CaptainHornblower
Registered
Fortunately, this as an incident, and not an accident, because I'm the incidentee. I'll describe the incident as accurately as I can and let's see if you pick up what neither my instructor, my wife nor I figured out at the time.
Situation: My wife and I show up at a dive shop and ask about working on our advanced scuba certification. IÃÎ 57 years old, 5'10", 182 lbs and in reasonably good condition; my wife is 48, 5'9", 145 lbs and in good aerobic condition. When discussing our physical abilities with an instructor I explained that I worked out several times a week and wife runs 5 to 7 days a week.
My wife is newly certified, has a few open water dives and wants to get in more supervised dives. I had only a few dives in the last 10 years; I was certified in 1972 (this was in 2008) and have NAUI and YMCA certifications. My dive experience included approximately 50 dives including numerous night dives and a few down to 130 feet. WeÃÅ been in Hawaii two months earlier and Linda had done a couple open water dives while IÃÅ snorkeled for several hours (I didnÃÕ scuba due to a head cold). Both of us had all new top of the line equipment, Poseidon Jetstream regs, Oceanic Pro Plus 2 computers, etc. I wanted to check out a dry suit so they agree that part of the certification dives would include dry suit and altitude (the dives would be in Lake Tahoe at appx 6,000 feet).
We arrived at the dive site early Saturday morning for our first dive. My guess is that, from the instructor's perspective, we appeared very inexperienced, a little nervous and way over equipped for our skill level. We got to the lake and made our entrance, we both needed help donning our equipment, my wife because she was inexperienced in shore diving, me because all my equipment was new and it was the first time I had tried a dry suit. I also felt a little under the weather that morning which I attributed to a little too much wine the night before. First the instructor worked with me on drysuit skills in about 15 feet of water. I did ok, kind of, but I got very winded doing the summersault-like maneuver; after completing the maneuver I had trouble catching my breath while on the bottom at 15 feet, it felt like I was over-breathing my regulator. Then he worked with both of us on our buoyancy skills, which was a struggle too as Linda hadnÃÕ dove in fresh water and I was messing with the dry suit. All in all it was an iffy day and we bagged it after the first dive and went home.
We showed up early the next morning. I was feeling much better; weÃÅ just had one glass of wine with dinner and had gone to bed early. We started getting suited up and I realized IÃÅ forgotten to bring socks, so I put on my wetsuit. We got in the water and I felt very restricted in my movement. After donning our equipment we started a short 100 foot snorkel to where weÃÅ descend. Just trying to snorkel that short distance I got completely winded and actually had to roll over and the instructor towed me back to the shallow water. Not 2 months before IÃÅ snorkeled for over an hour straight in Hawaii; I practice martial arts three days a week for an hour and a half per class; I was at a loss as to what was going on. The only thing I could think of was that my wetsuit was too tight and restricted my breathing.
After resting for a couple of hours I felt much better and did the afternoon dive in the drysuit with out socks. The instructor, obviously concerned after the morningÃÔ events, kept my wife and I very shallow and we just worked on buoyancy. I mentioned to him that I felt as though I was over-breathing my regulator, which he correctly pointed out was almost impossible with a Poseidon Jetstream.
Any thoughts out there as to what was up with me?
Four months later I was diagnosed with persistent arterial fibrillation. ThatÃÔ when the top half of the heart beats very fast and irregularly making it extremely inefficient at pumping blood. IÃÅ had a medical earlier that year and passed with flying colors! What was happening is that my heart would beat in a sinus rhythm (normal and working well) for a while, then would start fibrillating for a while (hum, all of a sudden IÃÅ feel out of breath for no reason at all), and then after 5, 10, 15 minutes it would kick back into a sinus rhythm and IÃÅ be back to normal.
After figuring out what was going on I now realize it had been coming on for a year or more, gradually more and more often. IÃ×e also discovered that itÃÔ far more common that I realized. ItÃÔ now treated with medication, my heart rate is much lower and regular and I feel as though I went from running on 4 cylinders to running on all 8 with a turbo charger thrown in for good measure.
So, if youÃÓe out as an instructor or buddy and a 50 something year old diver, who is fit, comfortable in the water and reasonably experienced suddenly gets inexplicably winded, dizzy and tired atrial fibrillation could be the problem. Take their pulse, if it iss way too high (mine was 160 AT REST) get them some OÃÔ and medical attention ASAP.
Situation: My wife and I show up at a dive shop and ask about working on our advanced scuba certification. IÃÎ 57 years old, 5'10", 182 lbs and in reasonably good condition; my wife is 48, 5'9", 145 lbs and in good aerobic condition. When discussing our physical abilities with an instructor I explained that I worked out several times a week and wife runs 5 to 7 days a week.
My wife is newly certified, has a few open water dives and wants to get in more supervised dives. I had only a few dives in the last 10 years; I was certified in 1972 (this was in 2008) and have NAUI and YMCA certifications. My dive experience included approximately 50 dives including numerous night dives and a few down to 130 feet. WeÃÅ been in Hawaii two months earlier and Linda had done a couple open water dives while IÃÅ snorkeled for several hours (I didnÃÕ scuba due to a head cold). Both of us had all new top of the line equipment, Poseidon Jetstream regs, Oceanic Pro Plus 2 computers, etc. I wanted to check out a dry suit so they agree that part of the certification dives would include dry suit and altitude (the dives would be in Lake Tahoe at appx 6,000 feet).
We arrived at the dive site early Saturday morning for our first dive. My guess is that, from the instructor's perspective, we appeared very inexperienced, a little nervous and way over equipped for our skill level. We got to the lake and made our entrance, we both needed help donning our equipment, my wife because she was inexperienced in shore diving, me because all my equipment was new and it was the first time I had tried a dry suit. I also felt a little under the weather that morning which I attributed to a little too much wine the night before. First the instructor worked with me on drysuit skills in about 15 feet of water. I did ok, kind of, but I got very winded doing the summersault-like maneuver; after completing the maneuver I had trouble catching my breath while on the bottom at 15 feet, it felt like I was over-breathing my regulator. Then he worked with both of us on our buoyancy skills, which was a struggle too as Linda hadnÃÕ dove in fresh water and I was messing with the dry suit. All in all it was an iffy day and we bagged it after the first dive and went home.
We showed up early the next morning. I was feeling much better; weÃÅ just had one glass of wine with dinner and had gone to bed early. We started getting suited up and I realized IÃÅ forgotten to bring socks, so I put on my wetsuit. We got in the water and I felt very restricted in my movement. After donning our equipment we started a short 100 foot snorkel to where weÃÅ descend. Just trying to snorkel that short distance I got completely winded and actually had to roll over and the instructor towed me back to the shallow water. Not 2 months before IÃÅ snorkeled for over an hour straight in Hawaii; I practice martial arts three days a week for an hour and a half per class; I was at a loss as to what was going on. The only thing I could think of was that my wetsuit was too tight and restricted my breathing.
After resting for a couple of hours I felt much better and did the afternoon dive in the drysuit with out socks. The instructor, obviously concerned after the morningÃÔ events, kept my wife and I very shallow and we just worked on buoyancy. I mentioned to him that I felt as though I was over-breathing my regulator, which he correctly pointed out was almost impossible with a Poseidon Jetstream.
Any thoughts out there as to what was up with me?
Four months later I was diagnosed with persistent arterial fibrillation. ThatÃÔ when the top half of the heart beats very fast and irregularly making it extremely inefficient at pumping blood. IÃÅ had a medical earlier that year and passed with flying colors! What was happening is that my heart would beat in a sinus rhythm (normal and working well) for a while, then would start fibrillating for a while (hum, all of a sudden IÃÅ feel out of breath for no reason at all), and then after 5, 10, 15 minutes it would kick back into a sinus rhythm and IÃÅ be back to normal.
After figuring out what was going on I now realize it had been coming on for a year or more, gradually more and more often. IÃ×e also discovered that itÃÔ far more common that I realized. ItÃÔ now treated with medication, my heart rate is much lower and regular and I feel as though I went from running on 4 cylinders to running on all 8 with a turbo charger thrown in for good measure.
So, if youÃÓe out as an instructor or buddy and a 50 something year old diver, who is fit, comfortable in the water and reasonably experienced suddenly gets inexplicably winded, dizzy and tired atrial fibrillation could be the problem. Take their pulse, if it iss way too high (mine was 160 AT REST) get them some OÃÔ and medical attention ASAP.
