Skin Bends

[Freewillow]

"I went to the Blue Angel dive shop and asked for some O2 which I used for about 5 minutes. The rash was greatly reduced, but the soreness remained. Now my anxiety is rising-how could I be bent??? I didn't do anything wrong and our dives were not crazy at all. My buddy was diving the same computer and he showed numbers almost identical to mine and he was fine. Other divers on the same 1st dive went to 117fsw and were also fine. "


My wife had a case of skin rash, just like yours. She was put on oxygen for a full night. I am not an expert but 5 minutes, looks like nothing to me

 

[Tunaman68]

50 hours post event and I still have symptoms. Went back to the DAN doc and they have me on a drip and 2 hours of O2. Hope this gets it done or it looks like I'm gonna get a ride after all.

Feeling fine, other than the soreness and the anxiety, but no neurological symptoms at all.

 

[MMM]

Hope you feel better soon. At least the docs here are good!

50 hours post event and I still have symptoms. Went back to the DAN doc and they have me on a drip and 2 hours of O2. Hope this gets it done or it looks like I'm gonna get a ride after all.

Feeling fine, other than the soreness and the anxiety, but no neurological symptoms at all.

 

[drrich2]

Sorry to hear this happened to you, but thanks for sharing for the educational benefit for the rest of us. Having to quite diving for the remainder of your vacation; now that bites!

...and from now on conservative factor on, and nitrox on air profiles with an 80' hard bottom for me.

Since most people don't get bent, stands to reason those who do diving within conventional bounds of good practice in theory might have some unknown predisposing factor to DCS. But what does that mean in practical terms? How likely is the issue one intrinsic to you, and what's the recurrence risk? You dove for 25 years, no problems, then one trip and 'BAM,' an unusual freak outcome becomes the basis to limit future diving. Which may be appropriate; I don't know enough to judge it one way or the other. Obviously you're older than when you started.

DDM, Doc Vikingo, are there set guidelines for future diving in people who've had skin bends?

Richard.

 

[Allison Finch]

My sister has had "skin bends" twice. She had discomfort blotching and rash. The boat put her on 100% O2 for many hours and it resolved. She spent a couple of days out then resumed diving. She was WELL within safe diving profiles and when she went back to diving, she was very conservative and had no resumption on the trip.

Both times were on liveaboards in the wilds of Indonesia and PNG.

She still dives.

 

[DandyDon]

Dehydration has been greatly discounted as a possible cause for hits, altho many still cling to the myth. Many dive the day of arrival and I've never seen any professional advice against that, altho you had to be tired from the overnight flight. You're not as young as you used to be. I can understand thinking the soreness was from the bed as hotel beds are never like home, and most in Coz are so damned hard. No clear issues here. Good that you noticed it after the second day and sought medical help, and are behaving yourself thru the dry days. Thanks for sharing the experience.

 

[Rich Keller]

All dives on air with Oceanic Geo2.0 set to DSAT and conservative off. I've done a couple hundred dives on this computer with no issues.

I am glad to hear you were lucky on the couple of hundred dives you did previously with your computer but it was nothing more then just luck. Computers will give you more bottom time then diving a square profile but that extra time comes from cutting out the built in safety margins of a square profile. These margins come from decades of testing by the US Navy and the algorithms used on the computer are derived from the Navy tables minus the built in safety factors. Another problem is that you may not fit the physical type the computer program was based on so to account for that you add in a safety stop at 15'. The time spent at the safety stop takes away from your actual time ON the bottom so you do not gain as much time as you think. What additional time you did gain caused your problem unless you are one of those people who is more susceptible to the bends but that is very rare. Loss the computer, get a good bottom timer, dive a square profile and you should never have this problem again.

 

[sphyrnidus]

Unexpected Decompression Illness

@Rich Keller: you are quite certain in your opinion. However there are many cases of unexpected DCI, see the reports in the link I posted above. It is simply not always preventable or someones fault.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Dehydration has been greatly discounted as a possible cause for hits, altho many still cling to the myth. Many dive the day of arrival and I've never seen any professional advice against that, altho you had to be tired from the overnight flight. . . .

Myth? I recall reading in recent years that dehydration is not the bogeyman that some make it out to be--that is, a major risk factor against which one should protect themselves by drinking lots of water--but I don't recall the theory of dehydration as a risk factor having been relegated to mere "myth." Is that true? From what I recall--and I know there have been threads about this--the experts suggest that it's best to neither under-hydrate nor over-hydrate but just to stay normally hydrated to the same extent one would while engaging in any activity. I know that unless I sip a lot of water on a long flight, it takes me a while after I land to catch up from the dry-mouth feeling.

I would hardly cite PADI as an authority, but it's worth mentioning that in the Rescue and, if I recall, the Deep course as well, it was asserted that the classic scenario of a vacationing diver having arrived after a long flight, tired and dehydrated from dry cabin air--maybe having had an alcoholic drink as well--is thought to implicate these risk factors. Was I taught mere myth? (I wouldn't put it past a PADI instructor or ANY instructor, really.) Have fatigue and dehydration been firmly established as not being risk factors at all?

 

[chillyinCanada]

I've had the skin bends twice. First time, didn't realize what it was. Started with itching all over, so had a hot shower (more fool me), then deep pain in lower back and in my tummy, took awhile before i bothered to look in a mirror to see the mottled bruising. I suggested to someone that perhaps I had skin bends but that person said they dont look like that but more like a rash with raised itchy bumps. I was nonlonger itchy justmdeep tissue pain and mottled bruising. So i decided it was bruising from my bcd and the backroll. I stayed out of the wster until feeling better a few days later, did a three duve day with a deep dive to start. Felt great, carried on with my holiday.

But the episode had got me thinking, so upon return home did some internet sleuthing and to my horror discovered thst i had indeed had skin bends. Ignorance is bliss?

A few more dive trips passed and I got in again. Of course, I recognized the problem immediately and proceeded to treat it as I'd done before, bed rest and staying out of water until felt better. Then continued on with my diving. Ignorance is lucky??

My profiles were fine, nothing i hadn't done hundreds of times before, nothing seemed unusual in any way.

After the second episode I lost weight and got my nitrox cert and dive nitrox for almost all of my dives. I do longer safety stops and make my way to the surface from that stop as slowly as i can. Hundreds of dives later with no further problems. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Best of luck to you too.