I am pretty sure my doctor is going to tell me I have COPD, lung cancer or a cardiac issue tomorrow. While some feel I just freaked and went to the surface and freaked some more, that is not the case. And you G, helped me SO much.
This dive seemed so... BIG, so HUGE. Yet, I have surfaced and hung out with my BCD inflated in rough seas {like Kauaii in the winter on the northern shore, in Tunnels beach the day before the tsunami hit), and chilled.
I have been in similar circumstances and never, ever, experienced ARDS.
I worked at a Level 1 Trauma Center for years as a heart transplant, then later trauma social worker. What I learned, was NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE, in that hospital cares about your health more than you do.
And I told each patient that in an effort to improve patient self-education and advocacy. Not the doctors, not the nurses, no one on the medical team cared more than the patient about his health. So, learn about your diagnosis, make them LISTEN when your body is telling you one thing and the doctors are telling you something different.
What is defined as "panic"? I came up because I my strength prevented me from swimming against the current over that reef. The dive shop owner said he had considered many times, putting a rope over the ascending reef.
In the mean time, I ignored my internal signs of distress, because I attributed them to the dive itself. I was unable to wet my own mouth because I was dehydrated, I was fighting my weight belt, fighting to get pics, all the while my lungs were drying and constricting.
By the time I surfaced, I could no longer breath. My ONLY thoughts were "don't panic, keep reg in, breath". And I did. I did not fight, I remember desperately searching for the BCD hose, waves, otherwise small, washing over my face, that felt HUGE. I remember that 40 minutes after I surfaced, STILL having the same symptoms as I entered the clinic.
I did not listen to my own body, yet the signs were there. I did not panic, I was losing my physical ability to move. And think. Not because I freaked, but because I was hypoxic due to an undetected medical condition. G is, to me, absolutely correct. I think my doctor will confirm that, in some form or fashion, tomorrow.
G, thank you. I would not be baring my soul here if I had just panicked. I did everything I could think of to live. Had I known what I know now though, I would have ended that dive much earlier, would have paid more attention to my body, would have listened to my internal voice that something was not going right. I could have killed myself and worse yet, traumatized people who were otherwise doing their jobs.
Thank you G. From the bottom of my heart. And again, I implore any DM to NEVER let someone in distress just "tire themselves out". The thought of it terrifies me. Even high school athletes occasionally die during sports from an otherwise undetected medical issue. Having adequate O2 (short cut phrase) on the dang boat and knowing how to use it is just... essential. DM's are not doctors. Smacking a mask on someone just in case just cannot hurt.
. We are almost to the point where one prefers to be diagnosed with a severe disease than accept to have been in panick. Something that everybody will face in his own life.
Some places here REQUIRE a snorkel (Queensland) be carried. We have the fold-able ones to put in our BCD pockets for that purpose.. 
. Lots of weed and kelp to get tangled in so just not worth bothering with for most of our diving.
