Chest hurting a week after a deep dive

[sipadiver]

I went diving for a week in open sea conditions. The location - a tropical Island surrounded by very deep water - The surge / current conditions were very strong and was pushing us up and down. Often I didn't realize it until I looked at my dive computer and found that I was suddenly 10 to 20m off the last check. Once I realized this was a problem - I had to constantly monitor my dive and depth gauge to swim up or down to maintain my correct depth level.

On the 3rd day of the dive we swam into a swarm of hammerhead sharks - over 25 maybe 40 - it was a deep dive and I descended to 44m+ I swam around them for about 5 - 10 minutes before coming back up to 30m then 20m etc.. Strangely my air pressure gauge seemed to remain stuck at 50 bar during my safety stop.

I chose to stay as long as possible at 5M to allow the longest possible decompression time.

When I got back onto the boat - I felt perfect, elated, and happy. Its not often we can dive with hammerhead sharks. But I had gone pretty deep. I didn't feel tired or exhausted - no aches, pains, rash, or any sign of DCS.

The next day I felt like my chest had been sat upon overnight. Like a tight squeeze. I still carried on diving. I attributed it mainly to anxiousness and the surge in the sea. The pain in the lungs eventually went away as I carried on diving.

The first morning after I flew out I felt like my lungs had been squashed again. I wasn't in terrible pain. But it was a discomfort like a fat person had sat on my chest.

The next day the squeeze pain wasn't as pronounced and eventually dissipated.

Again, no headaches, no rash, no undue tiredness etc..

Another week went by - and after flying to Australia I felt a slight squeeze in my lungs but it lasted for about a day. My breathing was also a bit wheezy like I had a chest infection. But I had no fever.

I snore badly when I'm really tired and blamed it on that.

I seem ok now - the middle of my chest still has a slight sensation - but overall ok.

What happened tho - was the deep diving responsible for it or was it more due to the strong surge in the sea?

 

[Peter69_56]

You should go and get a full checkup. A full blood check up as well. We were recently being trained by an instructor who went to Indonesia. He came back feeling not well and within a few weeks passed away. He should have gotten a full checkup but didn't. I believe he was bitten by a mosquito which put larva in his blood and then they overloaded his organs and he died. Anyway from this I learned not to ignore anything, if something feels wrong, get a checkup and explain what happened and where you were. Better to do this than go down a path of dying from a recoverable issue.

 

[AfterDark]

I went diving for a week in open sea conditions. The location - a tropical Island surrounded by very deep water - The surge / current conditions were very strong and was pushing us up and down. Often I didn't realize it until I looked at my dive computer and found that I was suddenly 10 to 20m off the last check. Once I realized this was a problem - I had to constantly monitor my dive and depth gauge to swim up or down to maintain my correct depth level.

On the 3rd day of the dive we swam into a swarm of hammerhead sharks - over 25 maybe 40 - it was a deep dive and I descended to 44m+ I swam around them for about 5 - 10 minutes before coming back up to 30m then 20m etc.. Strangely my air pressure gauge seemed to remain stuck at 50 bar during my safety stop.

I chose to stay as long as possible at 5M to allow the longest possible decompression time.

When I got back onto the boat - I felt perfect, elated, and happy. Its not often we can dive with hammerhead sharks. But I had gone pretty deep. I didn't feel tired or exhausted - no aches, pains, rash, or any sign of DCS.

The next day I felt like my chest had been sat upon overnight. Like a tight squeeze. I still carried on diving. I attributed it mainly to anxiousness and the surge in the sea. The pain in the lungs eventually went away as I carried on diving.

The first morning after I flew out I felt like my lungs had been squashed again. I wasn't in terrible pain. But it was a discomfort like a fat person had sat on my chest.

The next day the squeeze pain wasn't as pronounced and eventually dissipated.

Again, no headaches, no rash, no undue tiredness etc..

Another week went by - and after flying to Australia I felt a slight squeeze in my lungs but it lasted for about a day. My breathing was also a bit wheezy like I had a chest infection. But I had no fever.

I snore badly when I'm really tired and blamed it on that.

I seem ok now - the middle of my chest still has a slight sensation - but overall ok.

What happened tho - was the deep diving responsible for it or was it more due to the strong surge in the sea?

The pain in the lungs eventually went away as I carried on diving. So you went diving and felt better after you got underwater? What does that indicate to you? IMO you recompressed yourself and felt better... DCS or maybe something like mediastinal emphysema. Another week went by - and after flying to Australia I felt a slight squeeze in my lungs but it lasted for about a day. Reduced ambient pressure pain returns? Hope I'm wrong and hope you are alright.

 

[antattack]

Be careful with chest pain. Pulmonary edema is something to research.

 

[The_Aviator_1]

Rather than attempt to self diagnose yourself it's my medical opinion you should seek immediate treatment. There are tests that need to be done to rule things out and the longer you wait the more damage you could be causing. Is it really worth risking your life over spending a few hours getting checked out?

 

[smorneau]

I would suggest calling DAN to point you in the right direction and recommend a Dr. familiar with dive medicine.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I would very seriously also look at not doing these types of dives until you are trained for them. 44 meters is 145 feet. What deco schedule did you calaculate to do this dive? Guessing by your post none. Your profile shows a PADI AOW cert as your highest level of training. If this is correct you were likely not even close to being trained to do this dive. There was likely no discussion of emergency deco procedures and from what you are describing no real discussion of dive planning. Hence your incident.

You quite likely are damn lucky to not have any serious lingering issues. Why did you stay as long as possible at 5m? Because that's what the woefully inadequate instructions on the PADI table told you? Good way to get killed. On the Navy tables a single dive to 145 feet for ten minutes puts you into deco. On Multi deco with a conservatism of three it looks like this:
DIVE PLAN
Surface interval = 1 day 0 hr 0 min.
Elevation = 0ft
Conservatism = + 3
Dec to 145ft (2) Air 60ft/min descent.
Level 145ft 7:35 (10) Air 1.13 ppO2, 145ft ead
Asc to 40ft (13) Air -30ft/min ascent.
Stop at 40ft 0:30 (14) Air 0.46 ppO2, 40ft ead
Stop at 30ft 2:00 (16) Air 0.40 ppO2, 30ft ead
Stop at 20ft 3:00 (19) Air 0.34 ppO2, 20ft ead
Stop at 10ft 5:00 (24) Air 0.27 ppO2, 10ft ead
Surface (24) Air -30ft/min ascent.
Off gassing starts at 78.5ft
OTU's this dive: 13
CNS Total: 4.8%
53.5 cu ft Air
53.5 cu ft TOTAL

Did you do 11 minutes of controlled deco? If you did not do the deeper stops as outlined here you'd need to spend more time at 5 meters. Sounds to me like you got slightly bent. At a minimum. Who planned this dive in such a manner? If it was told to you that this was ok on the boat they lied.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Sipadiver,

The symptom onset time (i.e. you noticed it in the morning after you dove) does not jibe with a diving-related cause. Pulmonary barotrauma and pulmonary DCS would have presented immediately or very soon after the dive. You said you snore, and that you woke up feeling like someone was sitting on your chest. You also said that this reoccurred outside a diving setting, with breathing issues during one episode. From your description, I think this is more likely cardiac in origin. I agree with Aviator above; you need to be evaluated ASAP.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[sipadiver]

Thanks for your comments "Duke Dive Medicine". To clarify the pain - it was more like a squeeze on the lungs which made breathing feel a very slight strain. I had also been suffering from some stomach discomfort which led to reflux. I've suffered from this reflux problem since I've started diving - but the solution was simply to avoid overeating and avoid fried food. But the food that was being served was pretty good so I ate more than I should. I'm not too sure whether that contributed to the overall sense of unwellness but I found myself coughing underwater due to that reflux issue I think.

I should also add that I had my Blood pressure checked after returning back home by a doctor and it was in the normal range.

I also commenced my regular exercise program when I returned home and did not experience any problems.

Nonetheless I'll go get a full checkup. I've got DAN insurance so I'll call up them up to get a medical referral.

Kindness Regards to you.

 

[Peter69_56]

Sipadiver, Yes that's the best thing to do. If you find that there are no issues, you will feel better mentally as well, and not be worrying about a maybe issue. If something is wrong, at least you can then deal with it. To ignore the symptoms and hope they go away is heading for a long term bad outcome. And as you said, if you get a dive doctor(recommended by DAN) who knows this specific area of medicine you will get a better diagnosis as well, rather than a standard GP who may know little in this area.