Do I have DCS?

[rebecca1995]

Hi! I’m relatively new to diving and I’m not sure if I should be panicking or if I’m being paranoid.

I did a dive on Saturday to 17m. We started to do a safety stop but I had an issue with my drysuit where the legs inflated, pushing my fins off and pulling me upwards. My buddy and the DM leading the dive held me down to complete the safety stop. I struggled a little and did several turns in the water, spending quite a bit of time upside down. I felt dizzy when I came out of the water and I assumed this was because I’d been turned about a lot and been upside down. The dizziness was periodic through the day and came and went. I felt slightly dizzy again on the Sunday, Monday and a little bit today. All I can describe it is like being a bit like travel sickness, but not to the point of actually being sick. But it’s also been my birthday weekend so I’ve been eating rubbish and drinking so I didn’t know if it could be partly down to that?

I don’t know if this could be down to DCS, being thrown about in the water and upside down or just from being tired. Will this feeling go away or do I need to go to hospital?

Thanks in advance!

 

[boulderjohn]

You can always go to a qualified diving doctor or contact an organization like DAN to be sure, but the odds are pretty much against your having DCS. DCS is extremely rare. According to the PADI tables, if you had stayed at your maximum depth for the entire dive, you could have stayed there for 55 minutes and still ascend without a safety stop. As extraordinary as it may have been in its form, you did a safety stop. Your symptoms are not strongly suggestive of DCS, and if you did have DCS to the degree that you needed hospitalization, you would have known that without needing to ask days ago.

Your symptoms could come from a variety of causes, as you yourself suggest. As I said in the first sentence, you can contact an organization like DAN if you want to be sure, but DCS is extremely unlikely.

 

[rebecca1995]

You can always go to a qualified diving doctor or contact an organization like DAN to be sure, but the odds are pretty much against your having DCS. DCS is extremely rare. According to the PADI tables, if you had stayed at your maximum depth for the entire dive, you could have stayed there for 55 minutes and still ascend without a safety stop. As extraordinary as it may have been in its form, you did a safety stop. Your symptoms are not strongly suggestive of DCS, and if you did have DCS to the degree that you needed hospitalization, you would have known that without needing to ask days ago.

Your symptoms could come from a variety of causes, as you yourself suggest. As I said in the first sentence, you can contact an organization like DAN if you want to be sure, but DCS is extremely unlikely.

Thanks, I thought so. But being a relatively new diver, I thought it was better to just check!