Had a not so fun experience, any ideas?

[johndiver999]

The unequal pressure causes the problems, if the mechanism is associated with the crystals, I really don’t know, but the fact that equalization of the pressure results in almost immediate relief of symptoms, makes me guess that it is not the crystals.

I too woke up with vertigo and had to slam my head repeatedly into the couch sideways before the symptoms ameliorated. I suffered for hours before being made aware of the home remedy

 

[AfterDark]

The unequal pressure causes the problems, if the mechanism is associated with the crystals, I really don’t know, but the fact that equalization of the pressure results in almost immediate relief of symptoms, makes me guess that it is not the crystals.

I too woke up with vertigo and had to slam my head repeatedly into the couch sideways before the symptoms ameliorated. I suffered for hours before being made aware of the home remedy

There are specific exercises for that condition that don't involve slamming one's head against anything.

 

[johndiver999]

Now you tell me.

 

[Princess Chris]

So as it turns out I suffered from a panic attack proabably triggered by a little narcosis which im not going to lie is not the easiest thing to admit. I'm a confident diver and I've never had any issues with anxiety even in highly stressful diving situations which is why I was so confused as to what the hell happened to me.

Luckily i still acted rationally but I have learnt from my experience and now I know how to deal with it should it happen again. So sometimes it's not always a physical cause soemtimes it's just your mind betraying you. It can happen to anyone, even if you don't think it will, I know I certainly didn't.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Fair enough, but what or who convinced you that what you experienced was a panic attack vs some physical reaction?

 

[Princess Chris]

My old boss, a retired gp. The man knows his stuff when it comes to diving issues.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Ok so I had a rather unnerving experience acouple of weeks ago during a dive and for the life of me I cannot figure out what the cause of it was.
So I was diving a wreck (no penetration) at 40m, the plan was to descend down a mooring line on to the wreck spend a few minutes having a look then head up a slope to a shallow reef and finish off the dive there. I got a little distracted by a lion fish trying to eat a baby octo (who wouldn't?) and ended up going into deco. My computor beeped at me so I started my ascent in a calm and controlled manner and followed my comp instructions. This is when things got a bit screwy. At about 27m I had a strong feeling that I was going to lose consciousness. I managed to fight this off, signal to my buddy that I had a problem and pointed to my head. This continued for about 1/1.30 minutes. I maintained a safe ascent rate and made sure my buddy was right next to me. At about 20m I felt ok again just very confused.

This is not a new dive to me, I have done it several times with exactly the same profile. I wasn't in sick, tired, hungover or unfit. There is just one variable that I can't seem to figure out. Only thing different is that I went a little deeper than planned but still doesnt explain what happened.

If anyone could shed some light on the cause of the light headness then please let me know.
Thanks
View attachment 531976

I am going to go a different route than others here, and ask whether you had any other symptoms such as hearing difficulty, ringing in the ears, aside from the nausia. The reason: this may have been a manifestation of decompression sickness affecting your inner ear only. I found one reference to this from 1990:

Aviat Space Environ Med. 1990 Jun;61(6):563-6.
Inner ear decompression sickness following a shallow scuba dive.
Reissman P1, Shupak A, Nachum Z, Melamed Y.
Author information
Abstract


Inner Ear Decompression Sickness (IEDCS)--manifested by tinnitus, vertigo, nausea, vomiting, and hearing loss--is usually associated with deep air or mixed gas dives, and accompanied by other CNS symptoms of decompression sickness (DCS). Early recompression treatment is required in order to avoid permanent inner ear damage. We present an unusual case of a scuba diver suffering from IEDCS as the only manifestation of DCS following a short shallow scuba dive, successfully treated by U.S. Navy treatment table 6 and tranquilizers. This case suggests that diving medical personnel should be more aware of the possible occurrence of IEDCS among the wide population of sport scuba divers.

PMID:
2369397https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2369397

The reason I say this is that your ascent, noted in the red area of your profile above, is red, and seems to show a faster ascent than recommended. Here is another study which shows that the inner ear has a greater propensity to developing decompression sickness than other tissues.
[quote
Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 2019 Jan;259:119-121. doi: 10.1016/j.resp.2018.08.010. Epub 2018 Aug 30.
Taravana, vestibular decompression illness, and autochthonous distal arterial bubbles.
Arieli R1.
Author information
Abstract


Decompression bubbles can develop only from pre-existing gas micronuclei. These are the nanobubbles which appear on active hydrophobic spots (AHS) found on the luminal aspect of all blood vessels. Following decompression, with the propagation of blood along the arterial tree, diffusion parameters cause increased transfer of nitrogen from the tissue into the artery, and more so if perfusion is low. Taravana is a neurological form of decompression illness (DCI) prevalent in repeated breath-hold diving. A nanobubble on an AHS in a distal artery of the brain may receive an influx of nitrogen after each dive until it occludes the arterial blood flow. The vestibular organ has very low perfusion compared with the brain and the cochlea of the inner ear. We suggest that a nanobbubble on an AHS in the distal artery of the vestibular organ will receive a high influx of nitrogen from the surrounding tissue after decompression due to the low nitrogen clearance, thus expanding to cause vestibular DCI.

Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

KEYWORDS:
Active hydrophobic spot; Breath-hold dive; Hypoperfusion; Isobaric counterdiffusion; Neurologic disorder; Risk

PMID:

30172778

DOI:

10.1016/j.resp.2018.08.010
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30172778[/quote]
'Just a thought.
SeaRat

 

[2airishuman]

Hello Chris

I think on the whole this thread has contained a great deal of speculation. And I think your GP is engaging in some speculation, albeit well-informed speculation.

Most people experience some narcosis at the depths you were diving although narcosis ordinarily abates quickly upon ascent. It would be very unusual for you to have started experiencing DCS symptoms while still at depth, given the profile you dove.

Beyond that it is hard to say. Vertigo, CO in the cylinder, panic attack, CO2 retention, narcosis, who knows.

 

[Princess Chris]

The reason I say this is that your ascent, noted in the red area of your profile above, is red, and seems to show a faster ascent than recommended. Here is another study which shows that the inner ear has a greater propensity to developing decompression sickness than other tissues.SeaRat

No the red isn't my ascent rate it is becasue I had gone into deco, diverlog for aqualung isn't exactly the clearest. My quickest ascent rate was 4.5m per minute.

Hello Chris

Beyond that it is hard to say. Vertigo, CO in the cylinder, panic attack, CO2 retention, narcosis, who knows.

unfortunately yes, without any physical symptoms you are correct, it could be anything.