if you're sick after a dive, take it seriously

[kaylee_ann]

Sorry to hear this @kaylee_ann , is it nerve damage?

Yeah

 

[inquis]

That is truly awful news! When one door closes, though, another usually opens. Keep your spirits up, I'm sure you will find it.

 

[kaylee_ann]

That is truly awful news! When one door closes, though, another usually opens. Keep your spirits up, I'm sure you will find it.

thanks, now I’m really just focusing on my education. thankfully I don’t have to be able to dive to be a dive medicine researcher

 

[Altamira]

I am so sorry that this has happened to you, and thank you for sharing your story. It is a very good reminder for divers of all ages and experience levels that shallow water diving can be as, or more, dangerous than much deeper dives. No doubt it is easy to inadvertently forget to exhale if ascending even 5-6 feet, especially in shallow water. I certainly am not inferring that is what happened to you, but since I do volunteer shallow diving at Spring Lake in San Marcos, TX, your injury was a good reminder for me to continue being very careful in that diving environment.

 

[johndiver999]

Sorry to hear about your accident. I wonder if treatment would have made much of a difference; I imagine neurological impacts were pretty fast and there might not have been a whole lot that could have been done, once you sustained the injury?

Is there a reason why you can not freedive - to moderate depths? "diving" isn't just blowing bubbles.

 

[kaylee_ann]

I am so sorry that this has happened to you, and thank you for sharing your story. It is a very good reminder for divers of all ages and experience levels that shallow water diving can be as, or more, dangerous than much deeper dives. No doubt it is easy to inadvertently forget to exhale if ascending even 5-6 feet, especially in shallow water. I certainly am not inferring that is what happened to you, but since I do volunteer shallow diving at Spring Lake in San Marcos, TX, your injury was a good reminder for me to continue being very careful in that diving environment.

aw, yay, that's the whole reason for me posting it
honestly it feels like if something happens, it's all my fault. there's a huge thing among some divers where if you get bent, have a gas embolism, or something else, then it was always because the diver did something wrong. "oh if you didn't do x, you would've been fine." "you should've done y and z, that way it wouldn't have happened." doesn't really make people inclined to seek care. and with people having told me before the dive that i would be fine because it was shallow...yeah.

 

[Catito]

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).

Oh. So sorry. Unbelieveable. I may have acted the same way. I mean, 13ft…

Good luck to you. Sorry.

 

[kaylee_ann]

Sorry to hear about your accident. I wonder if treatment would have made much of a difference; I imagine neurological impacts were pretty fast and there might not have been a whole lot that could have been done, once you sustained the injury?

Is there a reason why you can not freedive - to moderate depths? "diving" isn't just blowing bubbles.

yeah- basically from what i've gathered, if i had treatment quickly it would've consisted of a chamber ride. so i think what happens is if the bubble(s) stay in your body, it causes an inflammatory response in that area. left to go too long, it'll cause long term or permanent damage.
i hadn't asked about freediving, but i suck at holding my breath for long periods of time LOL

 

[kaylee_ann]

Oh. So sorry. Unbelieveable. I may have acted the same way. I mean, 13ft…

Good luck to you. Sorry.

thanks. right, it's hard to think bad stuff could happen so shallow

 

[Altamira]

aw, yay, that's the whole reason for me posting it
honestly it feels like if something happens, it's all my fault. there's a huge thing among some divers where if you get bent, have a gas embolism, or something else, then it was always because the diver did something wrong. "oh if you didn't do x, you would've been fine." "you should've done y and z, that way it wouldn't have happened." doesn't really make people inclined to seek care. and with people having told me before the dive that i would be fine because it was shallow...yeah.

Don't beat yourself up. Every diver and dive is different. Sometime you can get away with something on one dive, and the next dive you get bit in the butt doing the same thing. Also, some divers can get away with a lot more deviance than others, and there usually is not a good explanation as to why that is. Good luck to you in your future endeavors.