DavidDavidson
New
Hi there, considering it's my first post.
I've been doing diving since I was 13 and had gotten up to PADI rescue diver, emergency first response and all of that, life was good, I was volunteering for the dive club and getting hundreds of £ of free dives provided I wash kit, carry tanks and generally make sure everything was good for the day, some days I'd be told I'd not be diving but instead provide surface support; the diving club was thinking about taking me on as an apprentice and getting me to instructor as all the people who ran the club liked my attitude; putting on BCDs for other divers while already carrying my own heavy one on my back, giving them tips and knowing the manuals back to front they essentially said I was a natural instructor, in those exact words. I even helped rescue a buddy (it was me, the instructor and two buddies for him but the vis was so bad I had to keep hands onto the instructor's tank so I knew where I was going, the other buddy somehow dropped his weights and ended up drysuit legs up while we swam out to right him, make sure he was okay and get him in the RIB.
All of this changed when I got mangled as a pedestrian by a speeding seven seater. I broke my leg, tore both my ACL and PCL and have been told that I'll need a knee replacement before I'm 30; unfortunately young men 'don't feel pain' according to the NHS so I was given some tramadol and told to live with it, I knew someone with easy access to oxycodone so I used that until that source dried up, extracted the morphine from poppy heads for a year and a half (which I felt was DIY substitution) but eventually ended up on Heroin due to the people I was friends with.
Since then I've been on a substitution programme (subutex first then methadone when I told them I couldn't stand the insomnia, sleep paralysis and hypnogogic hallucinations (such as hearing totally random discussions in my head just before I fell asleep) so far I've got clean urine (albeit except for benzo use in some extremely stressful times) for over two years of being 'on the programme'
Naturally I don't want anyone getting hurt on account of what I'm prescribed so I was thinking ask my substitution doctor, if he okays me let my diving instructor know; they're a nice bunch, who would want to make diving into an opportunity for change; I've never seen them hold a grudge against anyone and I've been told I'd be welcome back there; though I've not mentioned my situation yet; just mailed him to ask if he'll be a guarantor on job applications. Personally if they did okay me I'd do a pool dive review then go from 10m dives to 20 then 30m dives progressively to see if depth has any effect, though the methadone itself doesn't affect me in any way and would be taken at night, after a day's diving; rather than before diving. Trust with subutex/methadone was a big thing and I'd managed to build up enough with my key worker and prescribing doctor to ask for extended prescriptions for music festivals (sans proof) and have gone from daily prescriptions to only going to the pharmacy on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (which I've been asked "How'd you manage that" by people on the m'done programme much longer than me and my reply was simply "look sober (aka be sober) in the pharmacy, give clean urine and look sober when talking to your key worker" they've moved my prescriptions from weekly to fortnightly to monthly so I could potentially just have to go to the pharmacy once a week soon, for 'good behaviour'.
Really it's for the pain in my leg which a recent X-ray showed bone spines on my tibia and a thinning of the meniscus (cartilage membrane) so there's reason to feel it.
What are your thoughts? Honestly I would never dive if I felt in any way 'high' or if I'd recently taken a long lasting benzo (eg diazepam) for the dentist, or at least I'd disclose this quietly to the dive shop owner and he could make up his own mind.
The only problem I can foresee is being narked at depth and it having a higher effect on me, though I have nitrox qualifications so I'd be able to go relatively deep (keeping partial pressure in mind) with a lesser chance of narcosis.
What are your thoughts/feelings
I've been doing diving since I was 13 and had gotten up to PADI rescue diver, emergency first response and all of that, life was good, I was volunteering for the dive club and getting hundreds of £ of free dives provided I wash kit, carry tanks and generally make sure everything was good for the day, some days I'd be told I'd not be diving but instead provide surface support; the diving club was thinking about taking me on as an apprentice and getting me to instructor as all the people who ran the club liked my attitude; putting on BCDs for other divers while already carrying my own heavy one on my back, giving them tips and knowing the manuals back to front they essentially said I was a natural instructor, in those exact words. I even helped rescue a buddy (it was me, the instructor and two buddies for him but the vis was so bad I had to keep hands onto the instructor's tank so I knew where I was going, the other buddy somehow dropped his weights and ended up drysuit legs up while we swam out to right him, make sure he was okay and get him in the RIB.
All of this changed when I got mangled as a pedestrian by a speeding seven seater. I broke my leg, tore both my ACL and PCL and have been told that I'll need a knee replacement before I'm 30; unfortunately young men 'don't feel pain' according to the NHS so I was given some tramadol and told to live with it, I knew someone with easy access to oxycodone so I used that until that source dried up, extracted the morphine from poppy heads for a year and a half (which I felt was DIY substitution) but eventually ended up on Heroin due to the people I was friends with.
Since then I've been on a substitution programme (subutex first then methadone when I told them I couldn't stand the insomnia, sleep paralysis and hypnogogic hallucinations (such as hearing totally random discussions in my head just before I fell asleep) so far I've got clean urine (albeit except for benzo use in some extremely stressful times) for over two years of being 'on the programme'
Naturally I don't want anyone getting hurt on account of what I'm prescribed so I was thinking ask my substitution doctor, if he okays me let my diving instructor know; they're a nice bunch, who would want to make diving into an opportunity for change; I've never seen them hold a grudge against anyone and I've been told I'd be welcome back there; though I've not mentioned my situation yet; just mailed him to ask if he'll be a guarantor on job applications. Personally if they did okay me I'd do a pool dive review then go from 10m dives to 20 then 30m dives progressively to see if depth has any effect, though the methadone itself doesn't affect me in any way and would be taken at night, after a day's diving; rather than before diving. Trust with subutex/methadone was a big thing and I'd managed to build up enough with my key worker and prescribing doctor to ask for extended prescriptions for music festivals (sans proof) and have gone from daily prescriptions to only going to the pharmacy on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (which I've been asked "How'd you manage that" by people on the m'done programme much longer than me and my reply was simply "look sober (aka be sober) in the pharmacy, give clean urine and look sober when talking to your key worker" they've moved my prescriptions from weekly to fortnightly to monthly so I could potentially just have to go to the pharmacy once a week soon, for 'good behaviour'.
Really it's for the pain in my leg which a recent X-ray showed bone spines on my tibia and a thinning of the meniscus (cartilage membrane) so there's reason to feel it.
What are your thoughts? Honestly I would never dive if I felt in any way 'high' or if I'd recently taken a long lasting benzo (eg diazepam) for the dentist, or at least I'd disclose this quietly to the dive shop owner and he could make up his own mind.
The only problem I can foresee is being narked at depth and it having a higher effect on me, though I have nitrox qualifications so I'd be able to go relatively deep (keeping partial pressure in mind) with a lesser chance of narcosis.
What are your thoughts/feelings
