DCS recovery and next steps advice

[eelpout]

DCS has caused trauma in your system, evidenced by your symptoms. HBOT just gets rid of the cause and given enough treatments, helps with the healing. That is one of the reasons why they tell you to stay out of the water for a while. Your body has to heal. I have had 3 DCS hits, and my wife has had 3 DCS hits and a repaired PFO. We are both diving professionals that did majority of our own research when it came to "What happens after DCS and HBOT treatment?". Rest your body and learn more about it. I thought I was superman when I was younger until I got DCS and had to be evacuated from Micronesia to Guam. I now know that my body isn't happy with Jet Lag and I should plan my dives accordingly. I dive with Nitrox as much as possible. It took me me three DCS hits to realize that my age was affecting my body that my dive schedules had to be changed. I had to stay away from 5 dives a day for 3 -4 days and a day break and back for another 3-4 day 5 dive a day work schedule. Find a Physician who is versed in Diving Medicine, they will be your best bet for questions when they occur in the future.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Keep pressing on. If I remember correctly @Trace Malinowski had a bad dcs hit that has taken many years of recovery and a few long term affects.

In 2018, I experienced a DCS hit following a deco dive to 87 feet for 44 minutes on October 2, 2018. The accident happened right next to a hospital. The physician assistant in the E.R. would not provide O2 with a mask, would not call DAN, and listed me as a non-emergency transport. It took several hours to reach a chamber just 90 miles away.

Multiple Table 6 treatments with extensions failed to resolve symptoms. I was dizzy for 2.5 years and was left with permanent double vision. Being dizzy meant constant nausea and vomiting no meds like Antivert could help. When the dizziness subsided, I began to workout, but I kept getting weaker. It turned out that constant vomiting created multiple ulcers which led to internal bleeding and a blood Hg level of 5.0 when I was admitted to the hospital for a week. I'm Type O negative and used up their stores of my blood type because a unit might only raise my Hg level .2 points.

Once they sorted all of that out, I returned to running, lifting & swimming and freediving in 2021, recreational scuba diving in 2022 on the shallow side of the sport & dives below 100 feet in 2023.

An eye patch was required until this summer due to double vision. Strabismus surgery realigned the eyes in 2022, but they wouldn't team up. A month of lifeguarding at the beach in June of 2023 was the best vision therapy. The eyes work as a team again.

I was a scuba instructor. Now that I want to return to teaching, agencies through which I had been an instructor with a good reputation won't give me the time of day.

Doctors tested for a PFO with a TEE. None was detected. Doctors diagnosed me as having had DCS by ruling out evidence of other things they were used to seeing in their practices. For example, my neurology team saw no evidence of stroke, aneurism, multiple sclerosis, etc. My otolaryngology team found no evidence of Meniere's Disease, BPPV, etc.

I reinvented myself as a ski resort snowmaker in winters and returned to lifeguarding in summers. I also lost my girlfriend of 9 years in the process, but we have a date on my way to go cave diving next week, so maybe we can rekindle something?

I feel fine now.

 

[Dsix36]

I took a hit and was paralyed from the waist down. 6 chamber rides in 4 days. Improveds began after the 2nd ride, could wiggle a toe. Steady improvement well after being released until about 3 months. I still do not have perfect balance but can walk and run just fine. Still have that "pins and needles" feeling in one upper thigh. I am as good as I will ever be now and very grateful to have had the improvement that I did. I was told that there is almost never any further improvement after 6 months and any problems left after that then are permanent. I did work myself hard with therapy to force nerves to "relearn" rather than just lay down and accept it.

 

[Arian340]

Unfortunately a clear MRI does not correlate with DCS symptom recovery. The good news is that the vast majority of residual DCS symptoms do tend to resolve over time. It may take a while, but if you have been steadily improving there is good reason for optimism.

Best regards,
DDM

Thanks again,

Just one more question, is there a time frame for this recovery? I know it’s dependent on the person but, if someone doesn’t recover straight after HBOT, is there a time frame for when someone might expect most healing? Is there anything I can do to promote it? Does the fact that I got HBOT two days after initial symptoms make this worse (including diving in between? I’ve been taking B vitamins and doing exercise as much as I can but, I am currently not working for example.

Thanks so much for taking the time.

 

[Arian340]

In 2018, I experienced a DCS hit following a deco dive to 87 feet for 44 minutes on October 2, 2018. The accident happened right next to a hospital. The physician assistant in the E.R. would not provide O2 with a mask, would not call DAN, and listed me as a non-emergency transport. It took several hours to reach a chamber just 90 miles away.

Multiple Table 6 treatments with extensions failed to resolve symptoms. I was dizzy for 2.5 years and was left with permanent double vision. Being dizzy meant constant nausea and vomiting no meds like Antivert could help. When the dizziness subsided, I began to workout, but I kept getting weaker. It turned out that constant vomiting created multiple ulcers which led to internal bleeding and a blood Hg level of 5.0 when I was admitted to the hospital for a week. I'm Type O negative and used up their stores of my blood type because a unit might only raise my Hg level .2 points.

Once they sorted all of that out, I returned to running, lifting & swimming and freediving in 2021, recreational scuba diving in 2022 on the shallow side of the sport & dives below 100 feet in 2023.

An eye patch was required until this summer due to double vision. Strabismus surgery realigned the eyes in 2022, but they wouldn't team up. A month of lifeguarding at the beach in June of 2023 was the best vision therapy. The eyes work as a team again.

I was a scuba instructor. Now that I want to return to teaching, agencies through which I had been an instructor with a good reputation won't give me the time of day.

Doctors tested for a PFO with a TEE. None was detected. Doctors diagnosed me as having had DCS by ruling out evidence of other things they were used to seeing in their practices. For example, my neurology team saw no evidence of stroke, aneurism, multiple sclerosis, etc. My otolaryngology team found no evidence of Meniere's Disease, BPPV, etc.

I reinvented myself as a ski resort snowmaker in winters and returned to lifeguarding in summers. I also lost my girlfriend of 9 years in the process, but we have a date on my way to go cave diving next week, so maybe we can rekindle something?

I feel fine now.

Hi Trace,

Thanks for sharing your journey with me, sounds like it was a tough one, but it’s good to know you’re doing better. If it’s what you want, I hope you and your ex reignite that spark again.

That’s one of my concerns at the moment actually, I have a beautiful kind girlfriend (4 years) but, I am unable to do a lot of things we love at the moment so, I’m worried the stress and potential resentment could cause difficulties in our relationship?

In those 2.5 years where you had dizziness, is there anything you were doing to try and promote the healing process? Also, when the dizziness stopped (so happy to hear this), what kind of exercises were you doing?

Thanks again for sharing mate, honestly helps so much to understand other people’s journeys and I’m so happy to hear you’re fine now.

 

[Arian340]

I took a hit and was paralyed from the waist down. 6 chamber rides in 4 days. Improveds began after the 2nd ride, could wiggle a toe. Steady improvement well after being released until about 3 months. I still do not have perfect balance but can walk and run just fine. Still have that "pins and needles" feeling in one upper thigh. I am as good as I will ever be now and very grateful to have had the improvement that I did. I was told that there is almost never any further improvement after 6 months and any problems left after that then are permanent. I did work myself hard with therapy to force nerves to "relearn" rather than just lay down and accept it.

Hi - thanks for sharing (feel like a broken record but, genuinely, thank you). Great to hear you’re doing better, I hope that it improves further however remote the chance. Hope you don’t mind me asking, who told you about the 6 months? And what kind of therapy did you do? I’m doing a lot of walking, swimming and physio at the moment. Do you have any advice for me in terms of what to do and how to deal with any anxiety (if you had this)?

Thanks

 

[Arian340]

DCS has caused trauma in your system, evidenced by your symptoms. HBOT just gets rid of the cause and given enough treatments, helps with the healing. That is one of the reasons why they tell you to stay out of the water for a while. Your body has to heal. I have had 3 DCS hits, and my wife has had 3 DCS hits and a repaired PFO. We are both diving professionals that did majority of our own research when it came to "What happens after DCS and HBOT treatment?". Rest your body and learn more about it. I thought I was superman when I was younger until I got DCS and had to be evacuated from Micronesia to Guam. I now know that my body isn't happy with Jet Lag and I should plan my dives accordingly. I dive with Nitrox as much as possible. It took me me three DCS hits to realize that my age was affecting my body that my dive schedules had to be changed. I had to stay away from 5 dives a day for 3 -4 days and a day break and back for another 3-4 day 5 dive a day work schedule. Find a Physician who is versed in Diving Medicine, they will be your best bet for questions when they occur in the future.

Thanks for sharing, really appreciate it. I appreciate the explanation as to what is actually happening, haven’t really had a proper one so far. In terms of the DCS hits that you had, dyou mind me asking how long it took for symptoms to go away in each case for yourself and your wife?

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Hi Trace,

Thanks for sharing your journey with me, sounds like it was a tough one, but it’s good to know you’re doing better. If it’s what you want, I hope you and your ex reignite that spark again.

That’s one of my concerns at the moment actually, I have a beautiful kind girlfriend (4 years) but, I am unable to do a lot of things we love at the moment so, I’m worried the stress and potential resentment could cause difficulties in our relationship?

In those 2.5 years where you had dizziness, is there anything you were doing to try and promote the healing process? Also, when the dizziness stopped (so happy to hear this), what kind of exercises were you doing?

Thanks again for sharing mate, honestly helps so much to understand other people’s journeys and I’m so happy to hear you’re fine now.

I was trying vestibular rehab exercises to try to reduce the dizziness and taking supplements like Nerve Renew. One day, it was like someone flipped a switch and the vertigo stopped. I felt a bit floaty at that point. I started going for walks and doing vestibular exercises while walking and lifting weights in the yard. I dug out the old DP weight set I had as a teenager and did typical bodyweight & weight training. I was getting weaker and blood work found the low Hg level. I was treated with high doses of Prilosec to heal the ulcers and high doses of Rx iron supplementation for the anemia.

As I gained strength, I returned to swimming laps. A state park near me as no lifeguards and a swim area that is 200 yards long. I'd normally swim 1 to 2 miles every morning at sunrise. I would train for lifeguarding and diving. I started out doing an easy 400 yard freestyle swim x 400 yards kick with fins using either a single wing or a spearfishing torpedo buoy as a kick board x 400 free x 400 kick. I increased the distance to 3200 then I began doing all kinds of stuff from straight swims with and without fins to run - swim - runs and working on lifeguard skills. Swimming would made me dizzy at first from turning the head from side to side. It would last a couple hours but kept improving. At the end of summer, I went on 2 freediving vacations to train. Dutch Springs, a quarry near me that operated as a dive park, was perfect for freediving. They closed. That left me without my diving gym where I'd normally train.

The next summer, I couldn't stand not breathing underwater and started scuba diving again no deeper than 30 feet due to the depth of the Delaware River near me. Vis was unusually great all summer. The water reached 80 F. I returned to the St. Lawrence River in the 1000 Islands to scuba dive where I was bent.

This past summer, I began doing recreational dives deeper than 100 feet and doing repetitive dives. I spent the summer as a beach lifeguard in the 1000 Islands which allowed me to freedive or scuba dive daily. I'm headed back to cave country to return to cave diving and decompression diving before snowmaking season. I don't ski or board. I just make the product during 12-hour night shifts working 84-hour weeks with overtime pay. Humping up and down hills all night is good exercise.

My ex-girlfriend is a pro figure skater and health & fitness is very important to her. She believed I wasn't doing enough to get better and lost her attraction to me when I gained 30 pounds due to inactivity. She moved several states away to help her dad who was also having health issues. The distance killed it because even once I was back in shape, earning a living, and living again it still wasn't enough.

That coin should be my relocation money. My goal is to move to Florida and return to a full-time diving career. Pennsylvania was actually a great place to have a diving career. Dutch was the perfect underwater classroom for teaching and the proximity to New York City meant lots of prospective students. The Great Lakes, 1000 Islands, New England, New Jersey/New York wrecks and North Carolina were all easy drives. Lots of airports meant cheaper flights for dive travel. Now, it's dead. Warehouses are killing the scenery. Time to leave.

As some added comfort for you, I was run over by a car in 1999 on Cayman Brac. It hit me in the base of the spine. The driver told the police he was traveling at 40 - 50 mph when he hit me. It took a year to move from crutches to walking to running. I had some strange nerve sensations, some for years, such as a feeling of numbness of the skin in the pelvic area where boxer shorts would cover. If a doc traced a pen up my leg sensation would decrease or I'd feel it as pain instead of a tickle. The benefit of decreased sensation was longer lasting... well... you get the idea. Anyway, I'm sure your headache and neck discomfort will stop. I forgot I had a headache for a long time after DCS. Maybe a few months?

 

[noserider]

I would try contacting DAN Europe and ask about dive doctors in london

DAN Diving Insurance | DAN Europe

Discover DAN Europe, the first organisation offering diving insurance to provide medical assistance in case of emergencies worldwide.

www.daneurope.org

The ones that are top of my list are:-

About Dr Oli | Hyperdive

Discover Dr Oli's background, training and experience, and why he is regarded as one of the UK's foremost diving doctors.

www.hyperdive.co.uk

London Hyberbric chamber which is part of Barts Hospital / Whipps Cross hospital

LHM London Hyperbaric Chamber – LHM Healthcare

lhmhealthcare.com

There will also be a number of dive specific doctors with lots of relevant experience around Weymouth / Dorchester / Poole due to the intensity of diving on that stretch of cost.

London School of Diving may also be able to recommend dive specific doctors as I believe they used to have a doctor who would regularly visit them when they were in Chiswick

Good Luck

 

[Dsix36]

Hi - thanks for sharing (feel like a broken record but, genuinely, thank you). Great to hear you’re doing better, I hope that it improves further however remote the chance. Hope you don’t mind me asking, who told you about the 6 months? And what kind of therapy did you do? I’m doing a lot of walking, swimming and physio at the moment. Do you have any advice for me in terms of what to do and how to deal with any anxiety (if you had this)?

Thanks

My doctor (who happens to be a diver) and the doctors at DAN both told me that 6 months would be the end of any further improvement. Dan actually told me 3 months but there had been some data showing it longer show they told me 6 to cover theirs butts. This is only in reference to spinal nerve damage caused by my DCS. I can not speak of other issues.

My "home" therapy began while I was still in the emergency room. As soon as I was able to walk good enough to use crutches, I began walking consistently even if that meant moving one leg with my hands. I eventually risked dragging (literally) myself up and down stairs to force me legs to move further. Upon release I was able to walk but not terribly stable and my balance really sucked. I began working on relearning balance by practicing walking in a straight line, walking on a line, standing on one leg, and never giving up. Improvement was slow but it was noticeable. I still practice my balance regularly and do not give up on further improvement but I know this is all dependent upon new nerves learning the process and may never fully recuperate.