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Scuba Diving: Warning Signs of Being “Bent” after Scuba Diving

You are having an amazing scuba diving experience. You finish your last dive for the day and take a hot shower.  It has been over an hour since you have surfaced and you start to notice that you have a pain in your shoulder. You think that is a strain muscle from all the heavy scuba diving gear: bad, tank, and weights.

The “Bends” or decompression sickness (DCS) is rare in recreational diving, but it still occurs. The dive tables and dive computers have helped lower the rates of getting the Bends. Here are some symptoms to look for in DCS:

Do you have any of the following symptoms:

Pain, numbness, tingling sensations, dizziness, headaches, trouble breathing, uncoordinated, lack of coherence, loss of bladder control, fatigue, nausea.

Did you have a rapid ascent?

Did you have up and down dive (multiple ascents and descents during the dive?

Did you make a quick or no safety stop?

Were you extremely cold, hot, or dehydrated during or after your dive?

Did you injure yourself while underwater or after you surfaced by hitting an object?

If after answering the above questions, you may thing you have DCS, the following steps may save you from the extreme risk of further damage to tissues caused by DCS:

  1. Call DAN - You can call DAN at (919) 684-8111, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Even if you are not a member of DAN, you can get unbiased assistance on evaluating your condition.
  2. Inform the dive resort – Let the dive resort know that you may have DCS. There is nothing to be ashamed of. Once you inform the dive resort, they can get the assistance you need right away.
  3. Visit the doctor – By visiting the doctor experienced in dive medicine, you will get an accurate diagnosis of if this is DCS or not.
  4. Trip to the Chamber – The recompression chamber can cure over 70% of DCS (according to DAN). You will remain in the chamber for 5 hours. In the chamber, the bubbles will be released.
  5. Rest and Recovery – You have to rest after the chamber experience for at least 3 days. No flying or exercising during that time. You may not dive for weeks or months depending on the severity of your DCS and the chances of it occurring again.

Make sure to avoid getting “Bent” by staying hydrated, using safety stops while ascending and longer surface intervals. In other words, Dive Safe!