Hi list,

     The list has been understandably quiet for some days now, I'm pretty
sure all of us has been pretty shocked by what happened to the U.S. Let us
continue praying for the souls of those who perished and for those who are
still trapped in the rubble that they may be rescued in time.

    Anyway, I again need to ask something dive-related. How many of you
guys here have had DCS ? I'm especially curious to those who had the
less-severe DCS with less symptoms. Reason I'm asking was that I just had a
DCS-scare. I think I had a paranoia attack where I thought that I had DCS
due to my dives last Sept. 1-2. I know that it's been a long time (about 12
days) but the thing is - I had a nagging slight dull ache in my shoulder
since that dive. Plus I always felt sleepy and exhausted.
    These are the only 2 "symptoms" that I had and hence the problem in
determining whether I have DCS.

    Let me give you a background of my dive :
        1. Left Singapore Aug. 31 (Fri) night (around 8:30 pm) and rode via
a cramp van to Mersing, Malaysia for a ferry ride. The van ride was about 4
hrs. with a 30 min. dinner-stopover in-between.
        2. At Mersing (12:30 pm) we carried our heavy dive gears (I carried
the gears for me and my gf plus some other 'extra' gears brought by the
dive shop) from the van to the ferry. We rode the ferry 'till 4:30 am
(Sat.) to Pulau Dayang where we will dive - I had some sleep during the
ferry ride.
        3. Arriving at Dayang, carried our gears to the room. Prepared some
stuff and then went to sleep. At 8 am we woke up, had breakfast and then
did 3 dives during the day.
        4. Slept around 10 pm then woke up at 7 am (Sun) for 2 more dives
'till 12:00 pm. 2 dives were kinda exhausting since there was a slight
current. Lunch, rinse dive gear, pack up, carry stuff to ferry which left
at 1:30 pm for Mersing (6 pm).
       5. Carry stuff from ferry to van. Ride back to Singapore. Arrive at
home about 11:30 pm then rinse dive gears again 'till about 1 am then sleep
'coz need to go to work.

    So base on this, I would really feel exhausted and sleepy plus my
shoulder muscles would really get sore 'coz of the stuff I had to carry. I
also had a dislocated shoulder when I was in high school, which makes my
left shoulder more prone to aching and soreness than my right - and if I
carried stuff the wrong way my left shoulder would have sharp pains. Ever
since that dive, I had been so busy at work (even working on a Saturday)
and had several things to do that I really had no time to rest. I haven't
had a day where I woke up without the alarm clock ringing. So then, how
would I know if the 'symptoms' that I had were due to DCS or just pure
exhaustion and heat ?

   Anyway I did call up the Singapore Hyperbaric centre for an appointment.
They referred me first to a doctor for a preliminary 'phone' diagnosis -
after several questions over the phone the doctor said that I don't have
DCS. He said that if I had DCS the shoulder pain would've gotten worse. And
I would've noticed it getting worse especially 1 - 2 days after the dive.

   I want to know if you guys (or your friends) ever had DCS whose symptoms
were so slight that you did not take notice at first ? How did the you (or
the doctor) finally recognize this as DCS ? I'm more curious of these less
severe DCS - I mean hey, if I fainted, had a severe headache and kept
throwing up or had severe joint pains there would no doubt that I had DCS -
no questions asked. But for slight symptoms - how would I know ?


- Angelo