Bent this weekend

[DandyDon]

Yes in hind site I most defiantly should have but I was feeling fine and thought maybe it was just some muscle pain. Also there is the denial factor nobody wants to be bent or thinks it could happen to them.

Second guessing is fine and I expected it when I made the post the idea is to learn from it.

Jeff

I certainly do not mean to sound critical, and I hope I do not. Up to the point of unloading the boat, carrying heavy gear being a possible precipitant to a hit, sounds like you handled your dives with great care. NetDoc has mentioned many times that denial is a big risk with us. I survived a heavy dose of that when I dived on a DVT in my leg once. Anytime I have a dive related question about myself or my buddy, tho - it's the DAN button on my cell phone.

 

[Wayfarer2]

Anytime I have a dive related question about myself or my buddy, tho - it's the DAN button on my cell phone.

You know it had never occurred to me to program Dan’s number in to my phone, it should have and I just did it.

 

[1_T_Submariner]

Again thanks for sharing. Great write up, glad you are Ok.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Glad that you are ok, now. Was there any consideration of attempting an in-water-recompression using the oxygen you had on the boat?

Also, do you normally perform any mild exercises during deco to promote circulation?

 

[DandyDon]

You know it had never occurred to me to program Dan’s number in to my phone, it should have and I just did it.

Good idea. I've been planning on changing my Sig anyway...!

 

[RonFrank]

Thanks for sharing.

Sounds like you did most things right.... be careful.. DCS is not very well understood, so I'm not sure you can just assume a gator was too tight, and all is good.

Take it slow and easy in the future IMO.

 

[PerroneFord]

Not to Monday morning quarterback here, but something caught my attention. As I have started doing minor deco diving, I have been adamant about having oxygen availble for the dives. Not necessarily on the surface, but for general cleanup at the end of dives. I found it somewhat curious that you were doing some pretty deep dives (relatively) and yet did not have any good deco gas for shallow use.

On your V-Planner profiles, were you using the setting that allows you to take advantage of the oxgen window? In other words, spending additional time at the gas switch to maybe get a little more benefit from the higher PP02?

Just looking at your second dive on Saturday, you spent more time above 30ft than you did at depth, and you are on a gas giving less that 1.0 ppo2. At 20ft it's .79. Doesn't seem like the gas is helping you clean up much at all.

Anyway, just curious about not using o2, not trying to be critical or anything.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[AXL72]

Great advice all around.

Just wondering what DAN thinks? Do you think they might do resarch into restricted blood flow?

Get some more goats and strangle a turnicate on their hind quarters or something and stick em in a chamber?

 

[CrackedConch]

DCS comes from three reasons: diving too deep, staying down too long or coming up too fast...

I'd be interested to see what, if any, impact the Gator had on the DCS hit. However, there are a ton of other personal factors that contribute to an individual's risk of getting DCS. Weight, physical condition, medicines, hydration, cold, physical exertion, residual nitrogen, etc. And because of varying respiratory functions, we all don't offgas during safety/deco stops and surface intervals at the same rate either...

Tables and more specifically dive computers are not exact to your actual nitrogen levels. They are simply computer models based on normative data designed to provide a margin of safety the majority of the time. I haven't seen a dive computer yet that plugged in to your veins like an IV and measured ACTUAL blood nitrogen levels during a dive!!

As we learned in our training, the only way to not risk DCS is to never dive. We are always at (low) risk of DCS every time we dive even when we stay within limits of tables and computers.

Partner, I'm glad you are ok. I hate like heck that you had to go through what you did and I thank you for your openness so we can all learn from your experience. Best of luck going forward!

 

[murrayp4]

Informative and well written. Thanks for posting