Chest pain after almost every dive

[8675309fan]

Hello everyone I am a newly certified diver and I have been having this problem every time I dive, whether that be in a 5ft to 15ft pool, or a 25ft spring. I almost always have chest pain after a few hours or the day after the dives. The first pool dive I did I was very nervous, I do have asthma (Spirometry 88 at rest 93 after 10 minutes of exercise) and I was worried the air in the tank would aggravate my asthma but to my surprise I was fine underwater and was very comfortable underwater. The next day I had tightness in my chest which felt like anxiety pain and it was gone the day after. The next week was still in the 5ft pool and again the next day I had chest tightness. The next few classes I would still have chest pain after the dives but sometimes they would last longer and some would not. My first certification dive in 25ft of a spring the next day I had little to no chest pain and did not change anything from my pool sessions, then the next day was the open water dive at 70ft and I started having chest pain about 2 hours after the dive. I went to my Primary Care Doctor (not a dive doctor) and told them what was going on and they gave me a EKG and a stress test with a chest X-ray and everything came back fine, so they say since it is a new experience for me I might be working muscles I usually don't work out and said I could still dive.

So I know must of you are not doctors but I'm just curious to what you all think, I really love diving but I really would like help figuring this out, or if this has happened to you I'd like to know.

Thank You all for reading

Edit: I want to thank everyone who has replied to my post, this way more responses then I thought I would get! I also am not diving till I get this figured out.

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

i would say go see a dive doctor. you can contact DAN and they can give a contact.

 

[dewdropsonrosa]

This is absolutely "call DAN" territory! Recurring chest pain is troubling under any circumstances and doubly so underwater. Get it checked out by a dive medicine-aware doctor before you splash again.

 

[Esprise Me]

Totally agree on calling DAN for a referral to a dive doc. But one thing you might try to help with the diagnosis is putting on gear and walking around a bit, without getting in the water or breathing compressed air. See how your body responds to that, and be sure to tell your doctor.

 

[Curious_George]

Hey, thank you for sharing some personal info and for being careful. Although diving gives many people lots of enjoyment - for sure not worth getting hurt over.

When you say chest pain, is it more pronounced in any one specific location? Is it constant, or varies with breathing? Anything sensitive to touch or gentle pressure?

Great suggestions to discuss with a real DR and DAN.

Best of luck, hope you get it figured out.

edit: corrected a typo and added DAN number: +18004462671

 

[wheeledgoat]

Do you see your MD regularly and get annual checkups? Maybe you left it off, but did he draw any labs? Just curious about cholesterol and cpk.

As you have witnessed, the advice you'll get here on sb pegs the needle at conservative. While it's hard to argue that an abundance of caution is inadvisable in ANY circumstance, I often wonder if we manage to cross that line here on sb.

With the xray, ekg and stress test wnl and assuming the same for LDL, triglycerides and cpk/troponin, I would personally feel comfortable ruling out the usual concerns related to "chest pain". I like your pcp's guess at unused muscles and the advice of wearing/trying different parts of the scuba experience separately to help narrow down the trigger/cause. If you're anything like me, it might help to start exercising regularly too, if only for an experiment. LOL Best of luck!

 

[Bob DBF]

But one thing you might try to help with the diagnosis is putting on gear and walking around a bit, without getting in the water or breathing compressed air. See how your body responds to that, and be sure to tell your doctor.

Great advice, and the way I found out about a similar issue, after the stress test and so on.

My case was pain in my arm and left side after my first three day lobster trip. It seems as I was removing my kit, all the weight was on my left side, shoulder, and arm as I swung the gear off as I normally would. What wasn't normal was 18 dives, or so, in two days and a half. Next time I modified my behavior and knew what to expect.

Anytime one over uses any group of muscles, they will complain. Sounds like the OP is doing good and ruling out any medical issues first.

 

[OTF]

Call DAN, they will give free, qualified medical advice to anyone (even nonmembers) and can refer you to local docs.

But since this is scubaboard I might as well jump aboard the speculation train and ask if it's possible your wetsuit is very tight and constricting?


Question to the board - has anyone else experienced chest pain on inhalation in the 24hrs after aspirating SMALL amounts of salt water? I remember having that happen fairly regularly as a kid in the evening following a day of surfing and getting hammered by waves. Is that a common thing? If so, wet-breathing regs could explain some of the mysterious temporary post-dive chest pain posts we see here.

 

[8675309fan]

Hey, thank you for sharing some personal info and for being careful. Although diving gives many people lots of enjoyment - for sure not worth getting hurt over.

When you say chest pain, is it more pronounced in any one specific location? Is it constant, or varies with breathing? Anything sensitive to touch or gentle pressure?

Great suggestions to discuss with a real DR and DAN.

Best of luck, hope you get it figured out.

edit: corrected a typo and added DAN number: +18004462671

- The chest pain varies from side to side and can sometimes switch sides over a few days. Breathing sometimes causes more pressure but it's not really a sharp pain (that I can remember). Also I have to press really hard on my chest for pain

 

[8675309fan]

Do you see your MD regularly and get annual checkups? Maybe you left it off, but did he draw any labs? Just curious about cholesterol and cpk.

As you have witnessed, the advice you'll get here on sb pegs the needle at conservative. While it's hard to argue that an abundance of caution is inadvisable in ANY circumstance, I often wonder if we manage to cross that line here on sb.

With the xray, ekg and stress test wnl and assuming the same for LDL, triglycerides and cpk/troponin, I would personally feel comfortable ruling out the usual concerns related to "chest pain". I like your pcp's guess at unused muscles and the advice of wearing/trying different parts of the scuba experience separately to help narrow down the trigger/cause. If you're anything like me, it might help to start exercising regularly too, if only for an experiment. LOL Best of luck!

- Yes they did do labs and all was normal except low vitaman D (I work at night so that is expected)