norcaldiver
Guest
I thought I'd share my weekend as a wakeup call for anyone that wants one.
1st my info. 34 year old male, 5'11", 207lbs. Not out of shape, but not a marathon runner, see pic in profile. All 57 of my dives have been in Monterey-cold water. OW in 2000, AOW in 2001, Rescue in 2001, and almost done with DM.
So anyway, Andrew(me=AJ) and I got to Monterey and meet up with 4 other people that I had set up to meet in the first place. Nothing out of the ordinary, meet and greet everyone, chit chat for a bit and get ready for the dive.
Andrew and I are buddied up, kinda, it was really all of us in one big group which is kinda cool, I've only done 2 person dives, never a group thing.
So we surface swim out to the bouy, maybe 100 yards?, and are going to drop down, do an out and back from there. We drop down and are at 21 feet. I can feel the inflator on my drysuit on my sturnum(sp) and think "oh great, I forgot to pad it, well, I'll just have to deal with it." It's really hurting so I dump everything I can out of my bc and try to inflate the suit more to take off the squeeze. Usually I dive heavy, but I was trying to take weight off, so I was lighter than usual today so I couldn't add as much air. Oh well, i'll have to deal.
We shoot a heading and take off. Within 3 minutes, I can' breath to save my life - this turns out to be quite literal. My reg is fine, but my chest is killing me, can't get a deep breath. I signal Andrew to go ahead with the others, I'm going to surface.
Now at this point, I'm thinking I'll go up and catch my breath and follow the bubbles on the surface, then once I'm ok, I'll drop down on top of them and resume the dive. It's like 30 ft viz and they're in less than 30 ft of water, so I can floolow no prob and watch from the surface...right!
I do controlled assent, and instead of getting better, it gets worse. Ok, Now I'm a little worried. I actually think I hurt something in my chest. I think the inflator may have cracked something like the little bone on the bottom of the sturnum. I'm thinking " Oh hell, I HAVE to get out of the water. I inflate the drysuit to float me and swim - very slowly and painfully- back in. I get to shore and have a beachwalker unzip my suit. I dump all my gear, and suit and sit down. 5 minutes later it's not better. 10...15...it's not better and I'm starting to feel weak. I drag my gear up to the truck and get into shorts - I'm done for the day - and wait for the rest of the guys to get back.
By the time they get back my chest still is killing my and altho I can breath a little easier, i'm still not ok. I tell them I'm sorry, but I'm going to head home.
I take off for the hour drive home. About half way back, I'm sweating, chest hurts and my shoulders and biceps are aching like crazy. Finally I'm freaked out completely and go right to the ER. I guess "chest pain" is the magic word and they took me right in back and I explained what happened to the Dr as a nurse was hooking me up to a monitor. DCS...no, lung expansion...no can't be. I happen to look over at the nurse just then and see her eyes go HUGE. "Well that's not a good face" I say. She snaps out of it and tells me that's her normal face. When I say "that's not the face you walked in here with" the Dr puts his hand on my shoulder and has me lay back.
"You're having a heart attack" he says. HOLY CRAP, I'M 34! I am NOT having a heart attack. Well turns out I was.
They rush me into surgery and do a cardial cath - cut into my leg and run a tube up the artery to the heart. They found 1 blod clot that was blocking a vein and another vein that was half blocked. They got rid of em and put in 2 stainless steel stents, inserted a baloon and expaned the veins back to normal. I was out 4 days later and am trying to get used to the dietary changes that I have to make. I'm up on the treadmill and feel fine if just a little sore still from being on my back for so long.
So...what went wrong?
1. No buddy. I felt bad and didn't want to call my buddies dive so I told him to go with the group. Not thinking that if I had gotten in trouble, which could have easily have happened, I'd have been screwed royally. No matter in the water or on the shore, or in my car. Had this been any worse, there would have been no one to call for help, do CPR, drive me to the ER, whatever.
2. I should have gone straight to the ER. I should have walked into Monterey Gen and risked taking a ride in the recomp chamber. The Dr said that I did loose a portion of heart muscle because I waited so long. Luckily I'm young and it was kind of a fluke so over time the heart will repair itself...BUT, I'd be at 95% rather than only 90% right now if I had gone to the ER there.
There are other thins that I could mention that could have been done better, but this is long enough already. I just thought I'd share with you guys so maybe you'll think of me next time you think you or someone else might just have a case of the nerves or is just tired from the swim, or whatever.
Dive safe, Dive often and I'll see you guys out there in a couple of months.
1st my info. 34 year old male, 5'11", 207lbs. Not out of shape, but not a marathon runner, see pic in profile. All 57 of my dives have been in Monterey-cold water. OW in 2000, AOW in 2001, Rescue in 2001, and almost done with DM.
So anyway, Andrew(me=AJ) and I got to Monterey and meet up with 4 other people that I had set up to meet in the first place. Nothing out of the ordinary, meet and greet everyone, chit chat for a bit and get ready for the dive.
Andrew and I are buddied up, kinda, it was really all of us in one big group which is kinda cool, I've only done 2 person dives, never a group thing.
So we surface swim out to the bouy, maybe 100 yards?, and are going to drop down, do an out and back from there. We drop down and are at 21 feet. I can feel the inflator on my drysuit on my sturnum(sp) and think "oh great, I forgot to pad it, well, I'll just have to deal with it." It's really hurting so I dump everything I can out of my bc and try to inflate the suit more to take off the squeeze. Usually I dive heavy, but I was trying to take weight off, so I was lighter than usual today so I couldn't add as much air. Oh well, i'll have to deal.
We shoot a heading and take off. Within 3 minutes, I can' breath to save my life - this turns out to be quite literal. My reg is fine, but my chest is killing me, can't get a deep breath. I signal Andrew to go ahead with the others, I'm going to surface.
Now at this point, I'm thinking I'll go up and catch my breath and follow the bubbles on the surface, then once I'm ok, I'll drop down on top of them and resume the dive. It's like 30 ft viz and they're in less than 30 ft of water, so I can floolow no prob and watch from the surface...right!
I do controlled assent, and instead of getting better, it gets worse. Ok, Now I'm a little worried. I actually think I hurt something in my chest. I think the inflator may have cracked something like the little bone on the bottom of the sturnum. I'm thinking " Oh hell, I HAVE to get out of the water. I inflate the drysuit to float me and swim - very slowly and painfully- back in. I get to shore and have a beachwalker unzip my suit. I dump all my gear, and suit and sit down. 5 minutes later it's not better. 10...15...it's not better and I'm starting to feel weak. I drag my gear up to the truck and get into shorts - I'm done for the day - and wait for the rest of the guys to get back.
By the time they get back my chest still is killing my and altho I can breath a little easier, i'm still not ok. I tell them I'm sorry, but I'm going to head home.
I take off for the hour drive home. About half way back, I'm sweating, chest hurts and my shoulders and biceps are aching like crazy. Finally I'm freaked out completely and go right to the ER. I guess "chest pain" is the magic word and they took me right in back and I explained what happened to the Dr as a nurse was hooking me up to a monitor. DCS...no, lung expansion...no can't be. I happen to look over at the nurse just then and see her eyes go HUGE. "Well that's not a good face" I say. She snaps out of it and tells me that's her normal face. When I say "that's not the face you walked in here with" the Dr puts his hand on my shoulder and has me lay back.
"You're having a heart attack" he says. HOLY CRAP, I'M 34! I am NOT having a heart attack. Well turns out I was.
They rush me into surgery and do a cardial cath - cut into my leg and run a tube up the artery to the heart. They found 1 blod clot that was blocking a vein and another vein that was half blocked. They got rid of em and put in 2 stainless steel stents, inserted a baloon and expaned the veins back to normal. I was out 4 days later and am trying to get used to the dietary changes that I have to make. I'm up on the treadmill and feel fine if just a little sore still from being on my back for so long.
So...what went wrong?
1. No buddy. I felt bad and didn't want to call my buddies dive so I told him to go with the group. Not thinking that if I had gotten in trouble, which could have easily have happened, I'd have been screwed royally. No matter in the water or on the shore, or in my car. Had this been any worse, there would have been no one to call for help, do CPR, drive me to the ER, whatever.
2. I should have gone straight to the ER. I should have walked into Monterey Gen and risked taking a ride in the recomp chamber. The Dr said that I did loose a portion of heart muscle because I waited so long. Luckily I'm young and it was kind of a fluke so over time the heart will repair itself...BUT, I'd be at 95% rather than only 90% right now if I had gone to the ER there.
There are other thins that I could mention that could have been done better, but this is long enough already. I just thought I'd share with you guys so maybe you'll think of me next time you think you or someone else might just have a case of the nerves or is just tired from the swim, or whatever.
Dive safe, Dive often and I'll see you guys out there in a couple of months.
