Had a scare today

[Pugsly55]

Just to be perfectly clear, a lack of sensitivity to caffeine is not a reliable indicator that one will not be hypersensitive to Sudafed or Teldrin (Contac, Dimetap, Naldecon etc) or Afrin or Neosynephrine or any other decongestant.
In my specific case, I can drink coffee all day long (after all I'm Navy trained) with no ill effect. A single Sudafed or Teldrin will torch off irregular heartbeats for several days. Oxymetazoline (Afrin & the like) has no such affect.
My point is that for many folks, drug reactions are pretty specific, much like allergies, and sensitivity to one may or may not indicate sensitivity to another.
Be careful with *any* drug.
Rick

You are correct on an individual basis Rick. Lack of a side effect with one drug does not necessarily make you immune to the side effects of a similar drug (as in the case with caffeine and sudafed). What I meant by that statement was that statistically speaking, for healthy people, sudafed is not a dangerous drug when used by appropriate people appropriately. I want to make that clear. A vast majority of people can dive, bike, weight lift, run, etc. while taking sudafed and have no problem. It is one of the main components in Claritin D, Allegra D, Zyrtec D, taken by millions of people daily for allergies with no ill effects. The side effects you describe when you take sudafed can happen to someone not used to drinking coffee and then having a cup.

Thanks for the good discussion. The important thing is that this gentleman gets a few tests done before his next dive.

 

[j-valve]

Glad you are ok Fred. Looks like all the training paid off and got you out alive. Helps to have a great team as well.

Jody

 

[fgray1]

I'm in a world of crap and he takes my pic.
If you want to know what a diver in distress looks like,
See below :11:

 

[BIGSAGE136]

Glad you are OK buddy. I prescribe warm clear east coast salt water. Hope to see you again soon.

 

[fgray1]

Glad you are OK buddy. I prescribe warm clear east coast salt water. Hope to see you again soon.

I have a dive on the logger head in Boyton Beach. You interested. We're doing a wreck and then the reef.
Fred

 

[BIGSAGE136]

Call it. Cell # is 954 465 3316. Give me at least 24 hrs on the heads up. The Misses you know.

 

[Groundhog246]

Thanks for sharing Fred. While I agree it deserves a visit/discussion with your doctor, in my experience, in many instances, a pharmacist is more knowledgeable about drug reactions and interactions than an MD. I've known more than a few people who've had something prescribed by their MD, which their pharmacist thought contraindicated and in most cases, when the MD was contacted, the scrip was changed to an alternate medication. MD's have a great wealth of knowledge and a lot to keep up with besides new drugs, pharmacists are more focused in that they only deal with the drugs end of things.

 

[dive4funOften]

Went diving today. Didn't feel real good when I woke up this morning. Got up at 4 AM. Had a early dive planned with some friends. Felt kinda stuffy. Normally I would have taken a Sudafed when I got up if I was going diving and felt stuffy. Today I didn't. Meet up with my buddies and headed up to Ginnie to do some cave diving. Started feeling alot better on the way. Got there, signed in and headed down to get set up. So far uneventful. Everthing was fine. Still felt stuffy so I took a Sudafed, just 1 mind you, 30miligrams what could it hurt, right! Took them many times before never had a problem before. Went into the water about 10 minutes after I took the Sudafed. Still felling OK. Headed down the eye I was last in the group( there was 4 of us ) We were pulling and gliding through along the floor. All of a sudden my chest felt real tight and I felt short of breath like I couldn't get enough air. I thought maybe just a little tired and slowed down a bit. We got to the Lips and the others went up from the floor to go through and I followed all of a sudden I couldn't see anything but blue and white flashes in front of my eyes. Like a million flash bulbs going off in my face. I was literaly blinded for a few seconds. I stopped closed my eyes the flashes were still there and my chest felt tighter now than before. Not to mention the ringing in my left ear. I signaled the other divers and they came back. I let them know I had a problem and gave the thumbs up. We turned the dive and headed back with me in the lead. By the time I hit the ear exit the flashes had stopped but the chest was tight and the ringing was still there. I exited through the eye the way we came in and even did the saftey stop. Went up sat on the step feeling really spent. My buddies told me my face was white as a ghost. Went and got out of my gear and we talked about what happened. One of my dive buddies today is a pharmacist and he asked me if I had eaton or drank alot of water when I took the Sudafed and I hadn't. He explained to me Sudafed works by shinking the veins and arteries which causes the heart to work harder raising your blood pressure and most likely the Sudafed had disovled at about the time we started the dive and with nothing in my stomach I got a good dose all at one time causing the problems I described.
He said get something in my stomach and drink lots of water and wait a while and see how I feel. I did. The color came back to my face the tightness went away and the ringing stopped. I waited about 90 min got suited up and told them I was going to lead this time just in case. I did the dive went with a hitch. I felt fine the whole time.

Lesson learned Watch how, what and when I take Sudafed.
Sure scared the heck out of me.

Oh not good...

Check this out...
http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/medical/articles/article.asp?articleid=51

 

[H2Andy]

this is the heart of that article for me:

"In normal, healthy divers breathing air, occasional use of pseudoephedrine at the recommended dose is probably safe. This presumes that the drug has been taken during periods when no diving has occurred and that no undesirable reactions have occurred.

However, one should avoid chronic (daily) use when diving, and it seems reasonable to avoid the drug entirely if diving while using oxygen-nitrogen mixes where the PO2 during a dive might exceed 1.4 ata, the current recommended "safe" open-circuit scuba limit."


in other words, ok with air so long as there haven't been
side-effects topside;

and not ok if you're going to exceed 1.4 ata.

am i getting this right?

 

[fgray1]

this is the heart of that article for me:

"In normal, healthy divers breathing air, occasional use of pseudoephedrine at the recommended dose is probably safe. This presumes that the drug has been taken during periods when no diving has occurred and that no undesirable reactions have occurred.

However, one should avoid chronic (daily) use when diving, and it seems reasonable to avoid the drug entirely if diving while using oxygen-nitrogen mixes where the PO2 during a dive might exceed 1.4 ata, the current recommended "safe" open-circuit scuba limit."


in other words, ok with air so long as there haven't been
side-effects topside;

and not ok if you're going to exceed 1.4 ata.

am i getting this right?

It wasn't any fun for me. To add to the problem (I researched and talk to people that know) The effect of the drug caused me to breath rapidly, adding to the problem. I wasn't exhaling completely and that ment I was inhaling my left over CO in the second stage.
I adjusted my reg all the way open so basicly it free flowed slowly keeping clean air in the second stage as I was leaving. That's why the flashes cleared up quikly. My body was starving for air, literaly sufficating slowly. Loss of vision was a result of lack of O2 in the air I was breathing.
I learned alot from this experiance.
Fred