Well this is not an easy story to tell because I screwed up but there is a lesson to learn. I will start with the first dive of the weekend Saturday morning about 9am the dive is the Florida we are diving out of Presque Isle Michigan in Lake Heron. My max depth on the dive is 195 with bottom temp of 39f. We only hit 195 for a very brief time then spent most the BT at 165 to 170 the BT was 27min with 71min runtime planned with V-Planner at 180 using BG of 19/36 and deco gas of 62% on this dive. All went fine with the dive with the next dive being the Windiate our SI was over 2 1/2 hours. We hit 180 on this dive again only briefly and then most the BT spent at 160 to 165 with a 27min BT and the RT was 63min using V-Planner planned at 170 using 21/35 and 50% to deco. My buddys plan called for close to 70min RT so I did most of that coming up just before him. Again all went fine and we where back at the dock around 2:30pm had a good meal drank lots of water and went to bed by 9pm.
Sunday we started an hour earlier and were in the water by 8am the first dive was the Norman. I hit 198 on this dive but spent most of the 25min BT at 170 to 180 and headed up one min early at 24min and still did all the planned 72min RT. Once again I used V-Planner and planned the dive at 190 using 17/37 and 50% deco. All went as planned and we did a 2 ½ hour SI with the next dive being the Typo. This dive I hit 180 for again just a short time and then spent most the dive at 165 with the last four minutes at 145 and then left one minute early at 24min. The plan was 170 for 25min BT using 21/20 with a RT of 59min but again my buddies profile called for about 6 extra minutes of deco, which I did slowly ascending from 10 to the ladder at 3.
Once exiting the water and stripping all my gear I notice some pain in my lower right leg. I tried walking it off trying to see if I just had a cramp but the pain started to move a bit and felt very weird so I told the captain and went on O2 and took some aspirin. While on O2 I noticed a ligature mark on my lower calf from my Gator I will get back to this latter. The boat ride back was about 30 minutes and I was on O2 for 25 of it and felt better at the docks. We unloaded the boat packed the truck and said good-bye and then left toward Alpena.
On the way to Alpena I breathed my 62% just to be sure but when we got closer the pain was back but not bad. We stopped and ate then headed toward Grayling (one hour) on our way to Grand Rapids (four and one half hours). The pain started to increase and move up my leg to the knee right after lunch so we stopped by the Dive shop in Alpena to get an O2 fill which I breathed on my way to Grayling. About half way there the pain was getting worse and I called DAN and spoke with Dan at Duke University he advised me to stop at the closest Hospital. The closest was in Grayling and we went right there.
This was not real comforting as I walked in and told the Doctor on duty I thought I was Bent (you know DCI) and he gave me a blank look. I told him I needed an IV to hydrate me and O2 right away (this is what DAN told me) I also gave him my DAN card and told him to call them which he did right away. They advised him to get me to the nearest chamber, which happed to be in Grand Rapids. They called to confirm there was a bed available which there was (GR has three beds) and they sent their Air Med to pick me up.
When I was checked into the Hospital I told them my pain level was at a 5 or 6 that was at 4pm by the time I left in an ambulance to head to the Airport at 8pm the pain was at an 8 with a Vicodin in me. The Helicopter picked my up at 8:30 and the pain only got worse {they stayed as low as they could) they gave me Morphine twice but it was no help then they used Fentanyl which did the job. We arrived to Spectrum Hospital in GR at around 9:30 Sunday night and were met by the Chamber doctor who was called in. He had lots of questions and did lots of little test but I dont remember most of it as I was quit doped up.
I was put in the chamber around 10pm for a table 5 but got three extensions. The hard part for me and the Doc was my pain got worse after the treatment started because the drugs where wearing off. The pain also traveled up my leg to the hip and back down, it was very weird and scary. I was done around 4:30am and was in ruff shape do to pulmonary toxicity in my lungs from the day spent on O2 and then the chamber ride with a PP of 2.8 for a long time. I was coughing and could not take a full breath but the pain in my leg was better and had moved but was still there. So the Doc let me go home and sleep which I did all day and night until 7am Tuesday morning when my next treatment was planned. When arriving at 7am my leg was preaty much pain free but the Doc still wanted to do a clean up treatment which was five hour in the chamber. This went much better and I felt ok after this run but still went home and took another nap.
So now back to the Gator issue I ware them mainly because when doing penetration into wrecks many times I go headfirst and dont like the air in my legs. Well between dives on day two I got out of my dry suit which I dont often do but it was a nice day and for whatever reason I did. Well when gearing up and putting the right gator on the bottom strap felt very loose so I tightened it up and continued gearing up. Just before going in I realized the whole gator has low on my leg so I just pulled it up not thinking about it. The strap ended up leaving a really noticeable mark and defiantly cut off some circulation. While the Doc could not say for sure was the cause he did say it was certainly most likely the cause for my DCI.
So in the future I will not be using gators and if you do make sure they are not too tight. This goes for any piece of gear that is strapped on.
Dive safe
Jeff
Sunday we started an hour earlier and were in the water by 8am the first dive was the Norman. I hit 198 on this dive but spent most of the 25min BT at 170 to 180 and headed up one min early at 24min and still did all the planned 72min RT. Once again I used V-Planner and planned the dive at 190 using 17/37 and 50% deco. All went as planned and we did a 2 ½ hour SI with the next dive being the Typo. This dive I hit 180 for again just a short time and then spent most the dive at 165 with the last four minutes at 145 and then left one minute early at 24min. The plan was 170 for 25min BT using 21/20 with a RT of 59min but again my buddies profile called for about 6 extra minutes of deco, which I did slowly ascending from 10 to the ladder at 3.
Once exiting the water and stripping all my gear I notice some pain in my lower right leg. I tried walking it off trying to see if I just had a cramp but the pain started to move a bit and felt very weird so I told the captain and went on O2 and took some aspirin. While on O2 I noticed a ligature mark on my lower calf from my Gator I will get back to this latter. The boat ride back was about 30 minutes and I was on O2 for 25 of it and felt better at the docks. We unloaded the boat packed the truck and said good-bye and then left toward Alpena.
On the way to Alpena I breathed my 62% just to be sure but when we got closer the pain was back but not bad. We stopped and ate then headed toward Grayling (one hour) on our way to Grand Rapids (four and one half hours). The pain started to increase and move up my leg to the knee right after lunch so we stopped by the Dive shop in Alpena to get an O2 fill which I breathed on my way to Grayling. About half way there the pain was getting worse and I called DAN and spoke with Dan at Duke University he advised me to stop at the closest Hospital. The closest was in Grayling and we went right there.
This was not real comforting as I walked in and told the Doctor on duty I thought I was Bent (you know DCI) and he gave me a blank look. I told him I needed an IV to hydrate me and O2 right away (this is what DAN told me) I also gave him my DAN card and told him to call them which he did right away. They advised him to get me to the nearest chamber, which happed to be in Grand Rapids. They called to confirm there was a bed available which there was (GR has three beds) and they sent their Air Med to pick me up.
When I was checked into the Hospital I told them my pain level was at a 5 or 6 that was at 4pm by the time I left in an ambulance to head to the Airport at 8pm the pain was at an 8 with a Vicodin in me. The Helicopter picked my up at 8:30 and the pain only got worse {they stayed as low as they could) they gave me Morphine twice but it was no help then they used Fentanyl which did the job. We arrived to Spectrum Hospital in GR at around 9:30 Sunday night and were met by the Chamber doctor who was called in. He had lots of questions and did lots of little test but I dont remember most of it as I was quit doped up.
I was put in the chamber around 10pm for a table 5 but got three extensions. The hard part for me and the Doc was my pain got worse after the treatment started because the drugs where wearing off. The pain also traveled up my leg to the hip and back down, it was very weird and scary. I was done around 4:30am and was in ruff shape do to pulmonary toxicity in my lungs from the day spent on O2 and then the chamber ride with a PP of 2.8 for a long time. I was coughing and could not take a full breath but the pain in my leg was better and had moved but was still there. So the Doc let me go home and sleep which I did all day and night until 7am Tuesday morning when my next treatment was planned. When arriving at 7am my leg was preaty much pain free but the Doc still wanted to do a clean up treatment which was five hour in the chamber. This went much better and I felt ok after this run but still went home and took another nap.
So now back to the Gator issue I ware them mainly because when doing penetration into wrecks many times I go headfirst and dont like the air in my legs. Well between dives on day two I got out of my dry suit which I dont often do but it was a nice day and for whatever reason I did. Well when gearing up and putting the right gator on the bottom strap felt very loose so I tightened it up and continued gearing up. Just before going in I realized the whole gator has low on my leg so I just pulled it up not thinking about it. The strap ended up leaving a really noticeable mark and defiantly cut off some circulation. While the Doc could not say for sure was the cause he did say it was certainly most likely the cause for my DCI.
So in the future I will not be using gators and if you do make sure they are not too tight. This goes for any piece of gear that is strapped on.
Dive safe
Jeff
