How are you supposed to feel after diving?

[RyanCY]

Right...

So I started diving a few months ago, and I've racked up about 8 dives so far. It's probably my favourite thing ever.

The thing is that whenever I go diving I come home feeling like I've been hit by a bus, usually resulting in me collapsing on my bed for a few hours in the middle of the day. Admittedly on 4 or so of those 8 dives I did not do a safety stop, my buddy and I were very new on our first 2 non cert dives and had certain "buoyancy control issues". Besides, the water ranged in depth between 6 and 12m, and I did try to ascend as slowly as possible.

So on those dives where we didn't do a safety stop I can totally understand feeling very very tired afterwards. My hands usually feel weird too, sometimes my knuckles will ache or my fingers will feel a bit tingly.

Today I did 2 dives, and did a picture perfect 3 minute safety stop at 5 metres on both of them. However, I feel exactly the same as I remember feeling on the other dives.

So I'd like to know if it's normal to feel pretty out of it after a dive, and how everyone else generally feels.

Thanks,
Ryan.

 

[El Orans]

Hey Ryan,

nothing wrong with feeling a bit tired after diving. However, aching knuckles and tingly fingers may indicate DCS. Not a good thing.

A safetystop is always recommended. Be sure to drink lots of water.

I'm sure others will chime in with advice as well. You may also want to have a look at our Diving Medicine forum.

Laurens

 

[SeaYoda]

I would get that aching and tingling checked out by an expert.

The general fatigue thing happened to me on one of my early dives. I have since adjusted two things in my diving and have not had that "I've got to lay down right here" feeling. I hydrate heavily and ascend very slowly. The dive that I did where I felt so tired I did neither of these things.

 

[spectrum]

Feeling "good tired" is not uncommon.

First some stuff that may help out:
* Doing the stop is good but be sure to make the final ascent as slow as you can, really take your time on this part. If it's a shore dive meander into the shallows. This will let you offgas gently and avoid some stress.
* When you do surface take your time, bob in the water or stand in the shallows with your rig carrying the weight. Let your body reacclimate to 1 ATM, let your blood start flowing to support an upright being. If there are swimmers in the water they will come to you and it's fun to share your enthusiasm for diving.
* As gentle and relaxed as we may be diving your body is working against some level of exposure and you are moving through a medium much denser than air. We are doing more work than we percieve. Be gentle to yourself at the end of the dive.
* Be well hydrated at the start of the dive and waste no time downing a bottle of water when you get out. I'm less likely to do this after a cold water drysuit dive because it's less intuitive but I know I need to pay attention to that.
* Having 8 dives under your belt the adrenaline is probably still running high. As you acclimate and relax more it will take less out of you.
* Whether you realize it or not your body is adapting to the sport and with experience you will do things with less stress and your body will develop in certain ways.
* Be well rested going into your dive day.

As for the tingling wrists....
Being a normal occurance I'm not inclined to suggest DCS though a call to DAN can't hurt. However:
* If you have a borderline case of carple tunnel, tendonitis or some other wrist stress injury lugging dive tanks by the valve will put you over the top.
* Does your suit (wet or dry) have tight wrist closures. If it's a wetsuit with very tight wrists storing it for a day or 2 with tennis balls in the tight spot may relieve some tension.

I would not say I feel out of it after a dive, intensly relaxed, content and ready to eat better sums it up.

Feeling drowsy after you wind down can happen. I'd got it more in the beginning than now however just yesterday I came home and crashed, here are some identified conbtributors:
* Not the best week or night for sleep, not excessive but not quite a rested as I wished I had been that morning.
* Diving dry, heavier gear.
* 40F water and 26F surface temperature. you can dress all you want, your body is still working to keep warm.
* 90+ minutes in the water including 77 minutes of bottom time on a long shallow dive.
* I had some hot chocoloate when I got out but I should have downed a bottle of water too.
* Went to eat, ate well, only had another hot chocolate to drink. I should have added a water or at least a big soft drink.
* Got home had desert and a bottle of water and laid down for a while. Downed several more bottles of water as the evening went on, and I WANTED them, there is a lesson there.

Pay attention to your body, keep diving, take your time and it will be less of a drain.

Pete

 

[eponym]

Ryan,

What are the water temps where you dive, and what sort of suit do you wear? From your photo, it looks like you don't carry a lot of insulation of your own.

Oh, and are you diving in current or otherwise exerting yourself?

10m is too shallow for DCS to be the likeliest suspect.

Bryan

 

[Phil TK]

I would disregard all the 'advice' and go and see a doctor who is au fait with diving problems or speak to a hyperbaric technician.
A guy I sit next to at work was a technician for many years and he has always maintained that any medical concerns after diving should not be dealt with on scuba forums no matter how well meaning the replies, it purpotrates myths and the advice is not vetted.
You'll find that all doctors and technicians would warn you against any advice you read on the forum.
Phil TK

 

[pj5]

You may need an exposure suit or more exposure protection than you are using...on my last dive trip I snorkeled without a wetsuit on the last day (dove with one the rest of the trip), and even though the water felt nice and refreshing, I ended up more exhausted on that day then I did the first day.

Don't take steaming hot showers or work out/heavily exert yourself after diving.

Drink plenty of water. If you're feeling really parched, drink 1 small Gatorade and then plenty of water.

Get plenty of sleep the night before diving.

Eat a little bit of something between dives: a few small pieces of fruit, handful of nuts, energy bar...whatever you normally eat for a pick-me-up.

 

[TSandM]

When I started diving, I was wiped out afterwards. I can remember a day when we did three AOW dives at our local underwater park, where the max depth you can achieve without a shovel is about 35 feet. I felt like I had been run over by a truck. All I wanted to do when I got home was sleep.

I think it's a combination of things for a new diver. Lugging the gear around is tiring -- it's HEAVY. Surface swims, when required, are tiring. Being underwater is STRESSFUL at the beginning -- you're trying to think about so many things at once, and at least for me, there was some purely physical floundering around, too. And, especially in the beginning, if your trim is off you are doing a lot of swimming, which keeps you warmer but uses energy.

As far as the tingling goes, in no way am I going to tell you it's all right -- but with max depths around 12m, unless you are staying in the water an awfully long time, you aren't getting much nitrogen loading. On the other hand, you have a lot of weight hanging from your shoulders, and you are using your wrists in unaccustomed ways -- and for me, I found out that the webbing of my harness was cutting into the inside of my upper arm right where the median nerve runs, which was giving me some very localized numbness in my hand after diving (I'm a doctor, so I could figure this out.) There have been a couple of people who have posted on this board that they were initially thought to have DCS and it turned out to be disc disease in the neck. So symptoms can have many causes, and that's why it's worth getting them checked out.

The good news is that, as you get more relaxed and comfortable, and more skilled in the water, you get out less tired. I did four dives in one day (although one of them was very short) in Maui, and felt great afterwards.

 

[Bruciebabe]

Depth has a log scale effect on your decompression. From 30 (approx 100 feet) metres going up a metre is nothing, from 2 metres it is a lot. So make your final ascent as slow as you can. Some say 6 minutes for the last 6 metres (approx 20 feet) plus your safety stop. Definitely the last 3 metres (10 feet) need to be done very very slowly.
Reading your post you seem to be bobbing up and down, this is bad. You should never go down once you have started going up. Basically your body is fizzing micro bubbles which get trapped by the lungs and off gassed. If you descend again these bubbles get squashed and bypass the lungs, they then get to the arterial side and are distributed all round your body which makes you feel bad.
Work at getting your buoyancy spot on and controlling your ascent so you are only going one way (up) and are doing it at a speed that you control.
Also it is well worth getting certified for and using nitrox, this will reduce the amount of nitrogen in your body. I feel much better using this, especially on multiple dives on the same day.

Stick at it, as you get more experienced and more relaxed everything will become easier, you will enjoy your diving more and feel better afterwards.

 

[*Floater*]

Feeling tired after a lot of diving is not uncommon, but some people claim they don't experience that when using nitrox mixes such as EAN32 and EAN36. (Obvious EAN22 wouldn't help much at all). Some people also claim that tiredness is a symptom of very mild DCS and means you should do slower ascents and longer safety stops.