purbeast
Contributor
So this weekend I am going down to Cancun, MX. I really really want to try scuba diving, so I looked into the dive physical that can be taken. Just to warn you, this may be a fairly long read heh.
So I went to the DAN website and found someone who is fairly local to me and contacted him. He gave me a list of the following items that I needed to get prior to seeing him, which include the following.
- 2 Blood tests (CBC and Metabolic Profile, I believe those 2)
- EKG
- Chest X-Ray
- PFT (Pulmonary Function Test)
- Methatcoline Challenge Test
So over the past few weeks visiting 4 different places, I got all of those done. They all came back with good results.
So today I went to see the person doing the dive physical, making this my 5th doctor visit for scuba heh.
Basically he talked about my general health with me before I showed him all the results. I am a 29 year old male and I work out reguarly. I lift weights 4x a week (and have for past few years), and I run 2x a week at a pretty high intensity, but for short periods of time. I do this because I play football in the spring and in the fall on a team, so this kind of cardio training gets me in shape for that.
I have not used my actual inhaler in about 2-3 years probably, and since I got put on advair probably 3 years or so ago, I've only used it twice. I don't need it when I exercise or afterwards. I mean I am tired, but not "asthma" tired after I run.
So the test results he saw, he said they were all fine, except the methacoline challenge test.
If anyone is not familiar with this test, it basically is where you get 5 doses of medicine that tries to incude asthma symptoms, each one getting stronger and stronger, and then you do a PFT. In each of the 5 PFT's, it tells you how much airflow you are pushing out from all of your lungs.
The general purpose of this test is to diagnose asthma in people. The way people are diagnosed with asthma is when the value of the air flowing out of their larger lungs goes below -20. So by that I mean -21 and lower.
At the end of the test, the lowest mine got was -9. So my larger lungs were fine, and in a way it seems like I kind of clinically don't have asthma or have kind of grown out of it.
The concern had had was that my smaller lung parts. It was at -29. He said in a person who doesn't have asthma, it would probably be around -10 or so after the last round of the test.
So what he told me was that he would not medically clear me due to this. He even got an opinion of another Pulmonary specialist in the hospital that I was doing the physical at, and the pulmonist said that if it was him he would say the test is negative (a good thing in these tests) because all that really matters is the large lungs, not the air in the low lungs.
The doctor then explained to me what the potential risk is. Basically if there was air in my small lungs that did not blow out of my lungs, and is trapped, and I rose in the water too fast, that the air could expand and could potentially become a collapsed lung. However he also said that this is extremely rare, and that this could also happen to anybody, asthma or not.
He also told me that he really thinks I will be fine and have nothing to worry about. He just did not want to 'medically clear' me because if something DID happen to me, it could lead back to him giving me the go ahead. But he did also tell me that I should be fine. He told me that on the waiver, if I really want to do it, to just say I don't have asthma.
He himself was a diver, and he explained all the risks to me, and he even wants me to call him after my trip and let him know what I decided to do. I told him that now I am kind of skeptical because he would not clear me, but he also said that he really never EVER clears asthmatics in general. He even did tell me on the phone when I first talked to him chances are he would not pass me.
I guess why I am posting this on here is because I would like to just hear opinions of people on my situation, if they have similar experiences or anything like that.
I truly think I will be okay if I scuba. He did not even do the actual physical portion of the dive because he can tell that I'm in good shape as is, so the physical aspect of it would not be much to me at all.
Well thanks for reading this and if you have any opinions/advice on my situation at hand, please post them. I plan on scuba diving a beginner dive when I'm in Cancun (possibly a day trip to Cozumel) simply because of the test results and just from the talk I had with the doctor.
Also if anyone would like me to post any of my test results for further evaluation, feel free to ask.
So I went to the DAN website and found someone who is fairly local to me and contacted him. He gave me a list of the following items that I needed to get prior to seeing him, which include the following.
- 2 Blood tests (CBC and Metabolic Profile, I believe those 2)
- EKG
- Chest X-Ray
- PFT (Pulmonary Function Test)
- Methatcoline Challenge Test
So over the past few weeks visiting 4 different places, I got all of those done. They all came back with good results.
So today I went to see the person doing the dive physical, making this my 5th doctor visit for scuba heh.
Basically he talked about my general health with me before I showed him all the results. I am a 29 year old male and I work out reguarly. I lift weights 4x a week (and have for past few years), and I run 2x a week at a pretty high intensity, but for short periods of time. I do this because I play football in the spring and in the fall on a team, so this kind of cardio training gets me in shape for that.
I have not used my actual inhaler in about 2-3 years probably, and since I got put on advair probably 3 years or so ago, I've only used it twice. I don't need it when I exercise or afterwards. I mean I am tired, but not "asthma" tired after I run.
So the test results he saw, he said they were all fine, except the methacoline challenge test.
If anyone is not familiar with this test, it basically is where you get 5 doses of medicine that tries to incude asthma symptoms, each one getting stronger and stronger, and then you do a PFT. In each of the 5 PFT's, it tells you how much airflow you are pushing out from all of your lungs.
The general purpose of this test is to diagnose asthma in people. The way people are diagnosed with asthma is when the value of the air flowing out of their larger lungs goes below -20. So by that I mean -21 and lower.
At the end of the test, the lowest mine got was -9. So my larger lungs were fine, and in a way it seems like I kind of clinically don't have asthma or have kind of grown out of it.
The concern had had was that my smaller lung parts. It was at -29. He said in a person who doesn't have asthma, it would probably be around -10 or so after the last round of the test.
So what he told me was that he would not medically clear me due to this. He even got an opinion of another Pulmonary specialist in the hospital that I was doing the physical at, and the pulmonist said that if it was him he would say the test is negative (a good thing in these tests) because all that really matters is the large lungs, not the air in the low lungs.
The doctor then explained to me what the potential risk is. Basically if there was air in my small lungs that did not blow out of my lungs, and is trapped, and I rose in the water too fast, that the air could expand and could potentially become a collapsed lung. However he also said that this is extremely rare, and that this could also happen to anybody, asthma or not.
He also told me that he really thinks I will be fine and have nothing to worry about. He just did not want to 'medically clear' me because if something DID happen to me, it could lead back to him giving me the go ahead. But he did also tell me that I should be fine. He told me that on the waiver, if I really want to do it, to just say I don't have asthma.
He himself was a diver, and he explained all the risks to me, and he even wants me to call him after my trip and let him know what I decided to do. I told him that now I am kind of skeptical because he would not clear me, but he also said that he really never EVER clears asthmatics in general. He even did tell me on the phone when I first talked to him chances are he would not pass me.
I guess why I am posting this on here is because I would like to just hear opinions of people on my situation, if they have similar experiences or anything like that.
I truly think I will be okay if I scuba. He did not even do the actual physical portion of the dive because he can tell that I'm in good shape as is, so the physical aspect of it would not be much to me at all.
Well thanks for reading this and if you have any opinions/advice on my situation at hand, please post them. I plan on scuba diving a beginner dive when I'm in Cancun (possibly a day trip to Cozumel) simply because of the test results and just from the talk I had with the doctor.
Also if anyone would like me to post any of my test results for further evaluation, feel free to ask.