My DCS Incident...

[shadragon]

Shadragon, glad to hear you're okay and glad to read your account of what happened.
It sounds like you were treated properly although the delays (not being critical now) and
the mottling would've scared me more probably.

How can I get a copy of your DC jpg?

And BTW, I've never seen "mottling" although I had an idea of what it was.
Here's a link with some pics:

http://health.allrefer.com/health/skin-color-patchy-info.html

Best regards,

RJK75

I uploaded a copy to my picture gallery along with some U/W shots of mine taken on various trips. Not very good I am afraid. I take 100 pics to get one good one. Backscatter is my friend... hahaha

 

[Kendall Raine]

Kendall,

Interesting abstract about elevated CK and DCS. Although an elevated CK is not specific, it would be kinda cool if the folks at DAN attempted a prospective study to look at this some more. You'd have to be at a major hyperbaric center with alot of patients with DCS to do it, but I assume they see as much of it at Duke as anyone else.

Spady

I don't know how many DAN sees at Duke. My guess is they don't see as many as some really active dive resorts-Cozumel, Hawaii, Keys or Oz but don't have that info. Research studies not intentionally bending people (ethics issues) and even if they did would not target AGE. I know Catalina sees 5 to 8 cases per year on average, so not a statistically robust sampling. I also don't know if CK levels are looked at. Most cases (pain only or lower order neuro) are clearly not AGE so efficacy of CK test as standard protocol in question. Believe AGE constitute about 5-10% of DCS cases on average so combination of case number and site dispersion makes this a tough one to gather data on unless the test is administered around the world.

 

[Kendall Raine]

I uploaded a copy to my picture gallery along with some U/W shots of mine taken on various trips. Not very good I am afraid. I take 100 pics to get one good one. Backscatter is my friend... hahaha

If the graph is your dive profile from the incident your time weighted average depth is about 50 ft. for TRT of 31 minutes. I see you also did a safety stop plus a 10 ft per minute ascent from 20. Very benign profile. You clearly had a "bad day."

 

[rjk75]

Shadragon,

So it's been about 9 months since your DCS incident. That was
a very conservative profile, and you've had no ill-effects in the
weeks or months following. However, what I'm curious about is,
to what degree or level of DCS did you experience according
to the Table 1 criteria in the following Wikipedia page?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompression_sickness

Your DCS has me worried because I'm over 50, in reasonbly good
shape (but about 10 lbs overweight), don't smoke or drink, take
good care of myself, exersize pretty regularly, and dive very conservative
profiles; (i.e., 40 ft depths in warm water on one 80-tank, 35- or
40-minutes). According to PADI dive tables, I am way below any
DCS limits. I have an PADI AOW cert. done in 1990 and dive primarily
in fresh water nearby (L. Erie or a local shallow quarry).

Does anyone know or wonder if Nitrox would've prevented this
kind of DCS?

 

[DandyDon]

Shadragon,

So it's been about 9 months since your DCS incident. That was
a very conservative profile, and you've had no ill-effects in the
weeks or months following. However, what I'm curious about is,
to what degree or level of DCS did you experience according
to the Table 1 criteria in the following Wikipedia page?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompression_sickness

Your DCS has me worried because I'm over 50, in reasonbly good
shape (but about 10 lbs overweight), don't smoke or drink, take
good care of myself, exersize pretty regularly, and dive very conservative
profiles; (i.e., 40 ft depths in warm water on one 80-tank, 35- or
40-minutes). According to PADI dive tables, I am way below any
DCS limits. I have an PADI AOW cert. done in 1990 and dive primarily
in fresh water nearby (L. Erie or a local shallow quarry).

Does anyone know or wonder if Nitrox would've prevented this
kind of DCS?

The incedent really seems pretty unexplained. Two suggestions for you would be...

1-Don't get "worried." Accept the possibility and dive conservatively. I'm 59, not as healthy of style as you, and I am learning to dive safer than I used to - but I don't worry.

2-If you do get symptoms, don't deny them. Call DAN on your cell as ask for their opinion. If you get back ones, call from ER.

Nitrox does reduce Nitrogren build-up in your body, so it would reduce the risk some, but these hits are very rare.

 

[shadragon]

Shadragon,

So it's been about 9 months since your DCS incident. That was
a very conservative profile, and you've had no ill-effects in the
weeks or months following. However, what I'm curious about is,
to what degree or level of DCS did you experience according
to the Table 1 criteria in the following Wikipedia page?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompression_sickness

Your DCS has me worried because I'm over 50, in reasonbly good
shape (but about 10 lbs overweight), don't smoke or drink, take
good care of myself, exersize pretty regularly, and dive very conservative
profiles; (i.e., 40 ft depths in warm water on one 80-tank, 35- or
40-minutes). According to PADI dive tables, I am way below any
DCS limits. I have an PADI AOW cert. done in 1990 and dive primarily
in fresh water nearby (L. Erie or a local shallow quarry).

Does anyone know or wonder if Nitrox would've prevented this
kind of DCS?

Nitrox would certainly not have hurt anything... The symptoms were fairly well described in the text. Headache, deep muscle aches, mottled and red skin. Someone earlier commented the symptoms were minor and when I told one of my instructors that he said there is no such thing as a minor DCS incident. He asked me how bad it would have gotten if I had not gotten enriched O2 right away followed by 100% O2 in the ambulance and ER. I didn't know, but it is better to be safe then sorry. I would hate to wake up dead one morning...

Since the incident I have done longer, deeper dives with and without Nitrox; I had no further issues in the 40 or so dives since and as long as I dive conservatively and with adequate hydration before and after I should be fine. I am more conscious of DCS now and force myself to slow down at times, but I don't let it stop me from diving.

Diving is like any risky activity like rock climbing, spelunking or base jumping, etc. You can minimize the risk, but you can never completely eliminate the risk. Given the description of your usual dive profile you should be fine. There are very few DCS incidents overall and SCUBA is a fairly safe endeavor when you dive within safe limits.

 

[Craig Baumann]

Thanks shadragon, for telling your story. I enjoy your writing style also.

I went for two chamber runs about five years ago, when I experienced a type 1 DCS hit while diving in Hood Canal, in the state of Washington. It's scary stuff. I wasn't very far off my dive profiles by PADI standards, and within limits on my computer but when DAN was consulted even though the ER results were inconclusive, they decided to recompress me anyway. Fortunately, the hospital in Portland, OR that attended to me had a two recompression chambers.

It's amazing what you go through when suspecting you're bent. I can really identify with shadragon here, at least in some ways. It's difficult to admit to yourself that somehow you've screwed up. It doesn't seem fair at the time. Looking back on it, I really didn't do anything wrong and felt no lasting guilt as a result of this. It was a while before I got back into the water again, not because I was restricted from doing so, but because I had to regroup mentally afterward. Thank goodness for medical and diving insurance. My primary care facility medical insurance paid for a good portion of the expense, while my DAN insurance picked up the remainder of the balance.

Thanks again shadragon, for telling your story. Now you've heard mine.

 

[rjk75]

DandyDon and Shadragon,

My reason for posting the questions I did are that I consume more air than everyone I've ever dived with. For instance, I'll be down to 600 psi while my dive partners are still at 900, 1000 or even 1200 psi.--that's on the same tank, starting pressure, depth, activity, etc. And I'm not big or muscular (6 ft, 180 lb, pretty active most of the year). So my desire with any diving I do is to stay away from the no-decomp limits by a wide margin.

 

[shadragon]

DandyDon and Shadragon,

My reason for posting the questions I did are that I consume more air than everyone I've ever dived with. For instance, I'll be down to 600 psi while my dive partners are still at 900, 1000 or even 1200 psi.--that's on the same tank, starting pressure, depth, activity, etc. And I'm not big or muscular (6 ft, 180 lb, pretty active most of the year). So my desire with any diving I do is to stay away from the no-decomp limits by a wide margin.

That is my attitude as well. To get back to your original concern, NITROX will help reduce your overall exposure to DCS risk. A conservative dive profile on top of that will keep you well into the safe areas of the tables. Dive safe and you will be safe.

 

[K_girl]

On a scale of 1 - 10, with 1 - 5 being in the green, my maximum nitrogen reading (TLBG) was 4. My ascent rate was in the 20-50 feet / minute range which is considered yellow on my computer. I have my DC set to the most conservative settings across the board.
(Continued)

Did you consider that your ascent rate may have had something to do with it? There is a huge difference between 20 feet per minute and 50 feet per minute. I know a dive instructor who is trying to get PADI to institute a maximum of 30 feet per minute for this very reason. He considers their 60 feet per minute advisory limit of PADI to be way too fast. For this reason, I always keep my ascent rate at the slowest measureable rate of one green bar on my computer. I understand that your ascent rate to the surface is also very important even after your 15-20 foot safety stop.