Is it painful?

[DI_Guy]

Do a search on the net ( or on ScubaBoard ) for " CONFESSIONS OF A MORTAL DIVER " and " CONFESSIONS OF A MORTAL DIVER II "

That young lad got bent real bad and really suffered. ( and he did it twice ). I don't know how painful it was though. I would never want to go through that.

 

[razor218]

the levels of pain vary on the severity of the bends.i have had dcs.mine is in the shoulder and it is like having a needle slowly pushed into the muscle.the pain is not there all the time.on a scale of 1-10,it would be a 6

 

[mstroeck]

People who have really severe cases of DCS eventually pass out from the pain (passing out happens at 10 on the scale that razor mentioned)... It's slightly offtopic, but I recently had an interesting episode with pain that perhaps demonstrates how incapacitating pain is and why you just don't want to go there. I had minor surgery done on my left middle finger to correct a broken bone that just wouldn't heal. After the surgery I was handed some pills and told to swallow them as the need arose. If that didn't help, they'd give me an injection with some stronger analgesic.

I did just that, but the pills didn't really help, the pain got stronger. Now, I hate injections with a passion, so I decided to be a man about it and just sit it out. After some time the pain started to came in waves. At the "crest" of those waves I could do nothing but gasp for air and concentrate on not crying out loud in pain. (The pain got really intense only for a few seconds at a time, the worst seconds of my life, I could not have held back if it had been any longer).

Now the interesting part: I did not immediately call for the injection, in fact, that only occured to me after almost 20 minutes of that going on. "What's wrong with this guy?", you ask. In hindsight, I was completely caught up in a vicious circle of actual pain and anticipation of pain. Obviously, all my brain could handle was coping with that. When I finally called the nurse, I couldn't explain why it had taken me so long to call for stronger medication.

I only went to about a weak 9 on a scale of 1 to 10, for a few seconds at a time, limited to about my hand up to the wrist. I try not to imagine what the pain must be like when more or less your whole body is affected by DCS, and how completely helpless you must feel... As I said above, you just don't want to go there.

 

[JRScuba]

evidently all the way from 'i'm not really sure if anything's wrong but i feel funny' to screamingly, agonizingly, hideously painful, but i haven't experienced it myself thank goodness.

Hmm, What do you think you could compare it to???????

 

[Diesel298]

it can
i know somone who took a hit in there left sholder, and elbow
driving home after the dive the pain started to set in and by next morning was quite painfull. but not so bad i couldnt work just not effecently. I mean my friend couldnt work..... by the next day the pain was more of a annoying ache, and the next gone

 

[DandyDon]

My first reaction to this thread was How lame? But I read on and changed my mind. Good one! A discussion like this helps remind me why I need to dive safer. I just really hate pain! :11:

Now the interesting part: I did not immediately call for the injection, in fact, that only occured to me after almost 20 minutes of that going on. "What's wrong with this guy?", you ask. In hindsight, I was completely caught up in a vicious circle of actual pain and anticipation of pain. Obviously, all my brain could handle was coping with that. When I finally called the nurse, I couldn't explain why it had taken me so long to call for stronger medication.

I had my gall bladder removed 30 years ago when pain meds were not as good as now. It was a 7 day hospital stay then, not the outpatient it is now. I got caught in that at first, then became really good at requesting more drugs.

 

[AXL72]

A must read regarding some case studies on deompression sickness can be found at:

- "The Last Dive"...a must read!!!!! it goes off on tangents, but they are interesting tangents and well taken case studies of accidents such as DCS.

- http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200508/dave-shaw-1.html ....a much wiser scubaboardian posted this link....I am just re-copying it. This link has an excerpt of DCS, as well as a gutwrenching fingerbiting read through of a tearful dive accident.

As far as pain goes, I think I could handle the pain of DCS....including, in extreme cases, loss of hearing, loss of sight, and paralysis....if AND ONLY IF the sight, hearing, and paralysis were only temporary. However, the case is that some percentage, if not all, hearing damage, sight damage, and paralysis is sometimes permanent. Ugh. Not good.

I guess I am to the point of "who cares how painful it is, let's just work dilegently to avoid situations and actions leading up to it happening to you/me/us."

Just imagine a half hour to an hour and a half wait for USCG...or in foreign countries, possibly a 2 hr wait for a medivac chopper to take you to a recompression chamber. Imagine that there is only room for you on the medivac and not for anyone from the boat who can make sure that your urgent need for a recompression chamber is communicated to all involved in your treatment, and imagine that once at the recompression chamber hospital, possibly hundreds of miles away, you are left alone with a chart at the foot of your gurney. Now imagine passing out, and someone making the mistake of treating you as non emergency, leaving you in the que for several more hours before realizing you needed to be placed in a recompression chamber. Another nightmare would be in a foreign country, not speaking the language, and a hospital staff not given proper breifing on what is needed for your treatment. This is probably a worst case doom and gloom scenario, not actually possible. I just assume leave nothing to chance.

There are several descriptions of how the Nitrogen damages your tissues and nerves, including cut off of oxygen to the muscles and organs. However, I always get this incorrect, god aweful image of nitrogen bubbles expanding between layers of tissues, stripping / shredding the muscular and organ tissue like one would strip pork for making tamales. I know this is incorrect, but that image tends to keep me in check.

 

[JRScuba]

A must read regarding some case studies on deompression sickness can be found at:

- "The Last Dive"...a must read!!!!! it goes off on tangents, but they are interesting tangents and well taken case studies of accidents such as DCS.

- http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200508/dave-shaw-1.html ....a much wiser scubaboardian posted this link....I am just re-copying it. This link has an excerpt of DCS, as well as a gutwrenching fingerbiting read through of a tearful dive accident.

As far as pain goes, I think I could handle the pain of DCS....including, in extreme cases, loss of hearing, loss of sight, and paralysis....if AND ONLY IF the sight, hearing, and paralysis were only temporary. However, the case is that some percentage, if not all, hearing damage, sight damage, and paralysis is sometimes permanent. Ugh. Not good.

I guess I am to the point of "who cares how painful it is, let's just work dilegently to avoid situations and actions leading up to it happening to you/me/us."

Just imagine a half hour to an hour and a half wait for USCG...or in foreign countries, possibly a 2 hr wait for a medivac chopper to take you to a recompression chamber. Imagine that there is only room for you on the medivac and not for anyone from the boat who can make sure that your urgent need for a recompression chamber is communicated to all involved in your treatment, and imagine that once at the recompression chamber hospital, possibly hundreds of miles away, you are left alone with a chart at the foot of your gurney. Now imagine passing out, and someone making the mistake of treating you as non emergency, leaving you in the que for several more hours before realizing you needed to be placed in a recompression chamber. Another nightmare would be in a foreign country, not speaking the language, and a hospital staff not given proper breifing on what is needed for your treatment. This is probably a worst case doom and gloom scenario, not actually possible. I just assume leave nothing to chance.

There are several descriptions of how the Nitrogen damages your tissues and nerves, including cut off of oxygen to the muscles and organs. However, I always get this incorrect, god aweful image of nitrogen bubbles expanding between layers of tissues, stripping / shredding the muscular and organ tissue like one would strip pork for making tamales. I know this is incorrect, but that image tends to keep me in check.

Could you be a little more descriptive???

 

[razor218]

ah yes the wait.an hour for coastguard to turn up.ten mins back to harbour,vomiting and extreme fatigue,4 hour wait in hospital while D.E.S,and doctor to decide what happens,3 hour roadtrip to navel base,2 hours before going into hyperbaric chamber-can handle maybe but the worst -in chamber for 6 1/2 hours minimum at 18 mtrs(55ft approx) at 15 degrees celcius-not able to sleep(up at 7am,in chamber at 10pm)-out of chamber at 5am,hungry,sore,confused,alone,two days in hospital-no diving for 6 weeks,maybe never again then seeing the only person in country at the time,to decide if you can dive again,that is the worst part.
even if you think you are a safe diver it could,and god forbid,happen to you or anyone.all we can do as divers is to be responable and try to be safe

 

[AXL72]

"The Last Dive"........Chapter 7 and 8 describes in detail an accident situation in which the author, Bernie Chowdhury, found himself exposed to and suffering from DCS. Please note that "The Last Dive" is a companion book to "Shadow Divers". Instead of focusing on the men that solved the mystery of the unidentified U-boat, "The Last Dive" focuses on the Rouses, their demise trying to solve the mystery of the U-boat, and details cave, deep, wreck diving, as well as combinations of the three.

- http://outside.away.com/outside/feat...ve-shaw-1.html .....look at page 9 and 10 of the internet story link for DON SHIRLEY's scathe with DCS.

I know these situations can be considered out of the realm of most sport diver DCS accidents, but it points to how real the invisible hazard really is.