Bad dive today, need answers

[ALaskowski]

Opps, wrong on 5. It was real.

 

[Doubler]

Have you been tested for Diabetes? Low Blood Sugar in Diabetics can cause some of the same symptoms. Bad Gas is also a possibility but you felt better after eating. Wouldn't hurt to get it checked out.

 

[john844]

Recently I experienced something similar. If there is floating particulate in the water that your eyes focus on, it can cause vertigo and nausea. Similar to driving in a snow storm. If you focus on the snow flakes, you get disoriented. I've been told that looking past them helps prevent this. My buddy had the same thing happen to him on a subsequent dive later in the day. Both of us initially thumbed the dives, but during slow ascents recovered enough to continue comfortably without surfacing.

I would also check the air. This might boil down to being uncomfortable, cold, a little narced, suspended particulate, co2 loading, or a little of each of them combined.

I think you did the right thing calling the dive, but I would much rather you keep your buddy with you in case things get worse.

 

[Nemrod]

I doubt you had narcosis, you were having an anxiety attack. You were not comfortable, you were not ready, the conditions were not good, this made you anxious, you went into overload, you had an anxiety attack, for a lesser skilled diver, it might have developed further into panic.

N

 

[lorien]

As I know this diver rather well, I doubt strongly that it was an anxiety attack. And he would know if that was the case. He is also very used to diving in poor conditions with lots of particulate matter in the water. Also used to very cold conditions and let me tell ya this guy is seldom cold. I sometimes suspect he is cold blooded as he is all warm and toasty and I am freezing. I have been seasick before but it clears up upon decent. If you had not been nauseous before the dive I would say bad gas in some form. I still tend to lean in that direction, I would check the tank, air and fill O2 again as it still sounds gas related to me. New tank on the first dive and symptoms like that concern me. O2, CO2? not sure but I would check it out pretty quickly. I sure would not dive on it again until it was checked out. I would also notify the dive shop where you got the tank and the fill as the if that is the cause the next person might not have the same level of training that you do and may not handle it as well.

 

[subcmdr]

One of the things divers frequently forget is that medical issues can occur underwater that have absolutely nothing to do with the dive. Doubler suggested you might have had a diabetic incident. It's true that many diabetics don't have a clue that they are diabetic, and your reaction to the missed meal does seem similar to low blood glucose. But it could also be a TIA (minor stroke-like condition), a heart issue, or any number of things. Since you didn't give a history, and nobody did an exam, it's impossible to tell which. I would suggest you get checked out before you go in the water again. If this is a medical issue that's induced by stress, then you could have a repeat incident next dive.

Get checked out. That's the best advice anyone can give you.

 

[doctormike]

Oh and after I woke, I went to see Inception whis was a really good movie. Go see it!

My facebook quote from yesterday:

"Inception. Awesome movie, but one glaring problem ruined it for me.

I have no trouble believing that a guy could get into your dreams and steal your ideas, but there is NO WAY that you would find 40 foot visibility in a river running through a major city."

I was having difficulty focusing my vision on any particular object and had great difficulty thinking clearly as well as feeling ill – mostly nauseous

These "guess the diagnosis" exercises here are fun, but you should remember that this is primarily for the benefit of working out the various possibilities as a mental exercise - and not a substitute for a real physical examination and analysis of your tank gas.

With that said - and with the understanding that I'm just an earwax doc and not any sort of hyperbaric medicine expert - I'm leaning towards CO2 retention. I had a similar experience at our local quarry this weekend. I was diving single tank with two buddies diving doubles, so maybe I was subconsciously skip breathing so as to keep up with their gas capacity. I noticed some real lightheadedness, almost started to feel unable to do simple tasks. I slowed down and took a few deep breaths, and the symptoms cleared pretty quickly. Too shallow for narcosis to be a likely diagnosis (in my case and probably in the OP case as well).

Lots of things can cause this type of picture (altenobaric vertigo, cold caloric response and the other things mentioned here), but the lack of ear related symptoms makes me think CO2...

my 2 PSI.

Mike

 

[=C=]

These symptoms remind me of a hit we had in our group about two years ago. One buddy team went diving around Elba with new 02 clean tanks and the first dive killed the trip. The symptoms were just as you described, nausea, disoriented, trouble with basic diving operations. Turns out the new tank was filled, with 20bar of an inert gas for storage purposes. I googled around but hadn't seen this anywhere else, could just be a Czech/ Europe thing. The guys who sold the tanks said it was a gas used in the o2 cleaning process.

So, do you trust the people who sold you the tanks and were they empty when new?

and as mike said... get the air checked or count your blessings and dump your fill.

 

[Nemrod]

New tank on the first dive and symptoms like that concern me. O2, CO2? not sure but I would check it out pretty quickly. I sure would not dive on it again until it was checked out. I would also notify the dive shop where you got the tank and the fill as the if that is the cause the next person might not have the same level of training that you do and may not handle it as well.

I doubt it was bad gas. Compressing air does not increase the percentage of CO2 in and of itself. If it were a gasoline compressor or there were a petroleum/gas heater or furnace in the area it is possible the air was contaminated with carbon monoxide which is CO, not carbon dioxide which is CO2 but breath retention, inadequate ventilation due to an anxiety attack leading to an excess of CO2 in the blood stream, might.

Was there mention of a headache afterward?

N

 

[ALaskowski]

My Facebook quote from yesterday:

"Inception. Awesome movie, but one glaring problem ruined it for me.

I have no trouble believing that a guy could get into your dreams and steal your ideas, but there is NO WAY that you would find 40 foot visibility in a river running through a major city."

Mike

BAHAHAHA! So true. I am stealing that for my Facebook status.

Anyway, Mike is right, these should all be taken as a mental exercise, not clinical diagnosis, so that we may all better understand the possibilities which is pretty much what I wanted. What steps should be taken to eliminate causes? Its entirely possible a root cause will not be determined at all – so then, what can we learn from this to mitigate possible risk factors in the future? While having fun, I still like to walk away from every dive with something new learned whether the learning experience be good, bad, or entirely banal. Example, the other week I learned that with the amount of diving I’ve done, going diving in a pool gets rather boring in 2.3 minutes.

To catch up, I had a full battery of blood work done last year and there were no anomalies except for slightly elevated cholesterol, which has been the case forever, so diabetes is unlikely. It is possible to get a case of hypoglycemia without being diabetic, which I also considered and could result in similar symptoms. Hence, why I mentioned the lack of a complete nutritious breakfast. Oh and someone asked about a headache afterward – there was none.

Lorien is right, I am quite used to diving in these types of cold water, low vis conditions. That doesn't mean that they couldn't have finally affected me just this once, especially with other stress factors, but it seemed less likely to me.

As for Nemrod, you are right in that I was feeling anxiety, but this only set in after the other symptoms of being able to see properly or think properly and feeling ill. I don’t think that is an unreasonable response to the situation, but was not the root cause of the situation in my humble opinion.

Tartullian, that is very interesting. As for those who sold me and filled the tank, yes, they are a very reputable organization and I have no reason not to trust them. With that said, accidents and oversights still can happen – I don’t care how reputable you are. With that in mind, I contacted the owner today and briefly explained my experience and the possible concerns I had and suggested he might want to check his gas to make sure that other divers do not experience the same. He promptly responded and assured me that they had safeguards in place and all was ok with the mix and he himself had been diving much deeper from the same batch with no issues. I have no reason to distrust him, so that eliminates the fill itself, but there is still the possibility of contaminants in the tank prior to the fill. Also, I tested the tank myself for O2 levels.

Where does that leave it? I still intend to bring the tank in this weekend to get it rechecked. Either we find something or we don’t. (I shall advise on the findings) If we do, well there we go. If not, what can we address to help mitigate in the future. As I see it:

- Try not to go out on an empty stomach. Easy enough to do.
- Even if you’re not prone to seasickness, take some Dramamine – its cheap enough and can save your day.
- If you went out for some heavy drinking 2 nights earlier, make sure to properly rehydrate yourself the day before diving. Make sure you’re hydrated whatever the reason. Water’s free.
- Get your general health checked out periodically by a doctor.

Anything else I’m missing?

In closing, I’d like to say that everyone who gave input had valid points with the limited information they were provided with and I thank you all. I’d be happy to continue the discussion with anyone that wants to – about this or about Inception!