cscartwright69
Registered
- Messages
- 8
- Reaction score
- 0
Has anyone ever heard of hyperventilation as a differential for DCS? Or neuritis (nerve irritation?)
I recently returned from diving in Zanzibar I dived daily from 29th Nov to 4th Dec, all my dives were around 15-18 meters for around 40 minutes, no incidence on any except being quite cold on the last dive. After the last dive on 4th Dec, I had some pain in the right forearm and numbness in the little finger of the right hand.
I did not get it treated as my divemaster was pretty sure it was not DCS due to the conservative dive profiles. He did give me some oxygen on 5th Dec but it did not really help.
I flew home on 8th Dec, and on the flight my left bicep started to hurt and my left little finger went numb as well as my right foot. My right hand remained the same as before little finger a bit numb.
When I got to London, I saw my diving doctor and he said it was mild type 2 DCS and put me into the recompression chamber on 10th Dec (my birthday!) where most of the symptoms resolved at pressure, came back again when we surfaced, then 2 hours later seemed to resolve except for very slight residual numbness in right hand little finger. I was very tired from the chamber treatment and seemed to catch a cold there or on the plane as I kept coughing and sneezing.
On 16th Dec, back at work, the symptoms in my left hand came back with a vengeance little finger completely numb on left hand and slight ache in bicep. My diving doc says that this cannot be decompression sickness coming back as its too far from the original event - but I have read in this forum symptoms do come back and are recompressed until they abate? He thinks it could be a) hyperventilation because of anxiety (I have been very worried about DCS!) or b) residual neuritis in the ulnar nerves.
has anyone come across hyperventilation as a differential for DCS symptoms or neuritis as a differential? More importantly I guess, should I be retreated in the pot or should I now just rest and heal?
any insight at all would be welcome!!
I recently returned from diving in Zanzibar I dived daily from 29th Nov to 4th Dec, all my dives were around 15-18 meters for around 40 minutes, no incidence on any except being quite cold on the last dive. After the last dive on 4th Dec, I had some pain in the right forearm and numbness in the little finger of the right hand.
I did not get it treated as my divemaster was pretty sure it was not DCS due to the conservative dive profiles. He did give me some oxygen on 5th Dec but it did not really help.
I flew home on 8th Dec, and on the flight my left bicep started to hurt and my left little finger went numb as well as my right foot. My right hand remained the same as before little finger a bit numb.
When I got to London, I saw my diving doctor and he said it was mild type 2 DCS and put me into the recompression chamber on 10th Dec (my birthday!) where most of the symptoms resolved at pressure, came back again when we surfaced, then 2 hours later seemed to resolve except for very slight residual numbness in right hand little finger. I was very tired from the chamber treatment and seemed to catch a cold there or on the plane as I kept coughing and sneezing.
On 16th Dec, back at work, the symptoms in my left hand came back with a vengeance little finger completely numb on left hand and slight ache in bicep. My diving doc says that this cannot be decompression sickness coming back as its too far from the original event - but I have read in this forum symptoms do come back and are recompressed until they abate? He thinks it could be a) hyperventilation because of anxiety (I have been very worried about DCS!) or b) residual neuritis in the ulnar nerves.
has anyone come across hyperventilation as a differential for DCS symptoms or neuritis as a differential? More importantly I guess, should I be retreated in the pot or should I now just rest and heal?
any insight at all would be welcome!!
