In pain but still diving!

[Z Gear]

A recent post caught my attention as it referred to the ailments suffered through the years, yet it seems he was determined to keep diving, regardless of what ailments comes his way.I thought this would be worthy of its own thread.

I look at this as something that is not easy to do, it would be a lot easier to just wait it out until you are free from those pains or ailments. But this could keep you out indefinitely if you wait to long. You can start to focus on the problem more than what you really like to do and that can lead to more discouragement, or depression. I think it is important to have the mind set that what ever health issues you are facing don't spend time thinking about it instead get up and do the things you love to do. Go diving! You might have some limitations but that should not keep you from diving. You might have to make some changes but the important thing you did not let it get you down, and quit.

Dumpster Diver , although he does not know it, is demonstrating uncommon determination to continue his diving experience despite his adversities.
It would be nice to hear others who have managed to keep diving despite their health problems. It makes it a lot easier when one knows they are not alone and share the same challenge.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Yes he is, but I urge caution. Pain is your body's way of telling you something is wrong, in most cases.
DivemasterDennis

 

[ibj40]

I've had a bad back since my mid-20's (I just turned 65). About eight years ago, I had a pretty severe attack of sciatica, possibly a result of the prior injury, but regardless pretty debilitating. It took several months of physical therapy to recover the strength in my left leg to about 90% of the strength in the right. My left foot and the outside of my left calf are still numb, although within the past year or so, I am back to being able to run/walk three miles or so a couple of times a week and take five mile walks every Saturday and Sunday morning. I still experience stiffness in my lower back from sitting too long.

My wife and I plan two dive trips a year, last year it was Costa Rica and Puerto Aventuras, this year it will be Puerto Rico and Negril, Jamaica. I have had back spasms a couple of times during dive trips, and usually just take a day off, ice like crazy, stretch a little, and get back on the boat when I feel ready. I have determined that I am not going to let my back dictate what I do for recreation. One of the accommodations I made was to move some weight off my weight belt (I dive a non-integrated BCD) and onto the tank strap of my BCD, in order to limit the amount of weight my hips have to carry. I am also very careful about my posture underwater, and avoid turning my head up and back when possible (that movement seems to trigger the spasms).

My biggest concern when I went back to diving after the sciatica was whether my left leg would have enough strength to get me up the ladder and back into the boat. Fortunately, most of the diving we do is off of smaller boats, and we are able to hand up the rig to the crew before boarding. I've also learned new ways to reach down and release the straps on my fins. It's just how much you want to put up with, how much pain is tolerable to you, and whether you are going to admit you are getting too old.

For me, it's not my time yet. Hope this helps.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I think you missed the point of DD's post ... which had more to do with the effects of aging than with the perils of diving.

He did mention a 41 year time span ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Z Gear]

I've had a bad back since my mid-20's (I just turned 65). About eight years ago, I had a pretty severe attack of sciatica, possibly a result of the prior injury, but regardless pretty debilitating. It took several months of physical therapy to recover the strength in my left leg to about 90% of the strength in the right. My left foot and the outside of my left calf are still numb, although within the past year or so, I am back to being able to run/walk three miles or so a couple of times a week and take five mile walks every Saturday and Sunday morning. I still experience stiffness in my lower back from sitting too long.

My wife and I plan two dive trips a year, last year it was Costa Rica and Puerto Aventuras, this year it will be Puerto Rico and Negril, Jamaica. I have had back spasms a couple of times during dive trips, and usually just take a day off, ice like crazy, stretch a little, and get back on the boat when I feel ready. I have determined that I am not going to let my back dictate what I do for recreation. One of the accommodations I made was to move some weight off my weight belt (I dive a non-integrated BCD) and onto the tank strap of my BCD, in order to limit the amount of weight my hips have to carry. I am also very careful about my posture underwater, and avoid turning my head up and back when possible (that movement seems to trigger the spasms).

My biggest concern when I went back to diving after the sciatica was whether my left leg would have enough strength to get me up the ladder and back into the boat. Fortunately, most of the diving we do is off of smaller boats, and we are able to hand up the rig to the crew before boarding. I've also learned new ways to reach down and release the straps on my fins. It's just how much you want to put up with, how much pain is tolerable to you, and whether you are going to admit you are getting too old.

For me, it's not my time yet. Hope this helps.

Yes it does help. I have had normal back aches from time to time some have been prolonged because of improper care and sitting posture. I have also aggravated it before with surfing on a bad back, not good. There is something to your point about giving something proper treatment and healing so as to not making the problem unnecessarily worse. I had to do that with surfing many times, but I also made up my mind to get back into it when I noticed I was improving. I was not 100% but I did return back in the water and approach things differently. My goal was merely not to stop doing what I loved. You have in your own way done the same. I think it does help others to see this as one example of how one can continue do dive through these challenges.

---------- Post added April 29th, 2015 at 09:20 AM ----------

I think you missed the point of DD's post ... which had more to do with the effects of aging than with the perils of diving.

He did mention a 41 year time span ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Whether they where the effects of aging or the perils of diving, my point refers to the determination to keep diving even though there are a lot of things coming there way that can make it more difficult to continue. My goal was to recognize the importance how some are not letting these adversities give up something like (diving), an activity that has become something they look forward to and are very passionate about. If we see some are able to continue diving through these challenges than when a person like me is in that position I can use this to motivate and not let it keep me from diving.

 

[Kevrumbo]

I was diving with a fully to partially opaque Left Eye (Cornea Hydrops with acute Keratoconus) for the past two years since 2012. (For a while I was legally blind in that Eye until the vision occluding edema & fluid resolved). I still went on my 2013 Bikini Atoll Expedition and usual Truk Lagoon Wreck Trips; and working at my Aerospace job until deciding to go on disability when it was getting hazardous driving to work & performing my job. I just had a Left Cornea Transplant now two-and-a-half weeks ago, and I'm out of the water for at least three months while it heals.

If I had problems with my contact lens in my good Right Eye, I'd first pre-brief my dive buddy/Dive Guide that I would signal "problem" during the dive and point to my mask with my Middle-Finger. We were to treat the egress and/or ascent to deco stops as a Lost Mask Contingency & Protocol. Thankfully I never had this kind of worst case problem at all --especially on wreck penetrations nearly 60m deep inside a Troop Transport Wreck Engine Room in Truk, or scootering around on a grand tour of the WWII USS Saratoga Aircraft Carrier Wreck sunk by the post-war Atomic Bomb testing at Bikini Atoll.