was this DCI or not

[alicoll]

Last October after 5 consecutive, conservative dives I developed tingling and slight numbness, that came and went, in my R hand. This started about 1 hour after I surfaced. It varied over the day and I couldn't decide whether I should do anything, especially as we were leaving the next evening.
The following morning it was much better and only recurred about half an hour into our flight home, which slightly paniced me. I did manage to get to sleep and on waking after a few hours sleep it was back to normal. However after landing it recurred.
On getting home I rang our nearest hyperbaric unit and they said to come in. They felt I had spinal DCI after examining me. The only physical finding was slight loss of sensation to hot and cold in one very small area.

I was given a 5 hour session which made minimal difference other than on rechecking the next day the loss of temperature sensation was gone. They decide I needed further treatments and because each time there was minimal improvement i eventually had 6 altogether. By the end there was loss tingling and numbness and feeling of heaviness but it was still present and would come and go. They did ask whether I had ever had any neck problems, which I hadn't.

Over the next month everything went back to normal until january when I got all the same symptoms back and neck pain. i saw a chiropracter who felt it was a neck and elbow problem and treated me. it has now completely cleared. So was the initial problem DCI and a separate problem giving me the same symptoms, or not DCI in the first place.

My dives were considered very conservative and no cause could be seen. I have had PFO testing which was normal. I recently went for a dive medical with a dive doctor in order to be able to dive again. He said he would not consider this DCI. I was fit to dive and I should not tick the DCI box on my medical forms.

What does anyone think. Thank you

 

[ScubaDadMiami]

You ask what we think. So, I will give you an opinion though I am not a physician.

I had a similar situation to yours. My dive was not conservative though. It was deep.

Hours after my dive, I was driving in my car, and I felt tingling on the back of my forearms. It would go away when I lowered my arms, and it would come back when I raised my arms to hold the car's steering wheel. I put myself on oxygen, called DAN, and I reported to the nearest chamber.

At the chamber, the physical exam did not show any objective findings, however, I continued reporting tingling on the forearms leading to my thumb, index finger and middle finger of each hand when the doctor tested there. The doctor said that my case was pretty ambiguous but said that getting an unnecessary chamber treatment would not cause any harm. So, I opted to try the treatment.

I am told that most people respond well to hyperbaric oxygen within minutes, often within ten minutes or so, when they are bent. I really could not feel any difference even after completing a full Table 6 treatment (60 feet with intermittent oxygen over several hours).

We did another Table 6 treatment the next day, and a Table 5 (30 feet on oxygen) the day after that. I really could not see any significant improvement though I would have to say that I was having less episodes of the tingling to some degree.

I stopped diving for 16 weeks. When I resumed diving, I went back to no deeper than 30 feet, and I did really short dives. I was breathing EANx 36. Yet, when I got out of the water, the tingling started coming back. Some friends of mine that knew people who had been bent told me that this is common when returning to diving after DCS.

Meanwhile, I was starting to get problems with neck pain. I had had issues with this on and off over the years. So, I started receiving treatment and physical therapy from a chiropractor. While the treatments helped on a temporary basis, the problem kept coming back. The chiropractor referred me for MRI examination. It was then that I found out that I had a herniated disk in my neck. The disk was causing problems with the nerve that deals with the areas with which I was having the problems.

It sounds like you are having the same kind of problem especially if you did not get improvement from your hyperbaric treatments. Again, I am not a physician but our stories sound quite similar.

After lots of physical therapy, my problem has become more stable though it is not completely resolved. I now try not to stand around in my tanks for prolongued periods so that I can avoid putting pressure on my neck and shoulders, which might aggravate my condition. Most of the time, I am fine. On the other hand, there are times when I still get the same feeling in my arms after diving.

I sometimes have to remind myself if I do have any funny feelings after a dive that I am not bent. I try to stay attuned to my body in case I feel anything that is unusual just to make sure that I am not actually experiencing DCS. It is not an easy balance sometimes, but you get to know your body and its normal aches, etc., and you use these as baselines for comparison. At least, that's how I do it.

Good luck to you.

 

[cmalinowski]

I have disk degeneration in my neck (between c4-5 and c5-6). This makes my left arm tingle. My guess is that diving and keeping your head in a somewhat non-natural position may be agrivating the disks and causing the tingling.

I am not a physician, nor did I stay at a holiday inn express, but that's what's wrong with me. But if you ever have questions about it, you should never be afraid to call DAN or your doctors and go in for a check-up. Better safe than sorry.

 

[plankspanker]

I have disk degeneration in my neck (between c4-5 and c5-6). This makes my left arm tingle. My guess is that diving and keeping your head in a somewhat non-natural position may be agrivating the disks and causing the tingling.

I am not a physician, nor did I stay at a holiday inn express, but that's what's wrong with me. But if you ever have questions about it, you should never be afraid to call DAN or your doctors and go in for a check-up. Better safe than sorry.

I am dealing with this exact same thing (same area and same symptoms) and it started about a week and a half after I returned from a very active dive trip . Even though I had no symptoms during the trip nor any reason to think I got bent as soon as I started having neck pains and tingling I had to wonder as so many dcs stories start out that way. The end result was that it was the activity (lots and lots of shore dives) that aggravated an existing issue I had with my disks and it seems to be getting worse. If I do get bent I hope the symptoms start elsewhere because numbness and tingling in my left arm isnt going to raise any alarms anymore. Years spent being a bookish nerd did not physically prepare me for an activity involving lugging heavy tanks and equipment around and looking back over the last year I wish I had started exercising when I first got into this. It may have helped the transition some.

 

[Dr Deco]

Many thanks to all of the responders. This did not sound as if it were DCS to me, either.

 

[alicoll]

Thanks everyone for your replies. it was good to hear that I was not the only person with these sort of symptoms, and just to get other view points