Decompression sickness

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I have not been bent but the most common symptom I have seen treated were joint pains, especially knees. Many of these joints had previous injuries. Most were deep air and surface-supplied HeO2.
It be Interesting to have a first hand account of the pain/feeling
 
From everything I have heard from cases, the symptoms are so varied it could be almost anything.
Indeed, the symptoms can be incredibly variable. For me, it was a noticeable pain that started deep within my left shoulder joint. The pain increased over the next several hours and radiated through my arm to my elbow. The pain never became unbearable, but it definitely hurt and was extremely stable (i.e. after several hours it didn't get worse, but by the next morning, it felt the same as the first few hours after it started).
 
Indeed, the symptoms can be incredibly variable. For me, it was a noticeable pain that started deep within my left shoulder joint. The pain increased over the next several hours and radiated through my arm to my elbow. The pain never became unbearable, but it definitely hurt and was extremely stable (i.e. after several hours it didn't get worse, but by the next morning, it felt the same as the first few hours after it started).
Can you describe it? Like burning or stabbing or….
 
Nothing specific, not burning, stabbing, it just hurt, deep within the joint.
 
That was my experience with a shoulder hit. Very deep in the joint pain, like "how the heck can it hurt in THERE?" Like I said, unusual sensation is one of the best diagnostic tools. My hit was from doing stupid repetitive work with that joint on a deep commercial dive.
 
Skin bends felt like sunburned skin itch.

Middle ear barotrauma had no pain but immediate nausea and vertigo which was horrible for 3 days, was unable to walk well for weeks and took years to completely resolve.

I've had joint and muscle pain but due to the amount of work being done spearfishing it hard to say if it was actual DCS.
 
I felt a kind of general woozy, fogginess, like I was getting the flu.
This is something I keep leaving out. At one point during the summer, I had a severe attack of vertigo one night while on the computer. I cannot remember my dive profiles in the vicinity of that attack and cannot look them up because my Shearwater won't turn on for the third time, and the log of my dives is in there.

The attack lasted several minutes then I felt ever-so-slightly "off" in the balance centers for the rest of the summer and autumn. I felt like I was going to get the flu which never came. One of my doctors thought it might be BPPV (benign paroxysmal positioning vertigo) because we graduated together, it tends to appear in adults as they age, and she just had been diagnosed herself. She said her balance just felt off and she was seeing improved results with self-help treatment using head movements because her otolaryngologist had only provided mild relief in the office.

I taught from early August to October feeling flu-like in the head hoping the feeling would go away. I taught advanced wreck penetration and advanced trimix, and sometimes I seemed to feel a little better underwater when deep but didn't think much of it. DCS never occurred to me because I had experienced lots of illnesses and injuries normal people get in topside life over the years while keeping a full-time instructor dive style. The vertigo attack hit me well after diving. Nothing major felt wrong. Example: No numbness, paralysis, or pain.

Then, one day... BAM! No denying it. Bent.

It could be I had another medical issue (BPPV was ruled out after DCS by an otolaryngologist and ENT), or it could be that I had taken a hit mid-summer too.
 
Indeed, the symptoms can be incredibly variable. For me, it was a noticeable pain that started deep within my left shoulder joint. The pain increased over the next several hours and radiated through my arm to my elbow. The pain never became unbearable, but it definitely hurt and was extremely stable (i.e. after several hours it didn't get worse, but by the next morning, it felt the same as the first few hours after it started).
Hi @RyanT
Interesting that you and a couple of the other guys describe the pain as ‘deep’ in your shoulder joint. Maybe I just haven’t noticed before, but I’ve only previously heard people refer their joint pain in more generic terms.

I’ve fortunately not experienced a true hit before, but that’s not to say I haven’t had the occasional ache and pain usually associated with lugging heavy gear post dive. I might just keep an eye open next time and try to analyse the sensation.
 
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