Unresolved DCS symptoms

[wedivebc]

A couple of weeks ago I suffered a mild DCS hit while diving on a liveaboard in Thailand. I woke up in the middle of the night after a couple of fairly deep dives with pain in my left elbow and numbness in my left hand involving my thumb and tree middle fingers but had full feeling in my pinky finger.
I thought at the time I had slept on my arm funny and got up to walk around on deck to shake it out. The symtoms did not go away until later that morning when I did the first dive of the day. As soon as I hit depth I noticed no more symtoms. After executing a very careful ascent (this was a mandatory deco dive) I arrived back on the boat only to find the sympoms returning.
Long story short, 2 weeks later I still don't have full sensation in my middle 2 fingers. All pain has resolved itself. I have logged another 12 dives since this event where the symptoms no longer resolve in water.
Does anyone have a similar experience or can estimate if numbness in my fingers might resolve or have I caused permanent damage?

 

[Riger]

Surely you should immediately seek medical attention, as sympathetic as the board could be, we cannot fix you?

Just my0.02

Good Luck, I hope you get this sorted soon.

Regards
Richard (Riger)

 

[DandyDon]

Surely you should immediately seek medical attention, as sympathetic as the board could be, we cannot fix you?

Just my0.02

Good Luck, I hope you get this sorted soon.

Regards
Richard (Riger)

I imagine he knows more about DCS than you and I put together.

You did not do any treatment at all, just kept diving? Sounds like you injured the nerves; even tho the bubbles worked out, the injury remained so - good luck.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

A. You should have informed the boat dive leaders as soon as you realized the pain and numbness were not "just sleeping on it wrong."
B. You really should not have gone back in the water, but you should have gone for immediate medical attention.
C. You may have caused long term damage from lack of treatment and put yourself at risk in the future.
D. You should still call DAN AND go get checked out.
E. Good luck man.

 

[JeffG]

A. You should have informed the boat dive leaders as soon as you realized the pain and numbness were not "just sleeping on it wrong."
B. You really should not have gone back in the water, but you should have gone for immediate medical attention.
C. You may have caused long term damage from lack of treatment and put yourself at risk in the future.
D. You should still call DAN AND go get checked out.
E. Good luck man.

ahhh...the peanut gallery.




Dave,

I've only had one instance where something was numb. I'm sure I bent my index finger on a dive. For me the feeling returned by the next day.

Sorry to hear about your mishap.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

ahhh...the peanut gallery.




Dave,

I've only had one instance where something was numb. I'm sure I bent my index finger on a dive. For me the feeling returned by the next day.

Sorry to hear about your mishap.

Ahh, the one who bases judgements about all problems on only his own experience. If you finished reading the original post, it is a bit more than this. If all this time has gone by, and he still has no nerve feeling........

Golly gee, I guess finishing that dive set is much more important than future health and dives after all.... Either you lead by example, and practice what you preach,(i.e. safe dive practices), or not. DCS, or possible DCS is not a "just pour some beer on it, it'll be okay" kinda thing.
A little bent is like a little pregnant.

 

[sprange]

Zen, if you read the last line in Dave's post you'll note that he was simply asking if anyone else has had similar symptoms and what the outcome was. Obviously aborting the rest of the dives and seeking medical attention (ie chamber ride) would have been ideal so that's not in question. I doubt his future is (or was) in jeopardy...that said if I had the same symptoms I'd be out of the water and undergoing treatment ASAP. As a dentist I don't have the luxury of waiting to see if I regain full sensation or movement in my fingers. If I were in in the tropics I'd probably risk my toes, though.

Anyway sorry Dave, I don't have any DCS related experience. I did manage to injure a wrist last year on my motorcycle and had carpal-tunnel like symptoms for a long time. Eventually it cleared up but I sold the motorcycle! My wife is in the shop tomorrow for a refresher course. Next year could have his-and-hers rebreathers in store...we'll see. Here's hoping for a quick recovery.

 

[wedivebc]

A. You should have informed the boat dive leaders as soon as you realized the pain and numbness were not "just sleeping on it wrong."

I did.

B. You really should not have gone back in the water, but you should have gone for immediate medical attention.

Couldn't be sure I was bent until I got underwater again. The navy calls it trial by pressure.

C. You may have caused long term damage from lack of treatment and put yourself at risk in the future..

Yes it was a judgement call

D. You should still call DAN AND go get checked out..

I did call DAN, nothing really to check out though

E. Good luck man.

Thanks

 

[Dr Deco]

Hello Wedivebc:

Well, as you guessed, nerve involvement that remits with pressure (diving) and returns upon surfacing is very indicative of DCS. The nerves and the surrounding free-gas phase gather more nitrogen with each dive and eventually remain to cause a lasting problem.

Most likely, the sensation will resolve, but it will indicate that nerves have been severely injured or died (speculation but resonable speculation). If this area is injured again, the problem might not resolve. Plasticity (re-routing) on the nerve signals allows a return to function, but it can not be re- routed case after case.

Roebling (builder of the Brooklyn Bridge) was paralysed and recovered in the first instance. The second event left him permanently paralysed.

 

[wedivebc]

ahhh...the peanut gallery.




Dave,

I've only had one instance where something was numb. I'm sure I bent my index finger on a dive. For me the feeling returned by the next day.

Sorry to hear about your mishap.[/QUOTE

Ahh, the one who bases judgements about all problems on only his own experience. If you finished reading the original post, it is a bit more than this. If all this time has gone by, and he still has no nerve feeling........

Golly gee, I guess finishing that dive set is much more important than future health and dives after all.... Either you lead by example, and practice what you preach,(i.e. safe dive practices), or not. DCS, or possible DCS is not a "just pour some beer on it, it'll be okay" kinda thing.
A little bent is like a little pregnant.

I think what Jeff was probably trying to say in his usual minimalist way was that when doing agressive tech dives, minor DCS hits go with the territory and when divers who don't dive like that pass judgement on us for our actions it tends to get our backs up a little. I chose to post this question here to get a broader spectrum of replies than I might get from other more technically oriented forums. So thank you for your thoughts.