Okay, went to my doc yesterday (heart guy) and reported in that I am going diving this weekend. He ran a strip, did a listen, and had me wear a holter for 30 minutes. Then pronounced me 'safe to swim'...
His only request was that I use nitrox for most of my dives, since my target dive depth for the dives this weekend is going to be between 12 meters (40ft) and 30 meters (100ft) (pretty much the sweet spot for nitrox).. my heart palpitations (arrhythmia) tend to be 'exercised induced'. That means that when I get stressed (by a hard swim against a current for example) my O2 levels drop (as they do for everyone), and my respiration rate increases (as it does for everyone).. but in my case, I have these little electrical pathways that begin 'auto accelerating' my heart so to speak in order to get more oxygen to my system...
The doc (who is a diver) thinks that by breathing nitrox, I can maintain a higher partial pressure of O2 in my system, and keep my HR more stable, even under some exercise stress.... it's a theory, so he figures it can't hurt to try it and see how I feel.
For those thinking the doc and I are crazy to let me dive... I have 30 dives in six months, and a few with some pretty exhausting swims against the current where I had to stop and rest a couple minutes, but no problems overall... and I haven't had any of the same issues I have say running when I exercise. His assessment after full heart workups and a stress test is that my condition poses no real danger when I dive as long as I manage it like I would above water..
The one thing he wishes we could do is have me wear the holter over the course of a day with about three dives and see what the effect is... guess I might have to schedule a trip and use my dry suit and see how that goes.... for now, a little experiment with EAN.
I might mention that he has about five experiments he wants to run with me... another one he'd like to try is to see if bottom time increased using EAN in terms of improved SAC on successive dives... his theory is that living in Shanghai, my body develops a resistance to fully utilizing the air in each breath due to pollution, and he believes that give the same dive, depth profile, and using EAN over the course of 3-4 dives that having 'clean air' with additional oxygen in it would clear my lungs successively over those dives. Poor doctors that think too much.
Any thoughts?
His only request was that I use nitrox for most of my dives, since my target dive depth for the dives this weekend is going to be between 12 meters (40ft) and 30 meters (100ft) (pretty much the sweet spot for nitrox).. my heart palpitations (arrhythmia) tend to be 'exercised induced'. That means that when I get stressed (by a hard swim against a current for example) my O2 levels drop (as they do for everyone), and my respiration rate increases (as it does for everyone).. but in my case, I have these little electrical pathways that begin 'auto accelerating' my heart so to speak in order to get more oxygen to my system...
The doc (who is a diver) thinks that by breathing nitrox, I can maintain a higher partial pressure of O2 in my system, and keep my HR more stable, even under some exercise stress.... it's a theory, so he figures it can't hurt to try it and see how I feel.
For those thinking the doc and I are crazy to let me dive... I have 30 dives in six months, and a few with some pretty exhausting swims against the current where I had to stop and rest a couple minutes, but no problems overall... and I haven't had any of the same issues I have say running when I exercise. His assessment after full heart workups and a stress test is that my condition poses no real danger when I dive as long as I manage it like I would above water..
The one thing he wishes we could do is have me wear the holter over the course of a day with about three dives and see what the effect is... guess I might have to schedule a trip and use my dry suit and see how that goes.... for now, a little experiment with EAN.
I might mention that he has about five experiments he wants to run with me... another one he'd like to try is to see if bottom time increased using EAN in terms of improved SAC on successive dives... his theory is that living in Shanghai, my body develops a resistance to fully utilizing the air in each breath due to pollution, and he believes that give the same dive, depth profile, and using EAN over the course of 3-4 dives that having 'clean air' with additional oxygen in it would clear my lungs successively over those dives. Poor doctors that think too much.
Any thoughts?