Muscle Spasms from Diving

[ascully88]

Hi all,

I've done both my pool sessions to get certified but after each I had bad chest pain. The first session I asked what it might be on this board ( http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/accidents-incidents/432534-pool-session-incident.html ) . My first session went bad as you might have read and I went to the er and they said it was most likely muscle pain as nothing was wrong with my heart/lungs.
My second session went very well. I did great but I started to feel some pain while I was underwater. The chest pain is centered around my sternum and lasts a few weeks (getting less painful as the weeks go by but still there). I went to my regular physcian and she said it was most likely bad muscle spasms. She gave me some ibuprofen and muscle relaxants and I started feeling better right away.
Has anyone heard of this happening? I really need to get scuba certified for a job but I'm scared everytime I go in I'm going to be in pain for weeks. My doctor said it might have been from nerves since I was so nervous and I might have been too tense along with the strain of carrying the gear.

Thanks!

 

[DivemasterDennis]

This is new to me, and the intensity and duration of pain are significant. The suggestion of anxiety as a contributor sounds plausible, but qualifiers like "most likely" and "might have been" are not very comforting. I suggest you contact DAN as they will be knowledgeable and also interested in your experience. I also think you should not dive again, even in the pool, until you have a more definitive diagnosis and treatment or prevention plan. As a side issue, you should review the type of gear worn and how it fits you. There may be contributing factor there.
DivemasterDennis

 

[Beyond_Diving]

I agree with Dennis. Call DAN and explain your symptoms. Stay out of the water until you have a diagnosis.

 

[fjpatrum]

My first few dives, especially wearing a jacket-style BC, my chest hurt like hell from constriction. It didn't last for weeks but certainly for a day or two after my ribs were sore. I didn't have any issues in a pool but in cold water with a lot of neoprene I was just "crushed" too much and my lungs/chest muscles were working really hard to expand against that much extra constriction.

I could see nervousness adding to the issue if you're not breathing "normally" and you're skip breathing or taking extra shallow or extra deep breaths. I agree with others though, call DAN and find out what they say. After that, consider trying a back-inflate BC or a BP/W and see if that helps. It made a world of difference for me.

 

[Quero]

From your previous thread it's clear that you have already been to the ER, have talked with DAN, and now have been to your GP for help. This is, according to all these experts, almost certainly not a barotrauma injury but rather a physical reaction with some other cause.

I think we need to know more about
• Your psychology--You say that your motivation for learning to dive is external, required for a job. If it weren't for this job pressure, how would you feel about scuba diving? Do you enjoy water sports? Have you suffered any psychological trauma in relation to water/swimming? Could your anxiety levels be so high that you spend the entire time in the water with your muscles all tensed up so that they can enter into spasm that takes weeks to recover from?
• Your fitness level--Are you generally fit? Do you have a bad back or history of a back injury that might make your muscles lock up under the weight of scuba gear? How much time are you spending supporting the weight of the equipment on your upper body? Are you fit enough for the work your upper body is doing?
• Your equipment--what are you wearing in the water? Does it fit or is it too tight or too loose? Are you tightening it too much so that you will feel secure? Is it so loose that you are constantly fighting against it sliding across your shoulders?

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Did you ever get worked up by a diving physician after your first incident as was recommended in the thread you linked? Also, when you said you felt the pain under water on your second dive, where exactly were you on the dive? Were you ascending, on the bottom, descending? How long after your first dive did you make the second dive?

Best regards,
DDM

 

[ascully88]

Sorry this is so late,, hopefully some of you are still on here.
I'm pretty comfortable in water but I was very nervous about the whole prospect of diving. I was worried about the bends. I didn't realize how difficult it was going to be for me to breath underwater so I was breathing really hard. I was somewhat fit but I didn't use the same muscles I do in scuba. I noticed that the pain happened after I finished scuba diving once while I was driving home and the second time while the instructor and I stopped for few minutes to talk in the pool.
I'm better now. The pain has gone away . I noticed that when I was doing something physical the pain would go away (back when it was fairly constant) or perhaps it was me keeping my mind busy. Sometimes when I think about it I feel the pain again. I do have anxiety but I feel like that couldn't be the sole problem as the muscle relaxants helped but my anxiety medication did not. It was helped a lot when I took muscle relaxants. It took a month or so to go away.
If anyone has anymore opinions on this please let me know. Thanks for all your responses as well.

 

[WhiteSands]

I was having the same pains after prolonged pool sessions and don't laugh...i realized it was caused by a too tight chest strap.

I had adjusted the strap while wearing only a t-shirt. With my wetsuit on it was too tight. When I breathed my chest could not expand properly which resulted in the pain.

 

[WB2GLP]

Hi Alyssa,

Did you complete your open water cert?

 

[ascully88]

No I did not. I completed my 2 pool training sessions only.