Paranoid about potential DCS

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Hello,

It has been a few years since I have been diving and I am paranoid that I might be experiencing DCS so I am reaching out to this awesome community.

This weekend I went diving for the first time in years and did 3 dives. On my trip back from the dive site I had my day pack stolen which had my dive log in it so I am making best guesses with these stats:

1) Saturday - Refresher dive to 15 meters with proper safety stop before surfacing.

2) Sunday 10am - Did a dive down to approx. 28 meters and on the way down (about 24 Meters) temporarily lost boyancy control and ascending repidly back to 15 meters before regaining control and continuing the dive. I did not experience any discomfort or noticable issues at this point. I don't remember how long the dive was but we did a proper safety stop on the way up and spent lots of time at shallow depth before surfacing. I know that the more experienced diver in the group had 100 bar of air left if that gives any indication of length of dive.

3) Sunday 12noon - Did a dive to approx. 22 Meters with no issues and did proper safety stop on the way up. Again I am not sure of how much time we spent but the experienced diver had 100 bar of air left. I am prone to leg cramps when I swim, and experienced cramping in both legs near the end of the dive which went away during our safety stop because I was not kicking hard.

It was very hot out and after the dive I felt fatigued but it felt normal because I had spent the last 3 days being active in the sun and did not get the most amount of sleep. About 2 hours after the dive I went stand up paddle boarding in the sun which ended up being much more work than I planned because the wind came up when I was far out and I had to work hard to get back.

4 hours after my last dive when I was eating an early dinner I got dizzy with some tunnel vision and felt very tired. I chalked it up to not eating much that day and possibly being dehydrated. About 1.5 hours later as I was waiting for a ferry I felt spaced out and kind of out of it and started googling DCS symptoms. I ended up slightly panicking and going to the local hospital where the doctors had no idea about dive related issues but I requested oxygen regardless. I called DAN and talked to a doctor and he said that he was 99% sure that I didn't have DCS but I should monitor my symptoms regardless.

After a solid sleep with lots of water and a good meal I felt great other than tendon/muscle pain in my left hamstring I feel no pain in my joint and the pain feels like it was from the leg cramps and finning that I was not used to. When I massage it with a foam roller it feels just like normal muscle pain.

About 2 hours ago I got another dizzy spell after walking up 7 flights of stairs (broken elevator). I feel a little spaced out with a slight headache and am paranoid that it might be DCS so I am posting here. My lower back hurts but it was sore in the same spot with my dive gear on before I went to any depth on my first dive.

Do you think I have DCS? Could anything else account for my dizzyness/slight vertigo feeling?

Thanks so much in advance.
 
I would listen to DAN if I were you. They know what they are doing. Honestly, this is not webMD, and hypochondriacs get little to no love around here.
Hope you start feeling better.
 
Sorry for wasting your time. You are totally right, I should just chill out and listen to DAN. Thanks for taking the time to reply.
 
I would agree with Tom. Half way through your post I was going to suggest that you call DAN....so well done. Nothing in your dive profile suggests a dcs hit, but without proper nervous system testing, one can never be absolutely sure. Take it easy for a few days and limit your next dives to somewhat shallower depths if possible. 30 meter dives are a bit deep for "refresher" dives in my humble opinion.

It is never a waste of anyone's time when it comes to reasonable questions regarding dcs. Welcome to Scubaboard, and safe diving!
 
Sorry for wasting your time. You are totally right, I should just chill out and listen to DAN. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

You aren't wasting my time, so don't worry about it. You most likely overexerted yourself and are paying the price. Take a breather and and relax some.
 
what Tom said, the issue when people get paranoid about DCS is most of the time the symptoms are of something else where the check marks hit DCS, but it isn't. Remember that unless you are working out on a regular basis, diving itself is traumatic on the body. Carrying minimum 50lbs of gear, the pressure and temperature issues, etc etc. Frankly it sounds like you were exhausted and dehydrated, both of which, especially combined, will tick off all of your symptoms. Remember that DCS itself is very rare these days, and most of the symptoms are usually a result of some other factors. If DAN says it isn't worth going to the chamber, then no one here is qualified enough to say otherwise.

On your next dive run, make sure that you are properly hydrated starting a day or two before hand, it will go a long way for the way you feel afterwards.
 
If you are doing single tank dives to about 10-20m average (30-60ft) then you are very very unlikely to get DCS (there really is a finite amount of nitrogen in that bottle). Liveaboard with 3-4 dives a day increases the risk though. You dived to almost 30m which would make DCS a real possibility if you were using two tanks. You had one, right?

I know that some people have been able to achieve mandatory decompression while staying at 20m but that is considered *quite a feat*. Even at 30m you would need two tanks. It is much more likely to blow a lung during ascent. Tiredness is common after cold or strenuous diving. DCS is also a relative thing. How many bubbles do you require to call it a dcs? I have some, and I get tired (it is just like flu), and it is OK. More bubbles would be less OK. A lot of bubbles would probably require a slight chamber ride.

Shades of grey.

Relax.
 
It is quite reasonable to think that you have DCS in your situation. You just did your first dives in years. You have symptoms soon after diving that are a bit scary. DCS can manifest itself in a variety of vague symptoms. Also during certification, they hammer the dangers of DCS into your head. So you are not crazy to be concerned.

You probably do not have DCS.

You did not dive very deep. Most new divers go through their air before they reach their deco limits. So you are almost certainly safe. Your symptoms could well be explained by strain from the dive gear and climbing up the ladder. You also could have been dehydrated after the dive, a bit over heated, stressed, low blood sugar etc. A combination of some of these could easily explain your symptoms. Heck, I have seen bicyclists experience similar symptoms after a hard ride.

i have a fair number of dives. I typically dive on a boat which means 10+ divers. And there are usually multiple boats involved. So I have been around about 10,000 plus dives. I have never seen a case of DCS.

Also so your source at DAN did not think it was indicated and they enjoy a very good reputation in these matters.
 
You probably should start tracking your own nitrogen.
 
I think everybody is spot-on, that it's highly unlikely you have DCS. You might have some ear trouble, though, especially if your "dizziness" is more of an imbalance/vertigo kind of symptom.
 
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