I woke up to a migraine and aching body, and continued Bali Belly. My head was throbbing with any movement, and I had health concerns that I could be suffering from decompression sickness (DCS). DCS is a serious condition that can happen to scuba divers from breathing in excessive nitrogen from the tank. The symptoms and effects can be very dangerous, and sometimes fatal. During my scuba certification training, we learned all about DCS, and how to avoid and prevent it. Nothing about my 3 dives the day prior came close to the no decompression limits set for divers safety, so it didn’t make sense. I dove for 5 straight days on Gili T, but the day off diving afterwards should have reset any accumulative effects. I thought perhaps my dehydration could have contributed to it, and given the severity of the condition, it best to play it safe. I had a flight booked out to my next destination, Kathmandu, Nepal that night, which I would have to miss.
I took a grab cab to the nearest place that can treat decompression sickness, an ER about an hour away from Uluwatu. Here, by the time I filled out the paperwork and actually saw the doctor, my head started to feel slightly better. I told the doctor everything that happened to me the past couple of days, and shared the details of my dives. The doctor diagnosed decompression sickness based off anecdotal evidence, as there is no way to test for DCS. He gave a prognosis for two days hospitalization and two days of 5 hour sessions in the hyperbaric chamber, a recompression chamber that is the only way to treat decompression sickness. The nurse showed me the bill of 121 million Indonesian Rupiah, or roughly $7,800USD. My travel insurance company said this treatment is not covered in my plan. I decided to lay low for the day, rehydrate, and then to reevaluate tomorrow. The only treatment of DCS is through the chamber, so if my condition improves on its own, then it couldn’t be DCS. After I grabbed a couple prescriptions from the doctor, cabbed back to Uluwatu, and checked into a new homestay. I spent the rest of the day chugging water and watching TV and movies on my computer until I fell asleep before sundown.