Who is diving after Covid?

[BlueTrin]

A simple blood test will show if your blood is still more prone to clotting than it should be. Micro-clotting, as I said, *has* been documented in people with asymptomatic Covid, so at the very least I'd see a dive specialist doctor and ask about it.

That’s not what I asked: I asked if it is valid to tell people to see doctor for things like clots if they don’t get tested as part of the sign off.

Hence I am asking if people get tested for clots when having mild symptoms.

I didn’t get anything else than the same test I get every time for fitness: since I am asthmatic I am checked for a reduction of lung capacity after mild exercise.

I was not asked to do a blood test, hence seeing a doctor has not addressed any issue about clotting for me.

 

[kinoons]

A simple blood test will show if your blood is still more prone to clotting than it should be. Micro-clotting, as I said, *has* been documented in people with asymptomatic Covid, so at the very least I'd see a dive specialist doctor and ask about it.

Unfortunately the test in question, a D-Dimer, isn’t very specific for clotting. Many other conditions beyond clots can cause an elevated D-Dimer. In the emergency setting we can use this test to rule out patients who have a low probability of a clot, but positive D-Dimer results frequently do not result in finding clots.

 

[Gandalf-the-Diver]

I had covid a couple of months ago. I have had worse colds, but I am also dbl vaxxed and boosted. I tested neg, 6 days after my positive test. I went diving the next day. I also went diving, the day after each vaccine.

 

[PirateFoxy]

Unfortunately the test in question, a D-Dimer, isn’t very specific for clotting. Many other conditions beyond clots can cause an elevated D-Dimer. In the emergency setting we can use this test to rule out patients who have a low probability of a clot, but positive D-Dimer results frequently do not result in finding clots.

But if you have a wonky D-Dimer for no known reason, I would tend to think that means you have something that should be identified and evaluated before diving anyway? So it's one of a number of possible screening tests that a doctor might choose to use, not a definitive one.

I'm not a doctor (and definitely not a cardiologist or pulmonologist or dive medicine specialist) so I do not know what an appropriate battery of tests would be to identify something like micro-clots. I haven't been following the latest research on the micro clotting in detail, either, so I don't know what they've found or not found that might make it easier to detect if it's an issue.

My point is more that there ARE a lot of things that a doctor COULD do, and there are several potential known issues that can be caused by even asymptomatic Covid that would be Bad News in a diver, so it seems sensible to go to an appropriate doctor and get evaluated before diving if you have reason to think you may have had Covid, even mild or asymptomatic Covid. Sure, it's a pain to get medical clearance, but living with paralysis from an AGE is going to be way less fun.

 

[Wibble]

An attempt to be "on topic"...

A friend of mine, mid 20's, had a mild COVID and a couple of weeks after coming out of COVID suffered AGE coming up from a shallow dive, less than 10m. He is now paralyzed on one side of his body and no vision in the eye on that side.

Is there any concrete evidence that Covid caused this?

Just like many here who "thought" they knew better and just went back to diving after their self diagnosis, he is now crippled for the rest of his life.

Opinion.

Another person, I don't know him personally, wasn't so lucky and died by the time he reached the surface. I believe that his COVID hit may have been stronger but I don't know the exact details as I do in the first case. Several others died diving after coming down with COVID but I don't have definitive information on their cases.

Evidence it was Covid and not something else?


I've twice contracted Covid and went diving shortly afterwards and didn't get any form of DCS.

 

[kinoons]

But if you have a wonky D-Dimer for no known reason, I would tend to think that means you have something that should be identified and evaluated before diving anyway? So it's one of a number of possible screening tests that a doctor might choose to use, not a definitive one.

I'm not a doctor (and definitely not a cardiologist or pulmonologist or dive medicine specialist) so I do not know what an appropriate battery of tests would be to identify something like micro-clots. I haven't been following the latest research on the micro clotting in detail, either, so I don't know what they've found or not found that might make it easier to detect if it's an issue.

My point is more that there ARE a lot of things that a doctor COULD do, and there are several potential known issues that can be caused by even asymptomatic Covid that would be Bad News in a diver, so it seems sensible to go to an appropriate doctor and get evaluated before diving if you have reason to think you may have had Covid, even mild or asymptomatic Covid. Sure, it's a pain to get medical clearance, but living with paralysis from an AGE is going to be way less fun.

We’re starting to get off topic, but there are many doctors who have been arguing that screening healthy people for disease processes that do not have symptoms is often a fools errand and causes more harm than good. For example a chest CT performed on a young person with a low risk for cancer that finds a mass that gets a biopsy that then results in a pneumothorax, pnuemonia, and an extended hospital stay was all harm and no benefit when the mass comes back as not cancer.

So screening for the sake of screening may potentially cause more harm than good.

An attempt to be "on topic"...


Is there any concrete evidence that Covid caused this?


Opinion.


Evidence it was Covid and not something else?


I've twice contracted Covid and went diving shortly afterwards and didn't get any form of DCS.

Exactly - the question at hand is now that the overwhelming majority of the population has likely had Covid (some studies cite 90+%) has there been an increase in dive related injuries compared to baseline before Covid. I have not seen any evidence either way.

Even if there is an increase, the next question becomes is Covid the cause. There has been a multitude of reasons over the last two to three years that people’s health has declined. More obesity, more substance abuse, more depression, loss of income, loss of access to health care.

The two incidents boltsnap describes are very sad and unfortunate. None the less they cannot be directly attributed to Covid (at least not yet).

 

[Wibble]

Exactly - the question at hand is now that the overwhelming majority of the population has likely had Covid (some studies cite 90+%) has there been an increase in dive related injuries compared to baseline before Covid. I have not seen any evidence either way.

Even if there is an increase, the next question becomes is Covid the cause. There has been a multitude of reasons over the last two to three years that people’s health has declined. More obesity, more substance abuse, more depression, loss of income, loss of access to health care.

This is the crux of the challenge: what is a direct result of Covid compared to some other cause.

Measuring the change in injury rates -- incidents of DCS -- should be relatively straightforward as (I believe) a lot of this information is gathered. However, it is hard to measure whether fewer people are diving -- there's definitely fewer dive boats in the UK for example.

 

[BlueTrin]

This is the crux of the challenge: what is a direct result of Covid compared to some other cause.

Measuring the change in injury rates -- incidents of DCS -- should be relatively straightforward as (I believe) a lot of this information is gathered. However, it is hard to measure whether fewer people are diving -- there's definitely fewer dive boats in the UK for example.

I think you are highlighting a key issue, although we have the BSAC incident report in the U.K., it is missing the number of total dives done on that year.

Without a good estimate of the number of dives done on the year and some basic categorisation for these dives, it is hard to infer anything concrete.

As a side note, I am afraid that energy costs and inflation is gonna make this worse and we have not seen yet the worst of the increase of living costs.

 

[Searcaigh]

There is of course advice from DAN on this subject

FITNESS TO DIVE AFTER COVID - UPDATE

A new guideline for determining fitness to dive based on the type and severity of symptoms.

www.daneurope.org

 

[Jcp2]

There is of course advice from DAN on this subject

FITNESS TO DIVE AFTER COVID - UPDATE

A new guideline for determining fitness to dive based on the type and severity of symptoms.

www.daneurope.org

I probably was in the asymptomatic to paucisymptomatic group in July. DAN recommendations, although reasonable, don’t really define “recovered” for this group, or for the mild group. Does the time post recovery start on the day after the last day of fever, last day of cough, last day of loss of taste, last day of sniffles? I didn’t really notice any difference in non strenuous activities, but my smart watch, which has some sort of algorithm that estimates vO2 max, as many fitness watches do, did record a small drop in my measurements that lasted about a week. Maybe this could be a good proxy for spirometry if getting timely access to a pulmonologist is an issue.