i tried to fly out today and i ended up being bent

[DandyDon]

I like a computer next to my SPG so I will check both often, but this is the wrong thread for this really.

 

[kimbalabala]

I like a computer next to my SPG so I will check both often, but this is the wrong thread for this really.

I KNEW someone was going to say this is the wrong thread!! (but I still have to add that my mask is air integrated so I'm getting that info at the same time).

 

[DandyDon]

I KNEW someone was going to say this is the wrong thread!! (but I still have to add that my mask is air integrated so I'm getting that info at the same time).

Oh, I am sure it's very nice. It costs more than twice what I'd want to spend on one if I didn't already have 2, but for those who can afford it - and can well insure it or afford to lose it, cool.

I dive 2 Oceanic computers that are Nitrox capable and can be downloaded, both of which I hear fine if they go off - one next to my cheap SPG that I replaced on a trip to Roatan nearly 2 years ago and close to my compass, the other on my wrist for backup.

For Golfer who has just done a trip on rented resort gear with his son and survived, I'd suggest reading more in our New Divers, Basic Scuba, and Computer forums - but get your own regs and computers ASAP, along with several signaling devices and whatever else he can justify owning. Oceanics are known as the most liberal but they are well within widely accepted safety limits of all agencies, just be sure you know yours well and dive it conservatively - ascending from the SS only in the GREEN, or get a more conservative if you don't mind being penalized needlessly and the fact that some people won't buddy with you. Been there, done that, not again.

 

[Blue Sparkle]

Oceanics are known as the most liberal but they are well within widely accepted safety limits of all agencies, just be sure you know yours well and dive it conservatively - ascending from the SS only in the GREEN...

Now that we are fully ensconced in a tangent (but it does somewhat relate to the OP's incident in that he wasn't fully aware of how his computer tracked things, which may have affected how he made his dive), I have to ask about this: You aren't the first person who has mentioned "the green." I do have an Oceanic computer (a Geo) and the screen is completely "black and grey" and there is no green that I'm aware of. Am I missing something obvious? :blush:

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Just running across this thread, apologies if this info is covered already (I only read up to page 18 or so). A couple of notes:

The diver's symptoms are consistent with subclinical DCS that became symptomatic. Any nitrogen bubbles would have almost certainly resolved after 22 hours, but the inflammation caused by those bubbles remained. At sea level, the area was sufficiently oxygenated; the decrease in O2 partial pressure at cabin altitude likely tipped the scale and caused the symptoms.

The diver may well have a PFO; 30% of the population does. It's theoretically possible that venous bubbles shunted through a PFO and landed in the spinal cord where they remained silent, so to speak, until the ascent to altitude. The problem is, of course, that it's impossible to tell. I think it would be a bit of a stretch to test for PFO, but not entirely unreasonable. The question then becomes what do to with the results - since the cause of the DCS symptoms is nebulous at best, would the PFO be a red herring, and would the diver have unnecessary restrictions placed on his dives because of that?

 

[redacted]

Most Oceanic computers use a color coded TLBG with some number of segments in green, then some in yellow and finally red. My Oceanic Data + has 12 segments in the green, 3 in yellow and then the red indicates a deco requirement. I believe the yellow on mine indicated a 75% or 80% nitrogen loading (Oceanic does not specify their quantitative meaning) on the lead tissue compartment. Each model seems to have a different number of segments with newer ones tending to have a bit lower resolution. Your GEO appears to use 5 segments total and no color. Clearly the last segment is a deco obligation. I suspect your 4th segment with the small dot in the center is equivalent to the Yellow section in other models. And the first 3 segments are equivalent to the green section.

 

[Blue Sparkle]

The diver's symptoms are consistent with subclinical DCS that became symptomatic. Any nitrogen bubbles would have almost certainly resolved after 22 hours, but the inflammation caused by those bubbles remained.

Is this the same as saying that he was "bent before he got on the plane"? Just for discussion's sake, what would have happened to him if he had hadn't flown at all? Would symptoms eventually have shown up anyway? Would damage have been done but not discovered because he was asymptomatic? Or would it be like he had never been bent if he had not flown?

Or.... am I completely off base in my interpretation of your post.

Thanks for posting to the thread,
Blue Sparkle

 

[daniel1948]

Daniel, Thanks for the reply.. and yes, its the Kittywake.. I am thinking of aviation (as I am a pilot) and Kittyhawk is the Wright Bro's first flight airport. I was calling Kittywake, Kittyhawk all week while I was in the Caymans. They also corrected me..

FWIW, I did freediving on the Kittiwake. It was pretty cool, since I was still relatively new at freediving, and touching the bottom at 60 or 63 feet seemed to me like a big deal. And so the entire outside of the ship was accessible to me. I was diving with a bunch of other freedivers who were all far more advanced than I, and including some national record-holders. Kittyhawk, besides being the name of the Wright Brothers' air field, is also the name of an aircraft carrier, but AFAIK, it is still afloat.

 

[kimbalabala]

Back to the original purpose of the thread (see, I CAN stick to the topic too!), I still don't understand how the diver could do two dives in the morning of one day and then fly out the next day at 7:20. Any time I've done dives "in the morning" I'm actually done diving around noon - which means there's no way I will have 24 hours of no fly time before I get on a flight at 7:20 the next morning. I know somebody already sort of addressed this - but even if the computers are very conservative, you'd still be tempting fate by at least 5+ hours. Are the computers THAT conservative?

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Is this the same as saying that he was "bent before he got on the plane"? Just for discussion's sake, what would have happened to him if he had hadn't flown at all? Would symptoms eventually have shown up anyway? Would damage have been done but not discovered because he was asymptomatic? Or would it be like he had never been bent if he had not flown?

Or.... am I completely off base in my interpretation of your post.

Thanks for posting to the thread,
Blue Sparkle

Hi Blue,
If you're defining "bent" as "symptomatic for DCS", then it's possible that he had subtle symptoms that he wasn't aware of until they became worse at altitude. There's no way to say for sure what would have happened if he hadn't flown. Typically neurological symptoms like spinal cord DCS show up sooner rather than later, and since he reports that he was asymptomatic for 22 hours before his flight, I think it's unlikely that he would have felt anything had he stayed on the ground.

Best,
DDM