I went diving in Belize from June 27th to June 29th of 2006. The first two days I did two dives each, at a maximum depth of 80 feet. The third day I did three dives, the first at the Blue Hole (130 feet), the second at 80 feet, and the third at 50 feet.
Since the very first day of diving I felt a little lightheaded and was very tired and thirsty, and slept quite a bit, but I thought I was merely a bit dehydrated and physically exhausted. On June 30 I took the day off from diving, and at about noon I started feeling tingling, numbness and stabbing pains in my lower extremities. There were also bruises all over my legs and my ankles were slightly swollen, but in retrospect I am not 100% sure that the bruises were not from having bumped into the boat on the previous days.
I went to the emergency room and was taken to the hyperbaric chamber, where I was given a five-hour treatment that afternoon and two subsequent two-hour treatments the following day. I waited 72 hours before flying back home to Los Angeles on July 4th.
The following two days after my arrival things seemed to be okay. However, on the third day I started feeling minor tingling and numbness in my legs again, and dizziness and lightheadedness. I almost passed out completely on July 9th, and was taken to the emergency room. My life has been a living hell since. I started experiencing all types of different symptoms ranging from severe dizziness, headaches, pressure all over my head (and I do mean all over), in my sinuses, and in my ears. The dizziness is not rotational, meaning, the room does not spin, but it is more like being constantly and acutely lightheaded. My primary health care physician did not know what to do. Therefore, she referred me to a doctor at UCLA, where they have a hyperbaric chamber. Dr. Lieber told me that at this point he did not think further hyperbaric treatment would help me. He suggested I see an ENT, and a neurologist. By then, the numbness and tingling in my lower extremities was gone, but the dizziness and the headaches and pressure were increasing.
I have consulted with the ENT, who did a hearing test that showed slight hearing loss in my right ear. I did have some right ear pain as I went into the hyperbaric chamber, and there was some redness (according to the doctor in Belize), but that had cleared by the time I came home. A CT scan of my head was done and the results were normal. The dizziness increased and the ENT ordered an inner ear balance test (I do not remember the exact name of the test), and the results were normal.
I consulted with a neurologist, who ordered a brain MRI. There are three tiny spots on the MRI, two in the white matter, one in the gray matter closer to the corpus callosum, but because they were so tiny she did not think they represented any major illness, such as multiple sclerosis. Because I was still dizzy and had severe pressure in my head, I requested a second opinion. The second neurologist did not think it was anything serious either, but sent me to have a Visual Evoked Response test to further rule out MS, and the results were normal.
My health problems continue with very slight improvement. My primary care physician referred me to a psychiatrist to figure out whether the symptoms are related to posttraumatic stress syndrome, but the psychiatrist did not think so, and is treating me for depression. She said counselling is a must. I am still dizzy, I have developed nausea, and the pressure in my head has subsided somewhat but it is still quite problematic. The neurologist suggested a spinal tap to rule to multiple sclerosis completely, but she is 95% sure that that is not what I have.
At this point, any comments or input would be welcome, not only from a doctor but from anyone else who may have experienced the same symptoms after a hit. My life has changed completely. I am constantly tired, fatigued, quite depressed because of the situation, and feel absolutely hopeless. One thing that seriously affects me is the looks I get from my doctors, sometimes I think they don't believe me. Also, the psychiatrist, who was probably the one who was most honest with me, tells me that I may have to learn how to live with this situation, if in fact there has been permanent nerve damage done. She has also mentioned that according to the little research he has done into diving medicine, there are many things we still do not know about how pressure affects the human body.
I think it is important for people to recognize very early the symptoms of decompression illness. I was somewhat lightheaded even from the first day after diving, but I thought it was due to dehydration or perhaps too much sun. We may never know all the factors that caused this hit. I am a 40-year-old woman who was very passionate about life prior to this incident, and I am trying to get my life back, which has proven to be quite a challenge.
Update – December 2006:
The last bit of news to share is that in my quest to find relief, I found various links to studies about oxygen treatment in a hyperbaric chamber, but not at the pressure used for emergency treatment after diving hits. HBOT (hyperbaric oxygen treatment) has been successfully used to treat all kinds of conditions related to brain damage, and I am hoping to undergo this treatment soon. Dr. Philip B. James, of the Wolfson Hyperbaric Medicine Unit at the University of Dundee in Scotland is an expert on the topic. He has been most helpful in providing information about how this treatment can possibly help me and other divers who have suffered any damage. You can read about him at: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/surgery/hyperbaric/whoswho.htm
Also, the following clinic has an excellent website with over 800 pages of information about oxygen treatment: http://www.hbot4u.com/index.html
I have not had the treatment yet, but I will post an update after I do. In the meantime, I hope you find the reading as interesting and useful as I did.
You can contact me at: mvdicono@yahoo.com. Thank you for reading, and I hope you are well. I will welcome any input.