The last day of april I made a wonderful dive on a deep wreck off the coast of Cavalaire, France, with two buddies. 18 minutes bottom time at 64m/210ft in clear water without any current. Ascent as planned. At a depth of 7m/23ft I started to get this dull, tired feeling in my left shoulder muscles. A meter higher, while switching to oxygen, that feeling of muscle ache turned into a sharp, hot, stinging pain. Throughout the stop the oxygen didn't improve the situation. I extended the stop, but no improvement. Ascending resulted in even more pain, it took me 12 minutes to reach the surface.
Back on the boat I continued breathing oxygen on the way back to the harbor. Once back, while sitting in the car and trying to deny the pain away, I called DAN for advice. Within 4 or 5 minutes, a hyperbaric physician was added to the phonecall and he decided recompression was necessary. Nearest chamber in Saint-Anne hospital, Toulon, was 40 minutes away. By the time I arrived there, my own O2 stage was empty.
And that's where the frustration starts. Apparently in France it costs money to visit your GP, but the emergency services in the hospital are free of charge. I arrived at 8pm at Saint-Anne in Toulon, in a waiting room with 20 people, breathing from my 2nd oxygen stage. I was registered at the desk and told to wait in line for all those "emergencies".
DAN called to check if I was in the chamber. The doctor was annoyed to hear that the hospital staff put me in line to wait for one of the two attending doctors. The urgency simply failed to register with these people.
The team from the recompression facility told me that they were called around 10pm, it took them half an hour to drive to the facility and another 20 minutes to locate me and prepare everything. 5 hours and 20 minutes after surfacing I finally went down to 18m/60ft and was switched to 100% oxygen (with airbreaks) for a B18 treatment (I guess Comex table).
All this time I was anxiously waiting for that descent. So the pain would stop. It didn't. It got worse and after 45 minutes I didn't know whether to sit, lie down on my back or on my side, every position was simply uncomfortably painful. An hour after the start I was brought up to 9m during 30 minutes. 100 minutes into the chamber-dive, the pain finally started to diminish. When I got out, the pain was gone, the only thing left was a very tired feeling in my shoulder.
10 hours later I went back down to 15m on oxygen (with airbreaks) for a good hour with a much faster ascent at the end. No signs/symptoms of anything residual.
It's the first time I experienced this and hopefully also the last time. My main concern now is how to prevent this the next time. ECG was fine, blood came back from the lab fine, neuro check was excellent, pulmonary checks fine, and the diveplan was followed as planned (15/45 trimix, EAN50 and O2, GF40/75). Computer profiles where compared from my SW and a team member's SW, the chamber staff concluded that I was simply unlucky on this dive.
Then again, you can also see it as a sports injury. Strains and sprains take longer to heal and happen all the time in numerous other sports. This experience has not scared me away from diving. I went back into the water yesterday evening for a shallow dive, using the two EAN50 stages I had left. Came out with a big smile on my face and feeling great.
Back on the boat I continued breathing oxygen on the way back to the harbor. Once back, while sitting in the car and trying to deny the pain away, I called DAN for advice. Within 4 or 5 minutes, a hyperbaric physician was added to the phonecall and he decided recompression was necessary. Nearest chamber in Saint-Anne hospital, Toulon, was 40 minutes away. By the time I arrived there, my own O2 stage was empty.
And that's where the frustration starts. Apparently in France it costs money to visit your GP, but the emergency services in the hospital are free of charge. I arrived at 8pm at Saint-Anne in Toulon, in a waiting room with 20 people, breathing from my 2nd oxygen stage. I was registered at the desk and told to wait in line for all those "emergencies".
DAN called to check if I was in the chamber. The doctor was annoyed to hear that the hospital staff put me in line to wait for one of the two attending doctors. The urgency simply failed to register with these people.
The team from the recompression facility told me that they were called around 10pm, it took them half an hour to drive to the facility and another 20 minutes to locate me and prepare everything. 5 hours and 20 minutes after surfacing I finally went down to 18m/60ft and was switched to 100% oxygen (with airbreaks) for a B18 treatment (I guess Comex table).
All this time I was anxiously waiting for that descent. So the pain would stop. It didn't. It got worse and after 45 minutes I didn't know whether to sit, lie down on my back or on my side, every position was simply uncomfortably painful. An hour after the start I was brought up to 9m during 30 minutes. 100 minutes into the chamber-dive, the pain finally started to diminish. When I got out, the pain was gone, the only thing left was a very tired feeling in my shoulder.
10 hours later I went back down to 15m on oxygen (with airbreaks) for a good hour with a much faster ascent at the end. No signs/symptoms of anything residual.
It's the first time I experienced this and hopefully also the last time. My main concern now is how to prevent this the next time. ECG was fine, blood came back from the lab fine, neuro check was excellent, pulmonary checks fine, and the diveplan was followed as planned (15/45 trimix, EAN50 and O2, GF40/75). Computer profiles where compared from my SW and a team member's SW, the chamber staff concluded that I was simply unlucky on this dive.
Then again, you can also see it as a sports injury. Strains and sprains take longer to heal and happen all the time in numerous other sports. This experience has not scared me away from diving. I went back into the water yesterday evening for a shallow dive, using the two EAN50 stages I had left. Came out with a big smile on my face and feeling great.
