golan
New
Hi all,
I few weeks ago I had a treatment in the chamber. I'm now fine, but would like t share with you guys what happend in search of a lesson/explanation/etc if there's one there. I'm posting this on this forum as I think it's the right one. If not, please feel free to point me to where this belongs (and apologies in that case).
I certified like 20 years ago and dived for a few years. Then stopped for like 13 years due to other stuff going on in my life. Last year, I started travelling across South East Asia and all was fine. I obviously took a refresher course and then went to do fun dives plus certify with PADI (AOW + Rescue diver. I was initially CMAS *). I had been diving Vietnam and Thailand with no problems for a number of days. During my stay in Thailand, I moved to the Andaman sea to explore the diving there, in Koh Lanta. I did three days of diving, and the third day didn't feel right. They were two very long dives (I usually do 45 minutes dives, but with these ones I was given a 15L tank that allowed me to stay longer, as I tend to breathe more than others). More than one hour each, SI 1h 25 minutes. The planed dive was for about 50-55 minutes if I recall correctly.
I was at all times following my divemaster and I also was carrying a dive computer with me that I had bought a few days before (Suunto D4i).
You can see the profiles as I extracted them from the software that comes with the suunto here:
1st: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9XyWZEoJJ53NFdGVm5kdU9UeGlPbmJDdHVCeXludw
2nd: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9XyWZEoJJ53THJTdFZxSW9URUtBUXdWbGxGNHVUdw
Things to note, the first dive's profile was not an ideal profile, I can see that. Also, on the first dive, at the end of it, I got an alert from my dive computer (when going from 12 to 8 meters) for quick ascent, which made me slow down and stop and then I did the security stop. I didn't go up until my computer said it was ok to go up and also my ascent after it was correct (as far as I know). It seems very steep there but I think it's because the dive was very long and it's squeezed in on that PDF. In any case, I usually ascend slower than most people so I'm usually the last one to get to the surface and as far as I remember, that was the case there. At no point during the dive, I got to less than 20 minutes of no deco time. I was diving with three other people apart from the dive master and as far as I know, no one had problems (although I think two of them were on nitrox)
The only thing I can tell about these dives is that right after them I had to go pee urgently. I usually pee very frequently and I had been drinking water before the dive, with electrolytes to avoid dehydration. So as soon as I was on the boat I had to run to the toilet to urinate. 10 minutes later I was urinating again (after drinking some more water). I tell this just in case this could be a case of dehydration. I find it very difficult to urinate while diving as I would require total concentration to urinate anyway. I guess the urge to urinate is understandable if I spend an hour under the water after drinking lots of water.
So, I didn't get any problems during the SI or after the dived. When I went back to my room I felt very tired, but I usually get tired after diving and this subsided during the evening, during which time I felt ok. Same thing following morning, but just in the afternoon I started to feel generally unwell and a bit dizzy and lightheaded. I don't know, as if something was off. I didn't have any other symptoms apart from that. No pain, no numbness, no tingling, etc. I asked the guys at the dive shop and they said that it shouldn't be DCI as per the symptoms.
Anyway, the following day I had to fly to the Gulf of Thailand, as I wanted to dive there again. This was 48 hours after my dive and felt ok during the flight. later on in the day I felt very tired again. The flight was a short one, 45 mins on a propeller-type plane which was probably pressurised, but don't know how much. So, as I had been feeling like that, the following day I went to the hospital to see a diving doctor, just in case. He did a quick checkup on me and said everything was fine and possibly related to dehydration. I also gave the london chamber's guys a call and they suggested me to go back to the doctor in a couple of days if the symptoms were still there, just to make sure.
During he following days, I still felt dizzy the day after and fine the second day in the afternoon, but on the 3rd day (after going to the hospital) I was dizzy again, so I went to the hospital again. This dizziness/lightheadedness was very very mild, kind of what you get when you are sitting and you stand up very quickly. Back at the hospital the doctor performed a neurological analysis which showed that I was fine (balance, hot-cold, numbness check, etc), but he was not so sure about DCI, so he decided to put me in the chamber just in case to be on the safe side of things. I was given a US Navy table 6 treatment in the chamber ( 5 hours). During this treatment I panicked a bit (the chamber was in Koh Samui and is not very big) and was given a sedative which made things easier. From that point onwards I felt OK in the chamber, but difficult to say whether the dizziness had gone or not as you can't barely stand up there.
The day after the chamber I had a re-evaluation and I still was feeling a bit lightheaded and dizzy, so he thought that it was probably not DCI-related and maybe inner-ear related. I got some anti sea-sickness pills (which made me very sleepy during the first day) and was discharged from the hospital.
On the second day after the treatment in the chamber the dizziness and lightheadedness were gone. I flew a few days after all this to Australia and have been feeling fine. I went to a diving doctor in AU just to double check with his opinion and he gave me the fit-to-dive cert (or whatever it's called) saying that probably all of that was related to DCI, in a very mildly way. I have, however, grounded myself for a few months just in case as I don't really feel confident now about diving. When I'm back in London I'll go see the diving doctors and will have medical checkups with them, to double check and discuss this case.
I'm generally fit, no fat at all and usually keep myself active by swimming and working out. I did not work out or engage in strenuous work before or after those dives. From that I usually have low heartbeat rate while resting and generally low blood pressure.
So, I'm still trying to figure out what could have been the case here so I would like to know your opinion on things that I could have done better, suggestions etc. I have a feeling that it might have been DCI related, but obviously I have no evidence to support it, rather a feeling because I was feeling unwell. No idea if I was aggravating the whole thing because I was feeling stressed too.
This whole incident has put me under a lot of stress while it was ongoing, as it was not fun at all.Anyway, I don't want you guys to start making hypothesis, etc, just wanted to share it with you and know your opinion for things I could have done better. If I go back diving, I'm am now more aware of all these issues and how serious they can be, making me put more emphasis on the safety stops (maybe doing 5 minutes instead of 3) and paying al of attention to the ascent rate. Apart from having an extensive look at the dive plan and avoid long dives with divemasters and people who want to do very long dives, I guess.
In any case, thanks for reading this long. I appreciate any comments you might have.
Cheers.
I few weeks ago I had a treatment in the chamber. I'm now fine, but would like t share with you guys what happend in search of a lesson/explanation/etc if there's one there. I'm posting this on this forum as I think it's the right one. If not, please feel free to point me to where this belongs (and apologies in that case).
I certified like 20 years ago and dived for a few years. Then stopped for like 13 years due to other stuff going on in my life. Last year, I started travelling across South East Asia and all was fine. I obviously took a refresher course and then went to do fun dives plus certify with PADI (AOW + Rescue diver. I was initially CMAS *). I had been diving Vietnam and Thailand with no problems for a number of days. During my stay in Thailand, I moved to the Andaman sea to explore the diving there, in Koh Lanta. I did three days of diving, and the third day didn't feel right. They were two very long dives (I usually do 45 minutes dives, but with these ones I was given a 15L tank that allowed me to stay longer, as I tend to breathe more than others). More than one hour each, SI 1h 25 minutes. The planed dive was for about 50-55 minutes if I recall correctly.
I was at all times following my divemaster and I also was carrying a dive computer with me that I had bought a few days before (Suunto D4i).
You can see the profiles as I extracted them from the software that comes with the suunto here:
1st: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9XyWZEoJJ53NFdGVm5kdU9UeGlPbmJDdHVCeXludw
2nd: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9XyWZEoJJ53THJTdFZxSW9URUtBUXdWbGxGNHVUdw
Things to note, the first dive's profile was not an ideal profile, I can see that. Also, on the first dive, at the end of it, I got an alert from my dive computer (when going from 12 to 8 meters) for quick ascent, which made me slow down and stop and then I did the security stop. I didn't go up until my computer said it was ok to go up and also my ascent after it was correct (as far as I know). It seems very steep there but I think it's because the dive was very long and it's squeezed in on that PDF. In any case, I usually ascend slower than most people so I'm usually the last one to get to the surface and as far as I remember, that was the case there. At no point during the dive, I got to less than 20 minutes of no deco time. I was diving with three other people apart from the dive master and as far as I know, no one had problems (although I think two of them were on nitrox)
The only thing I can tell about these dives is that right after them I had to go pee urgently. I usually pee very frequently and I had been drinking water before the dive, with electrolytes to avoid dehydration. So as soon as I was on the boat I had to run to the toilet to urinate. 10 minutes later I was urinating again (after drinking some more water). I tell this just in case this could be a case of dehydration. I find it very difficult to urinate while diving as I would require total concentration to urinate anyway. I guess the urge to urinate is understandable if I spend an hour under the water after drinking lots of water.
So, I didn't get any problems during the SI or after the dived. When I went back to my room I felt very tired, but I usually get tired after diving and this subsided during the evening, during which time I felt ok. Same thing following morning, but just in the afternoon I started to feel generally unwell and a bit dizzy and lightheaded. I don't know, as if something was off. I didn't have any other symptoms apart from that. No pain, no numbness, no tingling, etc. I asked the guys at the dive shop and they said that it shouldn't be DCI as per the symptoms.
Anyway, the following day I had to fly to the Gulf of Thailand, as I wanted to dive there again. This was 48 hours after my dive and felt ok during the flight. later on in the day I felt very tired again. The flight was a short one, 45 mins on a propeller-type plane which was probably pressurised, but don't know how much. So, as I had been feeling like that, the following day I went to the hospital to see a diving doctor, just in case. He did a quick checkup on me and said everything was fine and possibly related to dehydration. I also gave the london chamber's guys a call and they suggested me to go back to the doctor in a couple of days if the symptoms were still there, just to make sure.
During he following days, I still felt dizzy the day after and fine the second day in the afternoon, but on the 3rd day (after going to the hospital) I was dizzy again, so I went to the hospital again. This dizziness/lightheadedness was very very mild, kind of what you get when you are sitting and you stand up very quickly. Back at the hospital the doctor performed a neurological analysis which showed that I was fine (balance, hot-cold, numbness check, etc), but he was not so sure about DCI, so he decided to put me in the chamber just in case to be on the safe side of things. I was given a US Navy table 6 treatment in the chamber ( 5 hours). During this treatment I panicked a bit (the chamber was in Koh Samui and is not very big) and was given a sedative which made things easier. From that point onwards I felt OK in the chamber, but difficult to say whether the dizziness had gone or not as you can't barely stand up there.
The day after the chamber I had a re-evaluation and I still was feeling a bit lightheaded and dizzy, so he thought that it was probably not DCI-related and maybe inner-ear related. I got some anti sea-sickness pills (which made me very sleepy during the first day) and was discharged from the hospital.
On the second day after the treatment in the chamber the dizziness and lightheadedness were gone. I flew a few days after all this to Australia and have been feeling fine. I went to a diving doctor in AU just to double check with his opinion and he gave me the fit-to-dive cert (or whatever it's called) saying that probably all of that was related to DCI, in a very mildly way. I have, however, grounded myself for a few months just in case as I don't really feel confident now about diving. When I'm back in London I'll go see the diving doctors and will have medical checkups with them, to double check and discuss this case.
I'm generally fit, no fat at all and usually keep myself active by swimming and working out. I did not work out or engage in strenuous work before or after those dives. From that I usually have low heartbeat rate while resting and generally low blood pressure.
So, I'm still trying to figure out what could have been the case here so I would like to know your opinion on things that I could have done better, suggestions etc. I have a feeling that it might have been DCI related, but obviously I have no evidence to support it, rather a feeling because I was feeling unwell. No idea if I was aggravating the whole thing because I was feeling stressed too.
This whole incident has put me under a lot of stress while it was ongoing, as it was not fun at all.Anyway, I don't want you guys to start making hypothesis, etc, just wanted to share it with you and know your opinion for things I could have done better. If I go back diving, I'm am now more aware of all these issues and how serious they can be, making me put more emphasis on the safety stops (maybe doing 5 minutes instead of 3) and paying al of attention to the ascent rate. Apart from having an extensive look at the dive plan and avoid long dives with divemasters and people who want to do very long dives, I guess.
In any case, thanks for reading this long. I appreciate any comments you might have.
Cheers.
