Freediving DCS?

[DocVikingo]

Hi Bolts,

Regarding blood in the sputum post-dive, the fact is such blood can come from the nose, sinuses, ears, throat, lower pathways to the lung or lungs proper. Moreover, a small amount of blood it is not an unusual occurrence. And, when one experiences barotrauma to the ear the symptoms typically do not include "numbness." At present, it really can't be said with any confidence what resulted in the bloody sputum.

This is educational only and does not constitute or imply a doctor-patient relationship. It is not medical advice with you or any other individual and should not be construed as such.

Regards,

DocVikingo

 

[pescador775]

Bolts, get over it. This kind of stuff happens to divers, especially freedivers. It is not bends, it is an earache.

 

[gangrel441]

I am still inclined to say some kind of barotrauma. Bleeding from the respiratory system is much more indicative of a lung overexpansion than of DCS, and while there is a possibility of getting bent on a freedive, I do not believe it is a possibility to get an overexpansion injury without breathing compressed air at depth.

I would say the ear numbness may be an unusual symptom of an ear barotrauma, or it could be inner ear DCS. Best bet would be to contact DAN and speak with an on-call dive medicine pro, and if necessary, see a hyperbaric doc.

 

[bolts]

Bolts, get over it. This kind of stuff happens to divers, especially freedivers. It is not bends, it is an earache.

Nice bedside manner, I feel all warm and fuzzy now, thanks pescador775. :lol: I figured I should err on the side of caution.

Just an update, I talked to a hyperbaric doctor yesterday and he suggested I try a trial decompression treatment. The treatment went without incident, and it seemed to ease some of the joint stiffness I was experiencing along with the fatigue. The itermittent numbness is still there, in spots. The decompression may have worked, or it may be a placebo effect, I can't say for sure.

We'll see how this goes. Thanks for the tips guys, much appreciated. :14:

 

[DocVikingo]

Hey Bolts,

Like with most medical treatments, you tend to get better results from recompression/HBO when it's applied promptly than well after the appearance of signs and symptoms. Still, better a little late than never and it is good that you received some benefit.

Keep us posted.

Regards,

DocVikingo

 

[Wildcard]

I am still inclined to say some kind of barotrauma. Bleeding from the respiratory system is much more indicative of a lung overexpansion than of DCS, and while there is a possibility of getting bent on a freedive, I do not believe it is a possibility to get an overexpansion injury without breathing compressed air at depth.

I would say the ear numbness may be an unusual symptom of an ear barotrauma, or it could be inner ear DCS. Best bet would be to contact DAN and speak with an on-call dive medicine pro, and if necessary, see a hyperbaric doc.

I can say with 100% certanty that unless he had an UW source of air then an overexpansion injury would be impossable. You just dont come up with more air then you went down with. Given his dive profile, Im still fairy certan that it was not DCS. The question is, what was it then? For that answer, more info would be needed.

 

[TeddyDiver]

I can say with 100% certanty that unless he had an UW source of air then an overexpansion injury would be impossable. You just dont come up with more air then you went down with. Given his dive profile, Im still fairy certan that it was not DCS. The question is, what was it then? For that answer, more info danwould be needed.

In DAN's Alert Diver 1st q 2006 tells about GERD which can cause "overexpansion like" injuries during a dive. The victim in the story was using Scuba, but the it could happen also while freediving....

 

[Wildcard]

Do you have a link?...Unless the lungs are "overexpanded" at the surface, they can not over expand UW while freediving. Id like to hear more about these injuries.

 

[freediver]

Hopefully someone can help me out here...

Saturday I went freediving with a buddy. Did a series of pulldowns on a weighted line to increasing depths, starting at about 10m and ending up at around 25m. The number of dives, I'm estimating were between 5-10 or so, I'm not sure of the exact number. Each time it was a relatively slow pulldown followed by a relatively quick finning ascent (mistake #1, I think).

On my final dive to 85ft, I found some blood in my spit, and called it a day. Shortly thereafter I became fatigued, but chalked it up to the exertion of the dives. Then a few hours afterwards, my right ear became numb. This really freaked me out, as I didn't know what was causing it. It lasted about 10 minutes or so, but I did some poking around on the 'net and discovered that I may have been suffering DCS. I was a little tingly in my extremities intermitently. Plus a knee I've recently injured is a bit stiffer than it was pre-dive...

The next day the symptoms didn't improve too much, so I went to a local hospital with a docompression chamber on site. They did x-rays of my chest (looked ok), and after a few hours concluded that I didn't require recompression in the chamber, their reasoning being since I wasn't scuba diving it wasn't DCS. They scheduled an appointment with chest doctor for next week to check out the suspected barotrauma.

My question is, my symptoms are still mild but persisting after 48 hours. Fatigue wise, I feel better, but the tingles still persist to a degree. What should I do? Frankly, I'm a bit freaked out...

hey bolts, were you "packing" on these dives?

 

[gangrel441]

I can say with 100% certanty that unless he had an UW source of air then an overexpansion injury would be impossable. You just dont come up with more air then you went down with. Given his dive profile, Im still fairy certan that it was not DCS. The question is, what was it then? For that answer, more info would be needed.

I am inclined to agree, but I never say never. I would also be inclined to say that it is impossible to get bent while freediving, but there certainly seems to be documented cases of that, even if not fully understood...