Difficulty Breathing

[Nardulli]

I had something happen to me a few weeks ago - wonder if any of you can shed some light..

I was in Cayman, on a boat dive off Grand Cayman. About 10 minutes into dive, at about 80 feet, I noticed that while I could breath easily enough, I felt as though I was starving for air. In other words, even though I was breathing normally, I felt as though I was not.

Any ideas?

Jim

 

[realdiver7]

I have noticed this on a few very rare occasions when the following occurred:

1. Overexertion before beginning the dive.
2. Being hot, tired or sick feeling before beginning the dive (increased respiration and
pulse rate before entering the water).
3. Overexertion during the dive (heavy workload, swimming against current, etc.).
4. Overexertion from heavy workload combined with a 2nd stage with a very small
exhaust (2nd stage exhaust probably had nothing to do with it.).

This usually occurs due to physical, diver-related issues like being out of shape, illness, smoking, or being out of breath for some other reason. Sometimes it occurs due to psychological reasons, like when a diver is stressed out over something that happened before or during the dive. Stress has a weird way of showing itself when you don't expect it. Some people are stressed and don't even realize it until they are in the middle of a dive.

At 80 feet for only 10 minutes, your tank pressure should still be high enough to deliver more than enough air even through regs that are unbalanced. A combination of low tank pressure, unbalanced regs, and a little overexertion could result in you being able to notice a slight difference in breathing, but this is not (and should not be)your everyday type of event.

Regs are designed to deliver more air than you should ever need for normal to slightly increased breathing rates, so being short of breath on a dive is rarely an equipment issue, unless you have a mechanical problem with your reg. Regs are not designed to run marathons underwater, and they will not match the same breathing performance that your lungs can handle on dry land, but sometimes divers expect way too much out of their regs.

You may want to reflect back on exactly what you did prior to, and during the dive that may have caused the change you noticed. Questions like what were you doing, or what were you thinking may help you figure it out. Were there any changes in environmental conditions that were beyond your control, or did you change anything you were doing after the first 10 minutes? Was this your first dive of the day, was this your first day of diving, did you get plenty of rest the night before, etc.? I hope this helps.

 

[TheRedHead]

It is the C02 level that fuels the urge to breathe and it sounds as if you were retaining C02, leading to hypercapnia:

Hypercapnia
Hypercapnia (or hypercarbia) is a situation in which there is excess Carbon Dioxide. Most commonly this problem occurs when the diver fails to breathe slowly and deeply (due to work for example). Because of the enlarged dead air volume associated with diving, the diver inhales great part of the previous exhaled air, containing increasing levels of Carbon Dioxide. Because of this less Carbon dioxide can be expelled by the respiratory system. Elevated levels of Carbon Dioxide lead to headache, confusion and eventually to loss of consciousness. Since it is the Carbon Dioxide level that stimulates the respiratory system, the diver will breathe faster, resulting in even higher Carbon Dioxide levels. This vicious circle is broken if the diver ceases all activity and starts breathing deeply. Hypercapnia is sometimes associated with full-face masks, (semi) closed scuba (rebreather) and skip-breathing. In recreational diving hypercapnia is not very common.

You get into a cycle of shallow, fast breathing that is hard to break. You have to slow down the breathing and make long exhales.

 

[lowwall]

Sounds like incipient panic. If possible, stop moving, relax your muscles and take slow deep breaths until the feeling goes away. It might help to say to yourself something like "inhale-two-three-four-five, exhale-two-three-four-five."

 

[LeFlaneur]

I'll go with mild panic, I think.

It has happened to me. Ironically it occurred because my I had used less air than normal and I became convinced that my guage was wrong and I was running out. I hyperventalited for a minute, got my s--t together and forced myself to breathe calmly as lowwall said above.

If you force yourself to breathe in a calm manner, your brain will follow. It is guaranteed.

 

[Kevrumbo]

It's all part & parcel of the same Vicious Cycle called the Dark Narc Syndrome:
http://www.scubaboard.com/showpost.php?p=1716851&postcount=36