Had a disturbing incident yesterday...

[danvolker]

Dan,

I'm trying to send you a PM but it's not going through. Can you PM me an email address?

Best regards,
DDM

dan@sfdj.com

 

[tracydr]

It's great having good friends that want to help Sandra has already offered to hit me in the head, several times if needed.
As to the $200, isn't it amazing how I can't remember anything about this ? Guess you will just have to hang on until I remember it

---------- Post added September 4th, 2013 at 12:22 PM ----------


I would love it if you would mull over the long post I just made to Charpai....with all of the "post concussion chemical aspects" I am bringing up as an alternative to the knee-jerk reaction of automatically assuming this is a chronic condition....and not to forget, there is only small evidence that a concussion occurred.... I experienced no concussion symptoms of any kind after my bike crash... only the crystals getting knocked out of the proper position in the middle ear....Maybe it was a mild concussion, with very mild chemical alterations that exaggerated the effects of a ketosis producing breakfast many hours preceding the dive..and the effects of high aerobic workload at depth, high CO2 levels at depth....low blood sugar for brain fuel....etc.

I did mull over this,Dan. I'm telling you that the explanation you provided doesn't pass the common-sense meter. Not for me, and I did go to medical school AND a career of work as a military doctor, where we learned by experience,about TBI.
There are symptoms of TBI that don't occur immediately. You can feel pretty good after TBI and still have symptoms months/years later.
I've experienced a mild concussion myself, even had about 12 hours of TGA, but my TGA immediately followed the event.
The VA is finding more and more issues related to TBI everyday. Even things like word-finding problems and attention deficit disorders happening sometimes years after the original injury.

 

[danvolker]

I did mull over this,Dan. I'm telling you that the explanation you provided doesn't pass the common-sense meter. Not for me, and I did go to medical school AND a career of work as a military doctor, where we learned by experience,about TBI.
There are symptoms of TBI that don't occur immediately. You can feel pretty good after TBI and still have symptoms months/years later.
I've experienced a mild concussion myself, even had about 12 hours of TGA, but my TGA immediately followed the event.
The VA is finding more and more issues related to TBI everyday. Even things like word-finding problems and attention deficit disorders happening sometimes years after the original injury.

Dr Tracy, thanks for the mulling
So I am inclined to run with this TBI direction.....and a quick Wiki search pulls up this:

• The underlying cause of TGA remains enigmatic. The leading hypotheses are some form of epileptic event, a problem with blood circulation around, to or from the brain, or some kind of migraine-like phenomenon. The differences are sufficiently meaningful that transient amnesia may be considered a heterogeneous clinical syndrome with multiple etiologies, corresponding mechanisms, and differing prognoses.... ...TGA attacks are associated with some form of precipitating event in at least one-third of cases.... in males, it is more often related to some physical exertion. The most commonly cited precipitating events include vigorous exercise , swimming in cold water or enduring other temperature changes, and emotionally traumatic or stressful events...There are reports of TGA-like conditions following certain medical procedures and disease states.

So I was on a 110 foot dive, swimming at the speed of jewfish, probably building very high CO2 levels..( while I don't recall a CO2 headache---the Migraine-like phenomenon is on point with the expectations of exertion on this dive). Water was not cold, but not warm--we had a mild thermocline on the wreck.....and I was probably low blood sugar from way insufficient nutrition that day ( a stress)... Being in the Post concussion state from July 14th, I could still have had some level of stress ( cortisol and increased brain need for sugar fuel in it's recovery phase) ?????

 

[ScubaDad1968]

My wife is an ER nurse and this sounds like a TIA, basically a Mimi stroke. I don't understand why but data shows that people nearing a stroke or heart attack condition should not dive as the pressure &/or stress may initiate it. I know it is not conclusive but after seeing the DAN data and noticing how many heart attacks and strokes happen under water (typically in seniors or overweight ) I would think there is a link also.

 

[danvolker]

After an hour of MRI , which followed 25 minutes of Ct Scan.....my brain is now seen as being as "normal" as it ever was....there was no stroke. The neurologist thinks the Diving caused Transient Global amnesia by triggering the lingering brain effects of a level two concussion....but not directly---he thinks the actual trigger was high CO2 levels from high exertion on the 100 foot dive, and this change in brain chemistry, along with the alteration from the level 2 concussion, triggered the retrograde amnesia. Without the high CO2, there would have been no issue....with no bike crash, the high CO2 should have been irrelevant. We are saying high CO2, but the reality is/was that it was not high enough to cause percived narcotic effect or for it to cause a headache.....I think I can safely say there was no perceived-- or even no experienced narcotic effect of CO2 at depth, because the coordination level and difficulty of the underwater video I was shooting would have shown problems in the scenes, shooting skills, etc, had I been experiencing any significant narcotic effect....But apparently the brain chemistry can become significantly effected by CO2 ( acidity ? Carbonic acid? ) without it causing noticeable motor effects or issues in thinking....and then again, the bar could be just really low here

---------- Post added September 25th, 2013 at 05:13 PM ----------

http://youtu.be/PIaXVw61qJI

What I shot while on the dive in question.....You may not like my camera work, but this is as good as I usually get In other words, I think this shows there was no CO2 Narc going on, beyond a blood chemistry issue that has little cognitive relevance.

 

[ladyfishdvr]

I did not read the entire post but just wanted to say, my husband when younger road raced motorcycles. He had a crash where his head was run over. He had a helmet on but had a concussion and was un conscious for a several hours. 30 years later he had a seizure. Neurologist said yes the prior injury could have caused the seizure. Brain injuries are curious things. I hope you get this sorted out.

 

[lowviz]

Dan, did you ever check the contents of your cylinders? Maybe another contributing factor there...

 

[boulderjohn]

As mentioned in my first post on Transient Global Amnesia, there is a lot of guesswork as to what causes it. My friend did not experience anything that could be identified as even a possible cause. I don't think you should get too hung up in analyzing those factors--they may have absolutely nothing to do with it at all.

 

[chillyinCanada]

We haven't heard from Dan in a bit. Anyone know the latest?

 

[uncfnp]

We haven't heard from Dan in a bit. Anyone know the latest?

Check post #45...