent with this thing with negligible issue til' suddenly this. Bugger.

C02 buildup is going to give you a headache. Somehow I doubt that it's going to give you what you experienced.

That night, did you take aspirin? Did you take anything normally taken for a tummy upset or gas, like peptobismal, Tums or Rolaids?

 

[lowwall]

Have had a flurry of calls....can't remember if it was with DAN or the subsequent offices afterwards but- if I'm interpreting all of this correctly, the signs point to a trapped bubble of air in/outside the lung. This would correlate with the sensation I described as feeling a bubble trapped somewhere, or more accurately some sort of unresolved pressure refusing to release, a la "burp" analogy.

Thanks to everyone chiming in. Will check in come Mon.

That's what I suspected. Thanks for taking this seriously.

And please follow up with a doctor even if you start feeling much better. Your body may partially or fully reabsorb the bubble(s) which could cause the pain to go away. But that does not mean the underlying injury is healed. Diving before you get clearance from a doctor who knows about this stuff is potentially very dangerous.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Hello all!

I wanted to start by saying thank you to all the members of this board. Some years ago a few concerned posts of mine were responded to with very educated, and helpful replies that helped a great deal. So thank you to everyone!

I'd like to now ask the opinion of the community as to what I describe below might be, how to avoid it in the future, and if possible how to expedite it's effects!


While doing some work at the bottom in our staple marina (~20ft down or so) yesterday I noticed an anomaly I've had occur before- but decided to push through this time. The best way I can describe it is the sensation just before you burp, except in this case the burp never arrives, and the feeling is significantly intensified. It started somewhat small in intensity, and grew to a point I considered alarming and decided to surface for a breather.

Since then, it was a somewhat long night. While hoofing the day's dive tanks back to the truck, whenever my head tilted beyond parallel with the horizon/down towards my feet, and in painful spasms that grew throughout the night- this feeling would appear. In a way, it felt how I imagine trapped air in some small tubular structure of the body might feel, but at its worst it also felt as if a hand was squeezing some part of my throat/upper chest area. There was also a great deal of sensitivity precisely at the spot a pulse would be taken at the throat, but only on one side. Pressing the identical area on the other side was without any discomfort at all. Swallowing was painful, and after some hours breathing became painful too, the feeling propogating down my chest. An emergency ice pack and ensemble of pills allowed sleep to win over, and now here in the morning all discomfort has substantially subsided.

However the work is not done, not by a long shot, and I'm very concerned about a repeat of this incident.


Alongside my own research, I'd value hearing thoughts of the reader on what might be happening here if so obliged- and doubly so if anyone has experienced something similar.

A final note of context, the mask I use in diving is a full-face medium-duty setup by Ocean Reef, part of their GDivers line I believe. Another coworker gave the mask a go yesterday and noted the significant amount of "pull" force required with each inhale to trigger the release valve. There is an adjustment for this which allows some degree of assistance but there is speculation the issue is of a larger scale.
A silicone mouth/nose fitting was misplaced some time ago, which at its core functioned to change the volume of air the user was "pulling" against on inhale from that smaller contained region within the fitting, to now the entirety of the face mask without said fitting.

I felt as much a while ago but since then have gotten used to it. I'd wager there's 100 hours of time on the mask since this change, but never has the above issue surfaced with such intensity.

In summary then: The feeling of a "bubble" in the throat/upper chest- pain that comes in waves and when looking downwards. Could the lungs be damaged by having to pull too hard for air? Also should note that no physical swelling or lumps were observed, this one's a sneaky affliction seems!

Thank you for reading this everyone,

All the best.

Hi @Coopladoop ,

A few things strike me here. First, at the risk of second-guessing someone who spoke to you on phone, if the symptoms started on the bottom, this would put pulmonary barotrauma lower on the differential for me. Did you ascend in the water column at all before the symptoms started? Were the waves high, or were you rapidly changing depth at any point in the dive before you noticed these symptoms?

Second, the piece of your FFM that is missing is called an oral-nasal mask. Its purpose is to reduce the dead space in the mask and decrease the likelihood of hypercapnia (CO2 buildup). It doesn't have anything to do with the cracking pressure of the regulator. Diving without it places you at increased risk of hypercapnia.

A few clarifying questions:

How old are you, and do you have any underlying medical problems? Are you under a doctor's care for anything at all?

You mention that this has happened before. How many times has it happened, and what were the exact circumstances then? Were you diving? If so, at what point in the dive did you notice the symptoms?

Was there any swelling in your neck? When you pressed on your neck, did you feel anything like bubble wrap or hear any sounds like Rice Krispies?

Your description of the squeezing pain is concerning for some sort of cardiac event. It could also be attributed to a nasty case of reflux. I would strongly recommend that you not dive until you receive a thorough workup by a physician trained in examining divers.

Best regards,
DDM