odd lung sensation

[saltybubbles]

I was recently in Cozumel as a part of a group traveling from our dive shop. I was working on my AOW. The day we went on our deep dive we went with our group to the Wall and desended without problem. I was watching my depth gauge and noted at one point to be at 125 feet. I motioned to my buddy to go up to a shallower depth. We went slowly, again with in our group to about 80 feet where we did our problem solving. After about another 30 minutes we were asending to the top. We did our safety stop at about 20 feet, but it turned out to be more like 2-3 minutes rather than the 5 that the resort dive master said due to my husband floating up with his tank being at less than 500 and the weights maybe being less than perfect.

While we were asending from the 20 foot mark, I felt a senation in my left upper chest like an air bubble going up my lung. If it had been more midline I would have thought it ws like a burp. It only lasted a second or two and there were no after effects. Being a nurse, I knew this was not normal but there was no pain, no short of breath, nothing. I mentioned it to our dive master once we all were on the boat, but again, at the moment, there was nothing else.

Further dives during the trip were without incident, although we stayed at 70 feet or above.

Is this something anyone has heard of before?

 

[Digger54]

You'll get responses from more knowledgeable and experienced people than me, I'm sure.

But... In the light of you feeling this sensation in the upper left chest, but not having any other problems or symptoms afterward I got to thinking about what could produce a sensation in that area. I was wondering if what you felt could have actually been ON your upper left chest rather than IN your upper left chest.

You've got an inflator hose there. Probably leading to a dump valve sitting right on top of your left shoulder. And you may have had a vest type BC with a portion if the air bladder that extended into that area.

I'm sure you have experienced some water getting into your BC during a dive and having to be dumped out when you got topside. Could it be that, depending on your position in the water, it was just trapped water gurgling and sloshing around in your BC?

Or if you had that part of your body covered with a wetsuit a trapped bubble could have been working its way up in that area?

 

[spectrum]

saltybubbles

Digger54 suggests a possible reason. If you are an active local diver in the midwest your typical exposure protection is no do doubt heavier. When in warm water we feel all sorts of delightful stimuli. Bubbles will be flowing in many spaces especially if you were rising in the bubble plume of multiple divers. An accellerated ascent would amplify the size of the bubbles since they may expand faster than they can migrate.

Medically I'm a zero but the lack of any other symptoms from something so clearly felt makes me want to also believe it was superficial.

Pete

 

[saltybubbles]

That actually makes sense. I was wearing a wet suit lighter than I am used to. My prior dives have been in the midwest in colder water and no where near as deep. I wondered what could have been going on in a lung that would have no after effects. In thinking it thru it makes perfect sense.

Thank you for your help. That is why I am so glad I found this place. It should be mandatory reading for new divers