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Left arm tingling

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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patbrassil

New Member
Oct 27, 2011
33
0
0
Hey guys i just finished my FII level II freediver and did a lot of diving much deeper than usual. I'm probably just being paranoid but my left arm from my hand to about mid forearm has been tingling pretty consistently since i finished the course. Is there any chance i've got a minor case of DCS?
 
Hey guys i just finished my FII level II freediver and did a lot of diving much deeper than usual. I'm probably just being paranoid but my left arm from my hand to about mid forearm has been tingling pretty consistently since i finished the course. Is there any chance i've got a minor case of DCS?

It's quite unlikely I would guess - how deep did you go and how many dives would you say and dive duration?
 
Hey guys i just finished my FII level II freediver and did a lot of diving much deeper than usual. I'm probably just being paranoid but my left arm from my hand to about mid forearm has been tingling pretty consistently since i finished the course. Is there any chance i've got a minor case of DCS?

Edited after trux reply. Im no doctor and Internet forums are no place for diagnosis :)
 
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I looked up level 2 FII, didn't realise you can dive up to 40m. It is possible from what others reported to get DCS from repeated dives to 35m+...

You don't have a PFO by any chance, do you?
 
No Patent Foramen Ovale. i don't think i got bent. I did a week of way more intense diving than i am used to and then I had a 24hr car ride home and probably slept on it weird. But i just wanted to ask in case it was something that raised any alarms with anyone. In the course it was mentioned that people that were in my dive profile were most susceptible to getting bent, and the tingling in my arm just kinda got me paranoid
 
It is hard to tell without knowing anything about your dives, and without knowing anything about you, but DCS certainly can't be excluded. Freedivers get bent far more often then people believe. The main problem is that the symptoms of a mild DCS are very rarely recognized or even considered as a possibility.

If you were warned that you were in a group suspectible to DCS more than others, did repeated deep dives, together with some dehydration, fatigue, fast ascents, or other supporting conditions, DCS is always a possibility.

The wisest would be visiting a specialist, who perhpas can help with the diagnosis. Choose a neurologist who is experienced with treating divers (though finding one who knows something about freediving is a challenge). It is pointless going to one who never heard about scuba diving. You could finish like one of the recent freediving world record holders, who after being clearly and severly hit by DCS (seveal times) during his spearfishing trips, was diagnosed with and treated against epilepsy by inland neurologists, despite that the circumstances and the symptoms were perfectly obvious to anyone who ever heard about DCS.

Internet can't replace a medicin doctor, so your best choice really is a visit at a good specialist. Even if the symptoms were caused by something else, it is perhpas better knowing it anyway. Likely there is no serious problem, but you better get the check anyway.
 
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Totally agree, if you are worried or have out of the norm symptoms check it out with a doctor who knows about diving. It's impossible to get a yes or no in a forum on something like this. I recently read 2 studies on DCS and freediving, like Trux said it does happen more often than people realise and could even happen at fairly shallow depths if other factors mentioned are there.

If you are interested, this is the latest I've read:

Decompression sickness in breath-hold diving.

(You need to open the PDF at the bottom)
 
Thanks for the great information, the symptoms seem to have gone away. Right now i'm just closely monitoring it, and going to attribute it to a rapid climate change (went from 29C to -12C.) The information in that article is really interesting, i typically spearfish at 20-30m for around a 2:00min dive time. Reviewing my watch my 20m dives i have around a 6min surface interval, and longer for deeper dives. So for now i think i'm alright.
 
Don't rely too much on the surface intervals. Freediving DCS is stil purely studied and understood, and the number of cases studied, unlike at scuba, is quite limited. Unfortunately most of advices are based on algortihms and methodics developed for scuba, but there are more factors involved with freediving (especially high CO2 levels, hypoxia, stronger pressure gradients, bradycardia and vasoconstriction, different metabolism and thermoregulation, fast ascents, physical effort, etc, etc.). Look up DCS here on the forum, especially the posts of Eric Fattah. He has been bent several times, and has a lot of experiences to share. His Xen computer is also the only one on the market with an algorithm helping to prevent DCS at freedivers. Eric's opinion is that the surface intervals won't help much. Be sure to check out his comments on this topic. Doing repeted dives to 20-30m during two hours, despite 6 min surface times does not exclude bents. There are couple of things you can change to reduce the risk - for example proper hydratation, slow ascents, short apnea deco-stops, or at least recompression decos, or even deco with compressed air or O2, etc.

If you have the slightest suspiction of past decompression accidents, I would strongly advise visiting a specialist. An MRI and CT scans could reveal neuronal or sceletal necrosis. They may not help with the diagnosis of a light DCS after such a long time, but could detect some damage after repeated cases. I believe that the easiest diagnostics is actually recompression - if the symptoms disapear after recompression, it is a clear sign of bents. So if you ever experience some DCS symptoms in future (incl. unusual fatigue, pain in articulation, especially in shoulders, marmor skin, itching, formication,...) you better contact immediately a diving doctor, and get a check very fast without waiting the next day to see whether it gets better.
 
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