Brain fog during and after deep(ish) /multiple dives

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80 feet and persists after surfacing? Doesn't sound anything like narcosis. Same for hypercapnea, doesn't sound like typical symptoms or consistent with the persistence.

Far more likely to be decompression stress, assuming no other underlying medical condition. We think of getting bent as a binary thing - you either need a chamber ride or you are fine. But everyone bubbles on ascent, and if you do a number of dives in a short time, for multiple days, the effect is additive. Fatigue, flu-like symptoms, foggy thinking, etc... all are seen with decompression stress.
 
80 feet and persists after surfacing? Doesn't sound anything like narcosis. Same for hypercapnea, doesn't sound like typical symptoms or consistent with the persistence.

Far more likely to be decompression stress, assuming no other underlying medical condition. We think of getting bent as a binary thing - you either need a chamber ride or you are fine. But everyone bubbles on ascent, and if you do a number of dives in a short time, for multiple days, the effect is additive. Fatigue, flu-like symptoms, foggy thinking, etc... all are seen with decompression stress.
I'll obviously defer to your medical training, but wouldn't symptoms exhibiting at depth preclude decompression stress?
 
I'll obviously defer to your medical training, but wouldn't symptoms exhibiting at depth preclude decompression stress?

Good point, and I'm not a hyperbaric doc, I just dig out earwax for a living. So I don't really have much more insight than most other interested divers.

But the thing that makes me thing decompression stress is that the OP's symptoms happen with multiple dives or multiple days of diving. While return to depth does recompress any bubbles that have formed, the actual tissue injury seems to be some sort of inflammatory response, and that might not go away just because you are compressing the bubbles.

The problem is, of course, that you don't have a good way of quantitatively measuring "brain fog", although the critical flicker fusion test looks promising.

Narcosis at 80 feet just seems to be really stretching things - and even if that was the case, narcosis shouldn't persist for hours after the dive. Hypercapnea symptoms aren't like those described, and also should resolve hours after surfacing.

Of course, Internet medicine is never very precise, but decompression stress seems more likely than the other possibilities mentioned.
 
Not narcosis as that would clear immediately on ascent and I'm not aware of anyone showing there is some hangover effect.

I can believe some residual deco stress after the first dive, but agree you wouldn't expect to experience it on the first dive.

Honestly, it's cold and you're chasing students around. Regular fatigue coupled with dives that are probably a bit boring with a few moments of stress.

You have far more cold water experience than I have (or want), but maybe another layer of insulation would help.
 
I'd say the symptoms happen during/after every dive, but are more apparent after deep/multiple dives. Maybe one shallow dive will be a 5 factor, then a deep dive/multiple dive day would be a 6 or 7 factor, and a deep dive/multiple dive/multiple day would be a 10 factor. If that makes sense.

How do I test for hypercapnea if I am hours away from a clinic? Can I take blood after surfacing and take it to a clinic a few hours later? Would CO2 already be dissipated by the time I surface?

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to test for decompression stress hours later would I?
 
Honestly, it's cold and you're chasing students around. Regular fatigue coupled with dives that are probably a bit boring with a few moments of stress.

You have far more cold water experience than I have (or want), but maybe another layer of I adulation would help.

That and a touch of narcosis is all I've really boiled it down to. I'm not sure if there is a problem or I am.chasing ghosts, but if there is a problem I'd like to find out before I start technical dive training.
 
That and a touch of narcosis is all I've really boiled it down to. I'm not sure if there is a problem or I am.chasing ghosts, but if there is a problem I'd like to find out before I start technical dive training.
By chance, do you suffer from headaches after one of these episodes? Also, do you sometimes develop a slight cough during the dive?

I have zero medical knowledge, it's just that a buddy of mine sometimes has these, and your, symptoms after deeper, colder dives.
 
I thought that was common!? The narc from N2/CO2 at depth does not entirely go away for me as I ascend, especially on repetitive dives. I blame it on a combined effect of those things and general decompression stress. I'm usually exhausted and walking around in a fog after a couple of 60-100 ft dives in anything but the easiest conditions. I'm extra careful when driving after such a day.
 
By chance, do you suffer from headaches after one of these episodes? Also, do you sometimes develop a slight cough during the dive?

No.

I thought that was common!? The narc from N2/CO2 at depth does not entirely go away for me as I ascend, especially on repetitive dives. I blame it on a combined effect of those things and general decompression stress. I'm usually exhausted and walking around in a fog after a couple of 60-100 ft dives in anything but the easiest conditions. I'm extra careful when driving after such a day.

Ah ha! I'm not the only one... :)
 
I'd say the symptoms happen during/after every dive, but are more apparent after deep/multiple dives. Maybe one shallow dive will be a 5 factor, then a deep dive/multiple dive day would be a 6 or 7 factor, and a deep dive/multiple dive/multiple day would be a 10 factor. If that makes sense.

So if they happen as soon as you reach depth on your very first dive of a trip, then that makes decompression stress less likely. Of course, since we aren't measuring or quantifying this feeling, who knows if it's some other medical thing that just gets made worse as you add decompression stress over several days of diving. Hard to say.

How do I test for hypercapnea if I am hours away from a clinic? Can I take blood after surfacing and take it to a clinic a few hours later? Would CO2 already be dissipated by the time I surface?

The test you are thinking of would be an arterial blood gas, which is not something that you could reasonably do in the field. Again, unless you have some underlying lung disease, I would think that normal breathing at rest after surfacing would quickly address your respiratory acidosis

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to test for decompression stress hours later would I?

There actually is no test for decompression stress or decompression sickness itself (a large gas embolism might show up on imaging, but something like that would be life threatening and not the limited symptoms that you report). The diagnosis is always made on clinical grounds. You can look for intravascular bubbles with a portable doppler, but everyone bubbles to some degree on ascent, and that doesn't necessarily correlate with clinical injury.
 
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