Bubbletrubble
Contributor
Thanks for sharing your story.
Hopefully, your physicians worked you up for cardiovascular and other neurological disorders when arriving at a DCS diagnosis. It's important to rule out those other causes since sitting still on a plane can certainly bring out circulation issues (DVTs, pedal edema) and various nervous system issues (paresthesias, etc.).
If the DCS diagnosis is accurate, then it sounds like you got pretty unlucky. Nevertheless, you took on a considerable amount of DCS risk when you decided to conduct aggressive dive profiles (with respect to nitrogen loading) less than 24 hours prior to a flight.
The first lesson to be learned here is to avoid these kinds of plans. It sounds like you weren't doing much diving at all during this vacation. A far better decision would have been to plan the dives earlier in the week...several days before getting on the plane to return home. I've done several multi-day, repetitive dive vacations, and I always leave at least one buffer day of "no diving" prior to my departure day. This doesn't even come close to flirting with the 24-hr rule -- typically it is closer to a 48-hr dive-free period. Moreover, I'm a relatively young, healthy individual with fairly good aerobic fitness. All of these factors combine to paint a picture of very low DCS risk, although I fully acknowledge that some risk still exists. I offer my approach to dive scheduling as just one example of how someone can mitigate DCS risk factors even before getting wet.
Second, there are certainly more "direct" means of mitigating nitrogen loading: limiting bottom time, using an appropriate nitrox mix, increasing surface interval time, increasing stop time, etc. Off-gassing might be more optimal given certain ascent profiles, too. When on vacation, you can try to limit nitrogen loading on your last few dives. Consider extending your shallow safety stops longer than 3 minutes; for instance, 7-10 minutes at safety stop depth might be a good idea, particularly on the last dives of a dive vacation. Slow down your ascent rate from safety stop depth to the surface. For example, try a "neutrally buoyant" ascent managed by breath control from about 15 fsw which takes about 2 min. It's great buoyancy control practice.
One more comment...
For future reference, I would view Internet posts regarding short 12-18 hr. dive-to-flight intervals with a fair amount of skepticism. It's the Internet after all. People can say whatever they like. They may exaggerate. They may misremember facts. They may derive some satisfaction in bragging about only "needing" a short dive-to-flight interval. And even if they are telling the truth, not everyone has the same physiology. There is still a great deal we don't understand about DCS pathogenesis. When it comes to adhering to DCS "best practice" guidelines, perhaps it would serve your best interests to adopt the philosophy of letting others push the limits.
Hopefully, your physicians worked you up for cardiovascular and other neurological disorders when arriving at a DCS diagnosis. It's important to rule out those other causes since sitting still on a plane can certainly bring out circulation issues (DVTs, pedal edema) and various nervous system issues (paresthesias, etc.).
If the DCS diagnosis is accurate, then it sounds like you got pretty unlucky. Nevertheless, you took on a considerable amount of DCS risk when you decided to conduct aggressive dive profiles (with respect to nitrogen loading) less than 24 hours prior to a flight.
The first lesson to be learned here is to avoid these kinds of plans. It sounds like you weren't doing much diving at all during this vacation. A far better decision would have been to plan the dives earlier in the week...several days before getting on the plane to return home. I've done several multi-day, repetitive dive vacations, and I always leave at least one buffer day of "no diving" prior to my departure day. This doesn't even come close to flirting with the 24-hr rule -- typically it is closer to a 48-hr dive-free period. Moreover, I'm a relatively young, healthy individual with fairly good aerobic fitness. All of these factors combine to paint a picture of very low DCS risk, although I fully acknowledge that some risk still exists. I offer my approach to dive scheduling as just one example of how someone can mitigate DCS risk factors even before getting wet.
Second, there are certainly more "direct" means of mitigating nitrogen loading: limiting bottom time, using an appropriate nitrox mix, increasing surface interval time, increasing stop time, etc. Off-gassing might be more optimal given certain ascent profiles, too. When on vacation, you can try to limit nitrogen loading on your last few dives. Consider extending your shallow safety stops longer than 3 minutes; for instance, 7-10 minutes at safety stop depth might be a good idea, particularly on the last dives of a dive vacation. Slow down your ascent rate from safety stop depth to the surface. For example, try a "neutrally buoyant" ascent managed by breath control from about 15 fsw which takes about 2 min. It's great buoyancy control practice.
One more comment...
For future reference, I would view Internet posts regarding short 12-18 hr. dive-to-flight intervals with a fair amount of skepticism. It's the Internet after all. People can say whatever they like. They may exaggerate. They may misremember facts. They may derive some satisfaction in bragging about only "needing" a short dive-to-flight interval. And even if they are telling the truth, not everyone has the same physiology. There is still a great deal we don't understand about DCS pathogenesis. When it comes to adhering to DCS "best practice" guidelines, perhaps it would serve your best interests to adopt the philosophy of letting others push the limits.
