water balance and DCS

[bluephoenix]

Hello,
I had a dive accident with DCS II. Since that I have problems of maintaining a good 'water balance', it is a bit strange I hope I can explain it..
Most of the time I really drink enough I would say and I felt good with that, 2-3l, during sporting activities and the summer season even more of course. Now with the same amount of drinking I often feel numb, beside myself, have cognitive problems etc. So I started to drink more, then it is gone. I would guess I have really to take care of drinking at least one more liter per day than before the accident.
Could that be related to DCS or is that just by chance? Has anybody heard of something like that before? Will that change in future?
Ideas welcome
Thanks a lot in advance,
best regards,
Vera

 

[TSandM]

At your baseline, do you feel normal? In other words, did you recover fully from your type II hit? If so, I can't really think of any reason why your hydration status should affect your cognition, unless you get dehydrated to the point where you are not perfusing tissues normally. It doesn't sound like that's what we are talking about, unless you live somewhere extremely hot and humid. Personally, if I were having episodes of confusion and cognitive problems, I would see a physician and get some lab work done to make sure your electrolytes, glucose, and renal function are normal.

 

[bluephoenix]

thanks for your comment!

no, at the moment I still have some residual symptoms
as the problem began after the hit I am not sure if that is perhaps 'normal' afterwards for a while?
if not I should get some lab work of course

 

[Dr Deco]

Hello bluephoenix:

Water and Cognition

A brief search on Google will show references to water balance and cognition. A couple are listed below.

If your status of hydration has not changed post versus pre the DCS incident, I would guess it it is more a change of your perception. During the testing of the PADI tables, some of the divers reported “memory changes.” This was true even when there was not any DCS and the divers did not even have Doppler bubbles.

Dr Deco :doctor:

1. S. E. Wolfe. Water Cognition and Cognitive Affective Mapping:Identifying Priority Clusters Within a Canadian Water Efficiency Community Water Resour Manage (2012) 26:2991 – 3004

2. Edmonds CJ, Burford D. Should children drink more water?: the effects of drinking water on cognition in children

 

[bluephoenix]

thanks for your comment
looks like I have to check for electrolytes, hormones etc.; I think it is not only my perception as collegues at work addressed me because of that and I collapsed several times, in addition my body seem to 'want' salty things etc., it is strange.. I have in mind perhaps something was 'triggered' by the stress of the incident and/or DCS or something, I will have to check
thanks for reading

 

[bluephoenix]

of course water and cognition are related, I forgot to mention that in my first post, thanks for reminding

interestingly it seems to be something 'similar' e.g. with alcohol
with only very little amount of alcohol discretely fast problems with balance (and no really symptoms of drunkenness) which I did not have before (balance problems in general are some of the residual symptoms)

so my 'theory' is that perhaps since the incident my brain compensates for many things but with that is more prone / sensitive to 'little disturbances' to water- or alcohol levels etc.

 

[krawlings]

I would STRONGLY Advise you to see your Dr (a scuba knowledgeable DR)You have some thing going on that is not of the norme for you and most .Something is out of balace with your system . And I would not get back in the water till I had it resolved . That is just me and my advice . GOOD LUCK hope you get it solved and do not had long and or bad long term affects .

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi bluephoenix,

In an individual who was making apropriate efforts to stay well-hydrated, there would be no apparent reason why an incident of DCS would result in any lasting derangement of hydration status proper.

However, cause(s) aside, if you are experiencing episodes of confusion & alterations in cognitive status, and more importantly episodes of "collapsing", something clearly is medically amiss and you should seek prompt evaluation.

Please let the forum know how this matter progresses--it's how we learn.

Best of luck.

DocVikingo

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

It's not entirely outside the realm of possibility that something in the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system was affected but it would be a very unusual sequela of DCS and would probably be worth reporting in the literature. Ditto DocV, please let us know what you find out.

Best regards,
DDM