Average Gas Consumption

[rob.mwpropane]

Hi @rob.mwpropane

Interesting story. So, you were diagnosed with pneumonia by CXR and your O2 saturation was low, not terribly low. Your post illness RMV appears to have increased by about a third.

I'm glad your diving has gone OK, despite the persistent cough. Some might suggest a fitness for diving evaluation, see the link I provided, above.

Good luck in your recovery

I appreciate it. It'll be interesting to see what the next 6 months do.

Also, I just looked. M mistake, my 1st dive after having covid was 12/18... that was probably pushing it a little.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Well over 25,000 views of this thread now and nearly 500 votes in the poll. Please vote in the poll, if you have not already done so. Change your vote in the poll if your average RMV has changed.

The median, mode, and weighted average are all 0.5-0.59 cu ft/min

As I have not dived much during the last two years due to not being able to travel to my favourite diving countries I know that on my first day doing 3 dives is really a settling in of myself and my gear and generally won't go deeper than 25m.

My first trip as usual will be a 12 diving days perhaps more. I will get in the usual 40 plus dives so I will make notes of every dive and see where I am. I have not had the covid sars virus. I know that on my best dives re sac rate 7l -8l pm it's after I am settled. I would not be surprised if I am doing 10l pm on my first few dives.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @BLACKCRUSADER

You might be surprised. I did not dive as much during the pandemic either. Last Oct/Nov, my wife and I got away to Bonaire. The conditions were fantastic, and I had my best dive series ever, an average RMV of 0.32 cu ft/min (9.1 l/min) over 45 dives. I had my lowest RMV ever, 0.26 cu ft/min (7.3 l/min). Average Gas Consumption

 

[Belzelbub]

My RMV has gotten much better over the years, as is expected. Still on the high side, but that's probably due to the way I dive.

The vast majority of my dives are working dives of some sort. Most dives I'm hunting, so chasing fish tends to use up a bit more. Next on the list, I'm cleaning. Volunteer at an aquarium, so often manual scrubbing of the habitats. Again, using a bit more air.

On the handful of dives where I'm not doing either, I'm in the 0.5 range, usually between 0.45 - 0.55, but with the majority of dives being less relaxed, my average is in the 0.6 - 0.7 range.

 

[duke dive medicine]

Sure, I can give you a rundown. Felt bad afternoon of 11/30/21 and 12/01/21 had a positive test. My family quarantined for 2 weeks. By 12/06 everyone in the house (all positive) were feeling better but I was not. My wife said she thought I had pneumonia. The only way to get treated was to go to the ER as my primary care said (via video call) "no" to seeing patients with covid and the pneumonia stipulated an x-ray. On 12/08 I spent 12 hours in the emergency room after which they told me that I did in fact have pneumonia (go figure). It was viral not bacterial. They gave me a round of antibiotics and I left. My O2 was around 90%-92% the whole time, sometimes dropping a little below that.

The cough started by 12/03 and has never really went away. It has gotten worlds better, but it's not gone. Some days are better than others. I can still feel something when I breath deeply, but not as bad as it was before.

My 1st dives were on 01/08/22 since having covid and I coughed tremendously throughout both dives. I actually mixed 40% because I figured better to be safe than sorry.

Another part that I find really interesting is out of the 7 people in my family that had covid, only my actual bloodline had a cough. So of the 7, 4 of us are by blood, 4 had a cough. The other 3 never had a cough at all. Myself and my father (57) had it the worst, although his cough is gone and mine is still lingering. Everyone else is 100% better.

Hi @rob.mwpropane ,

The UCSD diving and hyperbaric medicine team came up with a set of guidelines for clearance to dive following COVID-19. Going by your description of having had an abnormal chest x-ray, your illness would fall into their category 2, moderate illness. Their guidelines recommend a thorough workup by a physician trained in diving and hyperbaric medicine. Fortunately you're close to Shock-Trauma in Baltimore, they have a great facility with physicians who can examine you.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[divingsteph67]

Hi @rob.mwpropane ,

The UCSD diving and hyperbaric medicine team came up with a set of guidelines for clearance to dive following COVID-19. Going by your description of having had an abnormal chest x-ray, your illness would fall into their category 2, moderate illness. Their guidelines recommend a thorough workup by a physician trained in diving and hyperbaric medicine. Fortunately you're close to Shock-Trauma in Baltimore, they have a great facility with physicians who can examine you.

Best regards,
DDM

These guidelines were published in 2020, when the previous variants did indeed affect the lungs and the gas exchange within the alveolas. Today with Omicron, it is not the same story, as this variant mainly affect the upper respiratory tract and has much greater difficulties going down the lungs.
My main question is why these guidelines still stand whereas the covid-19 infection issues for divers are not the same with this current variant. When are we going to see some updated ones?

 

[scubadada]

Hi @divingsteph67

The triggers for Category 2, moderate covid illness, are O2 requirement or hypoxemia, abnormal chest imaging, or hospitalization, outside of the ICU. If one meets those criteria, a modest workup is recommended to evaluate for diving fitness. The criteria for Category 2 infection do not change with covid variant and reflect pulmonary involvement and potential later ramifications for diving.

One would hope that moderate covid illness would occur less frequently with the Omicron variant as opposed to Delta or earlier variants. @rob.mwpropane had an abnormal CXR and hypoxemia, meeting the criteria for Category 2, prompting the recommendation for consideration of a workup by @Duke Dive Medicine

 

[divingsteph67]

Hi @divingsteph67

The triggers for Category 2, moderate covid illness, are O2 requirement or hypoxemia, abnormal chest imaging, or hospitalization, outside of the ICU. If one meets those criteria, a modest workup is recommended to evaluate for diving fitness. The criteria for Category 2 infection do not change with covid variant and reflect pulmonary involvement and potential later ramifications for diving.

One would hope that moderate covid illness would occur less frequently with the Omicron variant as opposed to Delta or earlier variants. @rob.mwpropane had an abnormal CXR and hypoxemia, meeting the criteria for Category 2, prompting the recommendation for consideration of a workup by @Duke Dive Medicine

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Thank you for your prompt answer, Rob's illness came early December 2021, so one could assume it was Delta and not Omicron. When, I look at the Cat 1 in the upper table 2, I am wondering the efficacy of chest x ray, with a variant that does not seem to affect the lungs greatly. I am not talking about the infections being less severe and it seems to get milder cases with Omicron, but I am merely trying to assess why the guidelines still prevail when we now have a variant that affects our organs differently, regardless of the disease severity.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @divingsteph67

It's not the specific variant, it's the illness that it causes. People with mild illness, regardless of variant, will mostly fall into Category 1. Sicker patients are likely to seek medical care and end up in category 2 or 3. As you know, people are still being hospitalized and are dying from covid infection.

 

[duke dive medicine]

Thank you for your prompt answer, Rob's illness came early December 2021, so one could assume it was Delta and not Omicron. When, I look at the Cat 1 in the upper table 2, I am wondering the efficacy of chest x ray, with a variant that does not seem to affect the lungs greatly. I am not talking about the infections being less severe and it seems to get milder cases with Omicron, but I am merely trying to assess why the guidelines still prevail when we now have a variant that affects our organs differently, regardless of the disease severity.

Hi @divingsteph67 ,

As @scubadada mentioned, the guidelines apply regardless of the virus variant. They are for the effects the disease produces, not the disease itself. In other words, if Omicron does indeed produce a lower incidence of lung disease, then more divers should (in theory) fall into category 1.

Best regards,
DDM