Breast Pain After Diving

[chardiver]

Breast Pain After Diving

I am a 60-year old woman who has been diving for 23 years and have made about 975 dives. For the last 8 or so years I have had a problem that develops after diving. I develop severe pain, swelling, and a very full feeling in my normally large breasts. It is as if the breasts are engorged. The skin becomes very stretched. There is some itching under the breasts also. I have contacted numerous dive medicine specialists including DAN and they have not heard of this post diving problem. None of their numerous suggestions (looser wetsuit, sports bra, women’s style BC, antihistamines, change in blood pressure meds, and Sudafed) were of any help in preventing or in alleviating the problem. I feel this may be a symptom of impending bends as I have had two occurrences of DCS in the last three years. Both seemed to be undeserved hits. They both required hyperbaric treatment. The breast pain however was not alleviated either by breathing oxygen or by the treatments and took about a week to subside.
I am concerned about other women who might be experiencing this symptom and are not reporting it, as I did not for a number of years. If there are others, we women may be able to convince the doctors that it is an unreported precursor to the bends. So far, they are skeptical. If you have had this symptom or have any second hand knowledge or experience with it, please contact me:


E-mail chardiver@aol.com

Snail mail: Char Sigman, W6589 Fire Lane 7, and Menasha, WI 54952

Thanks for your time and attention to this problem.
Char Sigman

 

[Dr Deco]

This does not appear to me to be a problem associated with decompression gas phase formation per se since you indicate that the pain did not abate with either oxygen or pressure. This failure of a “test of pressure” leads one to believe that the origin of the problem lies elsewhere. You seem to have tried a large number of previous suggestions, and I do not see anything that can be added.
I would simply reiterate that bubble formation does not appear to be the cause in this case.