Is it possible to exhibit signs of skin DCS during the working portion of a dive?

[TracyN]

I had an interesting occurrence the other day on a dive that puzzled me. It was a very long cave dive that had a pretty drastic saw tooth profile. The dive started out averaging about 60 ft of depth and then we dropped to around 100 ft. We then went up to about 50 ft, dropped to around 70ft and then up to about 40ft where we again dropped down to 107 ft, and finally leveled off at about 30-40 ft. When we started the shallow portion of the dive we had accumulated a good amount of deco and by the time we made our way back to the deep portion of the dive we had blown off most of our initial deco and only had 10ft stops showing.

When we got back to the 50 ft level and picked up our stage bottles I noticed that the back of my right hand was burning and stinging like it was on fire. I looked and didn't see anything but when we ascended back down to depth the burning instantly stopped. The rest of the dive was uneventful and no other symptoms occurred upon surfacing.

Is it possible that I had the start of a mild skin bend that resolved itself once I went back down to depth? The event happened at about 136:40 min into the dive.

Also on an unrelated note a couple hours after the dive on the previous day when I took a shower I noticed an intense itching and redness to the back of my right arm. I thought I might have gotten bit but there was no bite mark and it too resolved itself after about a half hour.

 

[Wookie]

I think you got into something, although when I get a skin hit it seems to usually resolve itself, I go on O2 because if I am skin hit, I figure I have a chance of catching a bubble, and it's when I've done something wrong. I usually know when I'm going to get hit. I usually see it immediately to 1/2 hour after surfacing. I've never had crepitis, but I've seen it on others. I don't have any burning sensation, but I do get quite red and it itches like the dickens. 15 minutes on O2 and it all goes away.

The NAUI tech guru (he said through gritted teeth) refuses to have a hot shower on his boat because he believes it leads to skin bends, especially for those diving near NDL's. This is one case where I don't necessarily disagree with him. I won't have a hot tub on a boat for the same reason. I do allow a hot shower, though. I practically insist on it.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Additional info needed. Diving dry? What mix? What system were you diving...if I may ask?

 

[bamafan]

Tracy, it's probably something you caught from the two you are diving with. Hanging around Mariana there is no telling what you might catch. Now on a more serious note drink plenty of water. I don't see how anyone can dive without a p valve. Maybe I am just getting old but I go 5-6 times in a 1 1/2 hour dive. Let alone a 4 hour dive that you did. A scooter helps also. The same dive can be done in 1 1/2 hours easy.. But it does make you appreciate what the old timers did when they laid that line back in the 70's. If I had been in town I would have gone with you just so I could say I swam it. Here's a pic I took back there.

 

[TracyN]

Additional info needed. Diving dry? What mix? What system were you diving...if I may ask?

Drysuit and 32%. It was Hole In The Wall cave. We went to the champagne room. It's a very pretty part of the cave with crackling clear water and amazing formations but there are a lot of ups and downs.

---------- Post added March 11th, 2014 at 09:36 AM ----------

Tracy, it's probably something you caught from the two you are diving with. Hanging around Mariana there is no telling what you might catch. Now on a more serious note drink plenty of water. I don't see how anyone can dive without a p valve. Maybe I am just getting old but I go 5-6 times in a 1 1/2 hour dive. Let alone a 4 hour dive that you did. A scooter helps also. The same dive can be done in 1 1/2 hours easy.. But it does make you appreciate what the old timers did when they laid that line back in the 70's. If I had been in town I would have gone with you just so I could say I swam it. Here's a pic I took back there.View attachment 179481

You are right it could have had something to do with my choice of dive buddies! I'll blame it all on Mike and all will be well. Wish you could have gone with us as well. It really was an awesome swim and does make you appreciate the hard work that went into laying that line. Since I don't ride a scooter yet I don't know how convenient they are but I think they kind of take the adventure out of cave diving. To me zooming through the passages doesn't allow much time to see or appreciate the cave. I like to swim and take my time and peek into every nook and cranny. If it means I can't get 5000 ft back into the cave without one then so be it. To answer your burning question about how I could go for 4 hrs without peeing, I couldn't. I knew I had to swallow my pride and get Depends. Mike was a stand up guy and helped me pick out the perfect brand of britches! By the way I have a better pic of the champagne bottle!

 

[bamafan]

My little Intova set to take pictures doesn't do to well without good lighting and all I had on that dive was my Bobby light. Being an led I couldn't adjust it to flood. So the picture turned out crappy. If I wasn't solo and had some help with lighting it probably would have been a better picture. I agree with the looking around that is the downside to a scooter. But they sure are fun and open up some high flow caves. The Big Bend area is really pretty back there. The offer still stands some time when you are up this way we can go to Vortex and let you get use to a scooter in open water. Heck you might even find Ben if we do a cave dive there. The river is going down Mike and I were talking about maybe trying the bone cave this weekend. I don't know what it is but it seems like every cave I've dove with Mike lately has had crappy vis. It's about time I actually got to see something on a dive. Come up and join us.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Tracy,

It's possible that this was a mild skin DCS hit, especially considering your incident on the previous day. The conservative approach would be to consider this an indicator of significant decompression stress and perhaps look at increasing the conservatism of your tables when performing this particular dive (that's assuming that this hasn't happened to you before).

Best regards,
DDM

 

[TracyN]

Tracy,

It's possible that this was a mild skin DCS hit, especially considering your incident on the previous day. The conservative approach would be to consider this an indicator of significant decompression stress and perhaps look at increasing the conservatism of your tables when performing this particular dive (that's assuming that this hasn't happened to you before).

Best regards,
DDM

Thanks. I never had any issues before. This was my longest dive to date. Of course I've never been on a dive where you burn off a good amount of deco and then accumulate it all back again by the end of the dive. If I could figure out how to post the profile info from my Petrel on here I would. I was diving with 20/80 conservatism.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Wouldnt it be highly unusual to get a skin bend on the hand? A skin bend more likely to be in the fatty tissue?

 

[Wookie]

Thanks. I never had any issues before. This was my longest dive to date. Of course I've never been on a dive where you burn off a good amount of deco and then accumulate it all back again by the end of the dive. If I could figure out how to post the profile info from my Petrel on here I would. I was diving with 20/80 conservatism.

Wow. That's not very conservative at all, not as conservative as the factory setting. I dive at 35/70 since seeing Dr. Pollock's research conducted here on the Spree. I admit that I don't fully (or even barely) understand gradient factors. Add helium has a lecture series, but they haven't seen fit to offer it in Key West, and I was busy the day they offered it in Key Largo. It is available online on YouTube.