could I have gotten bent?

[Jason B]

I was diving this past Sunday (crappy vis) and had buddy separation problems. I surfaced hoping my buddy would surface but he never did so I had to start chasing his bubbles. I made several descents and ascents before I was able to finally locate him. My ascents were a little quicker than my computer liked (flashing slow) but I was feeling pressured to get him quick as our drysuit instructor was waiting on us (about 15 minutes he was waiting).
So everything is fine after the dive was said and done. After another dive (got left again-had to surface and chase bubbles again) I still felt fine.
At about 10:30 Sunday night, I could hardly keep my eyes open, as I was so tired. Off to bed I went. When I woke up Monday morning my left shoulder was hurting rather bad. The pain was a familiar pain that I have felt before (sleeping on my side has caused this in the past). As long as my arm is not moving I have no pain. I can lift my arm straight forward with no pain. The pain occurs when I try to lift it straight out to the side.
I know I should probably call DAN (I have their Preferred Plan) but keep thinking this is just from sleeping on it wrong. Would DCS only affect my arm when it was put in certain positions or would it hurt always? Am I in denial?
Thanks for listening.

Oh the dives profiles were 39 ft for 29 minutes and 39 ft for 23 minutes with a 1:58 surface interval.

Thanks,
Jason

 

[Kim]

Phone DAN. If it's nothing to worry about - nothing lost. If it is - everything gained.

 

[sharpenu]

This profile is very mild and you probably aren't bent. The odds are very much against it.

 

[Jason B]

Just got off the phone with DAN (nice people). They said that the majority of DCS cases, the pain is described as persistent, but then went on to say that if you look at all their past cases you will find where people have had pain only with movement. They also said that DCS in 30-40 ft is not as common as with deeper dives (plus the fact that the surfacing occurred 12 minutes into the dive-not much gas loading at that point). He did recommend that I go see my local physician and have him check it out and to have him call DAN’s dive physicians for further possible tests that he (local physician) may be able to perform to determine if it is in fact DCS.
I wish I had called yesterday, as the call didn't hurt a bit.
Thanks for listening. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Jason

 

[Charlie J]

Uhhh...as a fellow diver during the Sunday mentioned, I'm concerned. My limited knowledge says its just sleeping wrong or something else. If it helps, I remember you were diving 38% EAN so the N2 loading would be very minimal - especially at the depths/times we were at. 36% EAN tables show a pressure group B for 40 ft, 30 min (worst case?) That said - its better to be safe than sorry - DAN's advice paraphrased. Any headaches, blurred vision, tinnitus?? Or just the pain with the arm/sholder movement? Sounds like a 15 min trip to the doc might let you (and me!!!) sleep better.

No matter what the reason, hope the pain subsides soon, AND that its nothing serious!

 

[Jason B]

Back from Doc,
Shoulder separation in the AC joint. All should be fine in a 3-6 weeks...Guess I won't be diving anytime soon. I know I probably over reacted but I kept on remembering the article I read on the WKPP site about bounce dives (my first dive I had to surface and descended 5 times). Thanks for all the responses.

Here’s a link to the article on bounce dives.
http://www.wkpp.org/articles/Decompression/why_we_do_not_bounce_dive_after_diving.htm

Jason

 

[Dr Deco]

Sounds more like bad sleeping than bad diving!

 

[Charlie J]

Or falling out of bed WHILE sleeping!! Glad you're OK Jason - any idea how the shoulder sep happened?

Back from Doc,
Shoulder separation in the AC joint. All should be fine in a 3-6 weeks...Guess I won't be diving anytime soon. I know I probably over reacted but I kept on remembering the article I read on the WKPP site about bounce dives (my first dive I had to surface and descended 5 times). Thanks for all the responses.

Here’s a link to the article on bounce dives.
http://www.wkpp.org/articles/Decompression/why_we_do_not_bounce_dive_after_diving.htm

Jason

 

[Christi]

I surfaced hoping my buddy would surface but he never did so I had to start chasing his bubbles. I made several descents and ascents before I was able to finally locate him. My ascents were a little quicker than my computer liked (flashing slow) but I was feeling pressured to get him quick as our drysuit instructor was waiting on us (about 15 minutes he was waiting).
So everything is fine after the dive was said and done. After another dive (got left again-had to surface and chase bubbles again) I still felt fine.

Your profiles aren't what concerns me...it's the bolded statement above that is DCS waiting to happen. Be very careful about doing multiple descents and particularly rapid ascents within a short period of time.

Just yesterday I heard a story of a divemaster that went back down to 30 feet for a weight belt dropped by a diver. She didn't do another safety stop and came up rather rapidly because she hadn't bothered to check to see if she had enough air to come back up safely. She ended up being seriously bent.

This is nothing to play around with...be careful!

 

[pipedope]

While bounce diving can be very dangerous if you have a significant N2 load it is much less so with little N2 in your tissues.

As a commercial diver in Florida I have had many days of quick up and down between the surface and 10 or 20 feet. In these dives the DCI risk is extreamly low because there is never any time to build up much N2.

The risk of AGE is the same for every dive so caution is still required.

Sawtooth profiles always have some risk but don't become deadly untill you have lots of N2 in your system.