skin bends in Coz.,,

[htn123]

Waldick,
I would say stay off scuba for now. Someone suggested snorkel. Sounds like a good ideas for enjoying the rest of your vacation and still get wet .

Hey, one thing, I noticed on first day, your second dive was deeper than the first.... Might not be a biggy but did you do the samething in Nov when you got the skin bend?

Wonder if they are related. You did said you started feeling abdominal pain after first day.

 

[waldick]

ok, so i went back for a follow-up visit with Dr. Picollo...his response to my evry question was "NO", he even wrote the word "NO" down for me just in case i had any questions later on in the day...so, no, i will not be doing any diving for six months !

I appreciate all the responses, even the less than nice ones....but sitting here watching all the other divers is very hard to do....but then again i have my note from the doc in case i have any questions....

when i get home i will get checked for PFO asap...also, someone had a question about the my first dive being shallower than the second...the first dive was a checkout dive and we spent 25 minutes or more in less than 15 feet and then swam to the reef and maxed out at 42 feet, then we had an SI of 1.5 hours....yes the depths are maximum depths and until i get home to download the computer, i will not know the exact profile, but we did go down to maximum depth on each dive and then work our way up...all of our dives were well within all our computers deco limits...i have a sherwood wisdom, my son has an omni i think, my daughter a scan 4, my wife has a computer and i do not know the model off the top of my head, and our DM has a mosquito, set to the most conservative mode, and none of them came close to deco limits....

so, i will get myself checked out and hope that i am not done diving for good....


dry in Coz...

J

 

[ljs300]

Poor guy. I agree w/ Dr. Steve about the great snorkeling in Cozumel. I don't dive (hence the signature), but I saw great stuff in just a couple of feet of water, and those souls brave enough to go in deeper than where they could touch bottom saw even better stuff (those braggarts). But my main reason for posting is that there is NO need whatsoever to be DRY in Cozumel...play on a loved one's sympathy and have them drive you around the island to Ziggy Marley's bar and to Coconuts, home of the island's best margaritas. If you're daring, bring extra underwear -- you'll see...

 

[Saturation]

I agree with Dr. P that there is a bends issue and not to dive further within Cozumel for this trip, but I do not agree with the no diving for 6 months.

The wait period is to allow healing of any potential injury and resolve the effect of recompression.

As the issue mention here has resolved without formal treatment or even surface 02, the minimum wait time before diving again is 2-4 weeks. But its more vital to be checked, preferrably by a dive doc, before return to diving. Procedures to avoid bends in the future need to be tried, such as reducing bottom times on air or diving air tables with nitrox. What differences does waiting 6 months do if nothing is done to prevent an unexpected hit from reocurring once the diver dives again 6 months later?



http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/medical/faq/faq.asp?faqid=137

Self resolving "abdominal pain" should not occur in DCS 1, and at worse case, its a mild case of spinal bends. Skin bends plus abdominal pain are consistent with a PFO or other type of shunt. The dive doc exam is to ascertain with more detail what the situation truly is and if the abdominal pain is indeed bends related or not (e.g. arthritis of a sort can give similar symptoms, given the patient's height and weight, BMI ~ 29 overweight to obese level.)

In the more benign side of DCS, the rash could simply be skin bends due to the reduced fitness and physical condition of the patient, and the abdominal pain maybe mild arthritic issues relating to wearing a tank, pressure on the back from a weight belt etc.

http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/calc-bmi.htm

Hi,
I am in Coz two days of diving, 4 dives total....1st dive 42 feet max, 64 minutes, 2nd dive 69 feet max, 62 minutes, next day, 95 feet, 51 minutes, 2nd dive 71 feet, 56 minutes...all within non deco limits of my computer...after firtst day i had slight abdominal pain, after secon day i had more abdominal pain and blotchy skin on my right shoulder...went to Dr. Piccolo, he said skin bends stay cool for three or four days, no diving for 6 MONTHS....so here is my question, skin discoloration has gone away overnight, and abdominal pain is much better...i have 7days left on Coz....how about 1 or 2 shallow dives on nitrox towards the end of my stay...btw Dr said no neuro effects at all...

ok, so here is the rest of the story, last November we dove here too and i had the same thing happen early on in our vacation, but i didnt think it was dcs and kept diving and it went away when i got how...however,it was same arm, same blotchy skin, same abdominal pain....

i can live with the pain, but i dont want to do anything that will permanently hurt me....

thanks for any advise you can give....


(46 years old, male, 210lbs, 5-11)

 

[ArcticDiver]

ok, so i went back for a follow-up visit with Dr. Picollo...his response to my evry question was "NO", he even wrote the word "NO" down for me just in case i had any questions later on in the day...so, no, i will not be doing any diving for six months !

I appreciate all the responses, even the less than nice ones....but sitting here watching all the other divers is very hard to do....but then again i have my note from the doc in case i have any questions....

when i get home i will get checked for PFO asap...also, someone had a question about the my first dive being shallower than the second...the first dive was a checkout dive and we spent 25 minutes or more in less than 15 feet and then swam to the reef and maxed out at 42 feet, then we had an SI of 1.5 hours....yes the depths are maximum depths and until i get home to download the computer, i will not know the exact profile, but we did go down to maximum depth on each dive and then work our way up...all of our dives were well within all our computers deco limits...i have a sherwood wisdom, my son has an omni i think, my daughter a scan 4, my wife has a computer and i do not know the model off the top of my head, and our DM has a mosquito, set to the most conservative mode, and none of them came close to deco limits....

so, i will get myself checked out and hope that i am not done diving for good....


dry in Coz...

J

It is great that you decided to go back to a real live qualified person for your follow-up. Also that you have decided to follow his advise about not diving and about getting more testing and analysis when you get home.

I'm pretty sure you have put my first post in the "not nice" category. Sorry about that. But your original post read like someone who was doing their very best to delude themselves into doing something that could have very serious, very negative, permanent consequences. So, decided to "get your attention". Very glad to see that you really haven't lost track of the difference between Reality and Cyber.

Good luck and let us know how your further testing turns out, eh?

 

[DiveGolfSki]

....have them drive you around the island to Ziggy Marley's bar and to Coconuts, home of the island's best margaritas. If you're daring, bring extra underwear -- you'll see...

:11:

 

[ljs300]

Should I have warned him about the topless photo albums? For the record, you will NOT see my picture there, nor will you see my 'wears.

 

[waldick]

ok, i really appreciate all the responses, i will be home soon and will get checked out by a dive Doc,...did some snorkeling in a Cenote yesterday, very cool, can't wait to go back in the spring and dive a cenote...maybe this recurring "skin bends" thing is really a blessing in disquise if it turns out i have a heart problem that would have gone un-diagnosed had i not been diving...ok, ok, i' just trying to get something positive out of this whole experience...

funny though how some thing which initially seems very bad can end up being something that may save your life...funny how that works...and since i do not believe in luck, well I'll give the Big Guy the credit....

for now back home to the land of cold water...and NITROX

j

 

[cameron]

abdominal pain... that hits home. I made the mistake of dusting off abdominal pain as a stretched muscle. I did another dive and ended up doing a table 6 in the end...long story. Don't **** with this stuff. Even thought a computer says you are ok dosn't make you ok. Don't trust them!!! I am very happy to hear that you didn't dive the rest of the trip. You would not want to do a run in the pot for the sake of seeing some fish underwater...trust me.

 

[waldick]

what's a table 6 ?