kaylee_ann
crazy diver
hey, i don't know if it belongs here but figured i'd tell this story to warn other divers not to just brush off weird symptoms after a dive. i'll get a ton of crap for it, but i already have so it's nothing new.
around the end of July, i did a 13 foot dive for 21 minutes. probably the most benign dive ever. no extreme exertion, it wasn't cold. you really can't mess that one up, or so i thought. well, dive buddy and i got back to the shore, took our fins off and put them on the little raft/buoy. bent down a little to help pick it up and my legs gave out. laughed, got back up, and couldn't lift that stupid buoy. i dropped it twice and just went back to the bench. balance problems and leg/arm weakness didn't change when taking off the gear and wetsuit. could barely get into the truck later that day, i thought it was funny...yeah no. i had brain fog and didn't have an interest in anything. attributed all of this to being tired/dehydrated. it didn't go away, and that night going to bed i felt pretty shaky. for some reason it was hard to pee. again, figured i was just super tired.
no i didn't tell anyone. yeah it's stupid but alarm bells weren't going to go off in my head after 13 feet. that's also stupid.
next morning i was kind of stumbling around and my friend asked if i was ok. i said yeah. went to another friend's house then drove home, where i felt decently better. a few online friends ripped me a couple new ones for not calling DAN after i told them about it.
leg weakness lasted a few days, arm weakness and balance never went back to normal. it was highly recommended to me that i see a dive physician. okay, cool, so i made the trip out to Philadelphia on Thursday. i told them what all happened, and the doctor asked how important diving was to me. yeah, that's not something you really wanna hear at the doctor's office. they did a few basic neurological tests, where i bombed the balance ones. and they did tests where they had this thing with a sharp end and dull end. on my hands i couldn't really tell the difference. it was like if you pressed a butter knife into your hand- sharp and dull. anyway, since it's been like a month, they don't know if my balance and all that will go back to normal.
the reason i have residual effects is-you guessed it-i never got treatment. if i had, i wouldn't have these problems, and may have been able to dive again. i won't ever dive again though. it was a gas embolism, we think, and there wasn't any big reason for it to happen. so i can't prevent it from happening again, as we don't know why. it's possible there's blebs in my lungs (will get a CT scan) and that's basically a no-no for diving.
i never called anyone because i didn't want to bother anyone, sound stupid, or waste their time. it cost me a future life of diving. so please if you're feeling off and it doesn't go away or it sounds serious, let someone know. there was a feeling in the pit of my stomach the whole time but i ignored it. please don't ignore it. my balance used to be perfect (was in gymnastics before) and now i stumble around and fall into my door getting up in the morning. if i swallowed my pride, everything would've been fine. i'm 20 years old, in good health and decent shape. didn't think anything would happen to me, well now i may have permanent nerve damage and can't dive again.
basically, don't do what i did and please get help if something's wrong. you could even just call the DAN non-emergent line (but you should call the emergency one) if you're really nervous about potentially bothering someone (you're not).
around the end of July, i did a 13 foot dive for 21 minutes. probably the most benign dive ever. no extreme exertion, it wasn't cold. you really can't mess that one up, or so i thought. well, dive buddy and i got back to the shore, took our fins off and put them on the little raft/buoy. bent down a little to help pick it up and my legs gave out. laughed, got back up, and couldn't lift that stupid buoy. i dropped it twice and just went back to the bench. balance problems and leg/arm weakness didn't change when taking off the gear and wetsuit. could barely get into the truck later that day, i thought it was funny...yeah no. i had brain fog and didn't have an interest in anything. attributed all of this to being tired/dehydrated. it didn't go away, and that night going to bed i felt pretty shaky. for some reason it was hard to pee. again, figured i was just super tired.
no i didn't tell anyone. yeah it's stupid but alarm bells weren't going to go off in my head after 13 feet. that's also stupid.
next morning i was kind of stumbling around and my friend asked if i was ok. i said yeah. went to another friend's house then drove home, where i felt decently better. a few online friends ripped me a couple new ones for not calling DAN after i told them about it.
leg weakness lasted a few days, arm weakness and balance never went back to normal. it was highly recommended to me that i see a dive physician. okay, cool, so i made the trip out to Philadelphia on Thursday. i told them what all happened, and the doctor asked how important diving was to me. yeah, that's not something you really wanna hear at the doctor's office. they did a few basic neurological tests, where i bombed the balance ones. and they did tests where they had this thing with a sharp end and dull end. on my hands i couldn't really tell the difference. it was like if you pressed a butter knife into your hand- sharp and dull. anyway, since it's been like a month, they don't know if my balance and all that will go back to normal.
the reason i have residual effects is-you guessed it-i never got treatment. if i had, i wouldn't have these problems, and may have been able to dive again. i won't ever dive again though. it was a gas embolism, we think, and there wasn't any big reason for it to happen. so i can't prevent it from happening again, as we don't know why. it's possible there's blebs in my lungs (will get a CT scan) and that's basically a no-no for diving.
i never called anyone because i didn't want to bother anyone, sound stupid, or waste their time. it cost me a future life of diving. so please if you're feeling off and it doesn't go away or it sounds serious, let someone know. there was a feeling in the pit of my stomach the whole time but i ignored it. please don't ignore it. my balance used to be perfect (was in gymnastics before) and now i stumble around and fall into my door getting up in the morning. if i swallowed my pride, everything would've been fine. i'm 20 years old, in good health and decent shape. didn't think anything would happen to me, well now i may have permanent nerve damage and can't dive again.
basically, don't do what i did and please get help if something's wrong. you could even just call the DAN non-emergent line (but you should call the emergency one) if you're really nervous about potentially bothering someone (you're not).
