hot tubs and diving (liveaboard question)

[farsidefan1]

I'm off to Palau in February for 2 weeks. My first week will be on the Aggressor which has a hot tub. A few notes: I hate wearing a wetsuit. usually at most I wear a wet suit shirt. All my previous dive trips were one week. I am always getting chilled halfway through the week. I never worry about it, it is the normal state of affairs for me. Since this is a 2 week trip I purchased a shirt with hood (I read about a guy who nearly sufforcated trying one on in dive shop so I'm a little apprehensive about it since I had major shoulder surgery a yr ago). Anyway the Aggressor has a hot tub so I thought voila, the solution to my chilled state after diving. The bad news is I read a post where hot showers were discouraged after diving for several hours. Having taken un unexplained DCS hit last yr I want to be as carefull as possible. What is the conservative protocal for divers using hot tubs? As I explained in other posts I have had a pfo procedure since the DCS and plan to use nitrox and leave computer set for air. Thanks

 

[scubadiver888]

DAN is your friend: Hot Tubs after diving.

 

[farsidefan1]

That is a good start. Delaying 30 minutes is nothing. I as thinking 5 or 6 hours. Is there anything a bit more specific or is 30 minutes a good rule of thumb?

 

[Thalassamania]

Neal's advice is basically sound, but as usual is the voice of medical conservatism. When we looked into the inclusion of a hot tub on the porch of the habitat "George Bond" back when it was going in at Catalina it was felt that this would not be a decompression problem. The biggest concern then was sudden hypothermia and even heart attack as a result of sudden peripheral vasodilation.

 

[RJP]

I'm off to Palau in February for 2 weeks. My first week will be on the Aggressor which has a hot tub. A few notes: I hate wearing a wetsuit. usually at most I wear a wet suit shirt. All my previous dive trips were one week. I am always getting chilled halfway through the week. I never worry about it, it is the normal state of affairs for me. Since this is a 2 week trip I purchased a shirt with hood (I read about a guy who nearly sufforcated trying one on in dive shop so I'm a little apprehensive about it since I had major shoulder surgery a yr ago). Anyway the Aggressor has a hot tub so I thought voila, the solution to my chilled state after diving. The bad news is I read a post where hot showers were discouraged after diving for several hours. Having taken un unexplained DCS hit last yr I want to be as carefull as possible. What is the conservative protocal for divers using hot tubs? As I explained in other posts I have had a pfo procedure since the DCS and plan to use nitrox and leave computer set for air. Thanks

Dude - get over it and wear appropriate exposure protection.

Seriously.

 

[bleeb]

That is a good start. Delaying 30 minutes is nothing. I as thinking 5 or 6 hours. Is there anything a bit more specific or is 30 minutes a good rule of thumb?

30 minutes seems awfully short. I would have leaned more towards your original thought of 5-6 hours. For instance IIRC, Doppler studies have found the peak in the number of detectable bubbles isn't until 50-70 minutes or more after surfacing. One friend has reported possible niggles in fingers after taking a hot shower several hours after being thoroughly cooled diving in the Great Lakes.

Maybe you'd want to base your decision on off-gassing down to a particular level, rather than just a time. With tables, you could use something like an A or a B, and with computers, some will display the current saturation state of the various virtual body compartments.

 

[scubaskipper]

This may all be a non issue. Live aboards are not the size of cruise ships. As they rock, water is always having to be topped up to keep levels so the pump doesn't burn out. Because it is constantly trying to keep all this new water warm, the heaters are constantly burning out. In many of the locations it's hard to get these parts all the time. That's why most of the time they don't work. They look good for the PR and sales photos.

 

[Crush]

I tried to attache a paper, but it is too large for SB.

The paper is "Effect of peripheral temperature on the formation of venous gas bubbles," I. B. Mekjavic and N. Nakitsuba, Undersea Biomedical Research, Vol. 16, No. 5, 1989.

According to this paper, one of four test subject suffered from type I symptoms of DCS after taking a hot shower six hours post-decompression.

I am unwilling and unable to summarize the paper at this time. If you have any problems with the study after having read it, please feel free to post. I can try to email it to individuals upon request - PM me.

 

[scubadiver888]

That is a good start. Delaying 30 minutes is nothing. I as thinking 5 or 6 hours. Is there anything a bit more specific or is 30 minutes a good rule of thumb?

I took the article to say some people will exit the water and jump in the hot tub then some people will wait 5 to 30 minutes. The rule of thumb was delay gratification. He is not recommending 30 minutes as an adequate time delay. I focused on the last sentence:

My approach is to stack as many factors as feasible in my favor to compensate for the Murphy effect or chance that we see frequently in decompression sickness.

Delaying 6 hours would be ideal. Using a warm blanket and avoiding the hot tub altogether would be good. Wearing proper exposure protection would be a good idea as well.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

A few notes: I hate wearing a wetsuit. usually at most I wear a wet suit shirt. All my previous dive trips were one week. I am always getting chilled halfway through the week. I never worry about it, it is the normal state of affairs for me. Since this is a 2 week trip I purchased a shirt with hood (I read about a guy who nearly sufforcated trying one on in dive shop so I'm a little apprehensive about it since I had major shoulder surgery a yr ago).

Dude - get over it and wear appropriate exposure protection.

Seriously.

Wearing proper exposure protection would be a good idea as well.

Common sense would dictate that the OP should wear adequate exposure protection. I realize that a shoulder injury/surgery can make it difficult to don or doff a neoprene wetsuit. There are certainly ways to work around this, though. Perhaps he should consider wearing a Lycra liner beneath the wetsuit which really helps the neoprene slide on/off. Even a John-style wetsuit (full torso and legs covered with bare arms) would be better than nothing. The OP could also ask for help from a dive buddy in getting geared up.

The OP has a history of a DCS hit and is status post PFO closure.
Perhaps he is unaware that diver thermal status is an important determinant of DCS risk. Given his history, he should be taking as many steps as possible to minimize DCS risk. Wearing a wetsuit of adequate thickness would seem to be an inexpensive, easy-to-implement change that would decrease DCS risk and enhance comfort during the dive.

I hope the OP has a great time on his Palau trip. Have fun and be safe, farsidefan1.