Incident (?) and questions

[ianr33]

What he calls the Hidden Safety Stop: relaxing on the surface for a full minute before any movements to approach and board the boat.

Thats a good idea but I'm not sure a minute is going to do much good.

After a big dive I try not to exert myself for at least 30 minutes. Obviously thats not possible on a boat dive but for shore/cave dives I'll leave my gear at/in the water for some time.
The last thing you want to do if teetering on the edge of DCS is haul steel tanks uphill!

 

[ggunn]

I don't have a problem with an experienced diver going into a little deco . . . but this story illustrates why doing it when you didn't plan to is a bad idea. The problem with deco isn't deco . . . you can always do the time, if you have the gas. If you didn't plan the dive, you may not have the gas, as it sounds like was the case here.

I don't know if your pain was DCS or not. I do know that I have had some really bad shoulder and neck pain after dives, that lasted about the length of the drive home (an hour) or a little more, and I have always assumed that's just the stress of hiking around with my body's weight worth of gear hung from my shoulders. But decompression stress IS cumulative, and the dives of the day before do pertain to the dives of the day of symptoms.

I don't know what your answer is, but next time, especially if the pain is spreading and getting worse, I'd probably make a phone call at the very least.

I am aware that the diving the day before could have made a contribution to the situation; that's why I included that info in my initial post. I would have made the DAN call had the pain not subsided on its own, and if there is a next time I will likely make the call anyway.

 

[openmindOW]

We should not harshly crticize people who post on this Board.

That only discourages others from posting honestly about mistakes they have made.