Headache and stomach ache while diving.

[sdalli]

Last Sunday I went for a free dive with my friends (who had scuba equipment). I first dove two shallow dives and then went for one longer dive. this third dive felt like it was quite long, especially considering that it was only the third dive. half way back to the surface i felt a sudden pain in the stomach and the back of my head. the effect then started diminishing on each consecutive dive, but then i wasn't able to dive as far down as i wanted as i felt it more difficult than usual reaching 20mtrs down.

the day after i still woke up with a minor headache but it's now ok.

Does any one know what happened?
did i go for a long dive too soon?
Is it because i don't usually dive on an empty stomach and this was the first time i dove on an empty stomach?

I know i should have stopped diving as soon as i felt this, but i didn't want to ruin my friends dive, so i just took it easy.

Btw this was using a new set of fins (cressi gara professional LD) for the second time. before these i only used scuba fins.

 

[azapa]

Its hard to say Dali, but 20M is quite deep. How much freediving have you done? Please never mix freediving and scuba either, keep the two on completely separate days, more even if the suba is very deep.

There is nothing wrong with diving on an empty stomach, but watch hydration, it could cause bad headaches if you slip behind.

 

[sdalli]

I don't scuba dive, my friends where scuba diving while i was free diving. i've been diving since i was a little kid. but i only started taking it seriously this year. i think i was good on hydration. the funny thing is that although the gara professionals have much stronger push i still didn't beat my personal best with the scuba fins (25mtrs). maybe it's because it was only the second time i used them and because of the headache thing that happened, and i'm a bit out of practice as well.

But that snap in my head and stomach really concerned me. I should do an IQ test to see if i killed part of my brain .

 

[sdalli]

It happened once again, only this time i only got a headache. 3 weeks have passed from the first incident and in that time i didn't dive once. yesterday i went to the pool to try some dynamic apnea for the first time and i managed to swim across the pool 25mtrs without fins. the only problem is that i surfaced on the other side of the pool with a terrible headache. it started at the last 4mtrs or so and with every heartbeat my head wanted to crack.

Today i went to see a doctor to see what he can make of it and he said that it's most probably high blood pressure. The blood pressure was 146 - 92 quite high for a 24 year old guy. does this make any sense? is there anyone who has high blood pressure and experienced similar headaches?

this happens on the last few moments of the dive when it becomes challenging to keep holding the breath.

Please help, i hate the idea of not being able to dive anymore.

 

[trux]

As I wrote in the other thread you opened with this topic, there is indeed high pressure associated with apnea 1) due to the vasoconstriction in extremities and 2) increased during contractions. So if you already have high pressure at rest, the pressure may be quite high at the end of apnea. The stomach pain might perhaps come from diaphragmatic contractions.

Make the following test to see whether it is really the high pressure - buy or borrow an instrument for measuring blood pressure (there are some pretty cheap ones). Measure your pressure during rest, and then during a long hard dry apnea (especially at the end when you already have strong contractions). To stimulate the vasoconstriciton to similar level as in water, put a wet cold towel (maybe with some ice cubes) on four face. Observe whether you have similar symptoms. Then consult with your doctor (but be aware that the value can be pretty high).

Then eat some garlic (or garlic extract) - it should help to drop the BP, and then repeat the BP measuring both prior and during a dry apnea. If the garlic helps considerably with the BP and with the headaches, perhaps you can use it before diving too. Just avoid blowing on the face of your buddy rofl

EDIT: and also be more careful when diving with lower BP - you'll be more suspectible to blackout than with high BP.

 

[sdalli]

Thanks for the reply. i will try it as soon as i have a decent instrument to measure the blood pressure. I don't trust the one i have, it works like a random number generator.

 

[trux]

Already, even without the istrument, you can try a hard dry breath-hold (better with the wet cold towel on your face) to see whether it has the same effect as the deep dive. If you feel similar headache also in such simulation, the it can be either indeed related to the high blood pressure, or it can be some oversensitivity to high CO2 (hypercapnia).

You could then do another test to see whther the later is the case - make a series of relatively short breath-holds (say something around a minute) with only a single exhale and inhale between them. Do it during 8-10 minutes. The BH time is not too important but try keeping it the same during the series, and make sure you do not take more than the single inhale between them. This will charge you with a lot of CO2, so if you are somehow more sensitive to it, you would likely feel strong headaches pretty fast.

 

[KatFish]

I've heard of other people with high blood pressure experiencing headaches like this. I wouldn't recommend diving until your blood pressure is normal. You could give yourself a heart attack.

 

[sdalli]

last tuesday i went to the pool and somehow i found a way to control the headache. i managed to have 5 hard contractions and still controlling my headache where as on the first time i had a really terrible headache on the first contraction. this is what i did differently.

a slight headache started at the last few seconds of the dive but instead of going to the surface and gasp for air i went to the surface and kept on holding my breath and just took little sips of air, in and out. that way i managed to control the headache.

i have no idea what i just did and what happened but it worked. the headache was very mild compared what i had on the first dive. Today i'm going back to the pool and do some further experiments.