bladephotog
Contributor
Saturday afternoon a group of us met up in Harbor Beach, Mi. to dive the Dunderberg in Lake Huron. Despite some bumpy surface conditions the weather was nice and we splashed in at 3:45.
My buddy had a glove leak so I bobbed in the water for a few minutes waiting for it to get fixed. We finally proceeded down the line but she had to bail at about 50 feet because of the leak. I had two divers ahead of me and more coming down the line so I went ahead.
My dive went perfect, except for camera failure, and according to plan which I post here -
DIVE PLAN
Surface interval = 5 day 0 hr 0 min.
Elevation = 600ft (s)
Conservatism = + 2
Dec to 145ft (2) Nitrox 26 50ft/min descent.
Level 145ft 27:05 (30) Nitrox 26 1.40 ppO2, 134ft ead
Asc to 70ft (32) Nitrox 26 -30ft/min ascent.
Stop at 70ft 0:30 (33) Nitrox 26 0.81 ppO2, 63ft ead
Stop at 60ft 2:00 (35) Nitrox 26 0.73 ppO2, 54ft ead
Stop at 50ft 3:00 (38) Nitrox 26 0.65 ppO2, 45ft ead
Stop at 40ft 4:00 (42) Nitrox 26 0.57 ppO2, 35ft ead
Stop at 30ft 4:00 (46) Nitrox 80 1.53 ppO2, 0ft ead
Stop at 20ft 14:00 (60) Nitrox 80 1.28 ppO2, 0ft ead
Surface (60) Nitrox 80 -30ft/min ascent.
Off gassing starts at 96.6ft
OTU's this dive: 81
CNS Total: 32.5%
133.1 cu ft Nitrox 26
21.3 cu ft Nitrox 80
154.4 cu ft TOTAL
Ascent rates were excellent. Got out of the water feeling as well as I ever do.
I went to dinner and had a little pain in my shoulder area but blew it off as I always have a little pain in that shoulder. It felt like drysuit squeeze. After dinner I got my gear ready for the next day's dive and went to bed. The shoulder pain had gone away by now.
I woke up at 12:30am with pins and needles pain in both wrists and hands and in my right elbow. I thought maybe I slept on them wrong. Got up and moved around which, of course didn't do anything.
I tried to go back to bed but woke up again a short time later. I went on O2 at 2:30 and took some aspirin. The pain subsided but then game back. I called DAN at 3am and they suspected, as I, that I probably took a hit even though I shouldn't have.
The thing is the pain would come and go, making me more in denial I guess. But by 6am I'd had enough and drove to Detroit Receiving Hospital and into the ER.
I was diagnosed with a probable Type I hit and went into the chamber. I was scheduled for a 3-4 hour ride but did a Table 6, 7 1/2 hour ride. The pain stabilized after about 5 hours. It was completely gone in my left and mild to moderate in my right elbow, wrist and hand.
Monday morning much of the pain was back on the right side. I was scheduled to go back in but because of insurance problems, basically getting an approval number, I didn't get in until Tuesday afternoon. I then was scheduled for a Table 5 two hour dive and ended up doing a Table 6 extended to 6 hours. The pain and pins and needles sensation was gone in my left hand and wrist and diminished in my right and the pain in my elbow was gone.
Wednesday morning everything was as good as when I left the chamber Tuesday night. I went back in Wednesday afternoon for a Table 5 two hour dive and again had it extended and did 4 hours 50 minutes. Following the dive my left side is about 90-95% normal and my right improved to pins and needles sensation in three fingers but no real pain.
Being as mild as my case is, I thought I'd be in and out of the chamber with all the pain quickly resolved but I was wrong. The hyperbaric doc, also a diver, was great. He looked at my profiles and and agreed I shouldn't have gotten a hit. He also reaffirmed what I already know that a diver can do everything perfectly and still get hit. It just happens.
He also said they never know how someone is going to react to chamber treatment. Everyone responds differently. The hyperbaric staff at DRH is great. Sundau was a long day for everyone. But they were extremely pleasant and took good care of me. They even delivered Jimmy John's sandwiches into the chamber for me and the technician with me.
Looking back I can't find any glaring reason why I got bent. I have a few suspicions though. One, with a newborn baby at home I'm probably more tired all the time than normal. Two, I did probably work a little harder than normal on the surface. Three, I don't normally choose 80% for a deco gas using 100% instead. But by using 80% I could boost my cylinder to 3000psi making it possible to get an extra dive off the cylinder. It's a compromise which I've done before. So maybe it was a combination of those factors. I'll never know.
I don't know that I'd probably not do much different except use 100% O2. My hydration levels were good. In the future I'll probably set my V-Planner at +4 conservatism for extra safety. But going by the numbers I should have been fine. But as an instructor friend of mine told me, "that's why it's called decompression THEORY."
The folks at DAN were excellent. The medic did a follow up call on Tuesday and we had a nice conversation. He said DRH gave me the exact same treatment DAN would've given me at Duke Unversity. So that's comforting.
My outlook is good. I should easily recover to dive again but it won't be this year. Because of the intense treatment I got I'll be out of the water for at least 6 months. The real lesson learned is listen to your body and don't deny the symptoms. The DAN medic said they have a joke that denial is one of the symptoms of DCI. I think he's right.
My buddy had a glove leak so I bobbed in the water for a few minutes waiting for it to get fixed. We finally proceeded down the line but she had to bail at about 50 feet because of the leak. I had two divers ahead of me and more coming down the line so I went ahead.
My dive went perfect, except for camera failure, and according to plan which I post here -
DIVE PLAN
Surface interval = 5 day 0 hr 0 min.
Elevation = 600ft (s)
Conservatism = + 2
Dec to 145ft (2) Nitrox 26 50ft/min descent.
Level 145ft 27:05 (30) Nitrox 26 1.40 ppO2, 134ft ead
Asc to 70ft (32) Nitrox 26 -30ft/min ascent.
Stop at 70ft 0:30 (33) Nitrox 26 0.81 ppO2, 63ft ead
Stop at 60ft 2:00 (35) Nitrox 26 0.73 ppO2, 54ft ead
Stop at 50ft 3:00 (38) Nitrox 26 0.65 ppO2, 45ft ead
Stop at 40ft 4:00 (42) Nitrox 26 0.57 ppO2, 35ft ead
Stop at 30ft 4:00 (46) Nitrox 80 1.53 ppO2, 0ft ead
Stop at 20ft 14:00 (60) Nitrox 80 1.28 ppO2, 0ft ead
Surface (60) Nitrox 80 -30ft/min ascent.
Off gassing starts at 96.6ft
OTU's this dive: 81
CNS Total: 32.5%
133.1 cu ft Nitrox 26
21.3 cu ft Nitrox 80
154.4 cu ft TOTAL
Ascent rates were excellent. Got out of the water feeling as well as I ever do.
I went to dinner and had a little pain in my shoulder area but blew it off as I always have a little pain in that shoulder. It felt like drysuit squeeze. After dinner I got my gear ready for the next day's dive and went to bed. The shoulder pain had gone away by now.
I woke up at 12:30am with pins and needles pain in both wrists and hands and in my right elbow. I thought maybe I slept on them wrong. Got up and moved around which, of course didn't do anything.
I tried to go back to bed but woke up again a short time later. I went on O2 at 2:30 and took some aspirin. The pain subsided but then game back. I called DAN at 3am and they suspected, as I, that I probably took a hit even though I shouldn't have.
The thing is the pain would come and go, making me more in denial I guess. But by 6am I'd had enough and drove to Detroit Receiving Hospital and into the ER.
I was diagnosed with a probable Type I hit and went into the chamber. I was scheduled for a 3-4 hour ride but did a Table 6, 7 1/2 hour ride. The pain stabilized after about 5 hours. It was completely gone in my left and mild to moderate in my right elbow, wrist and hand.
Monday morning much of the pain was back on the right side. I was scheduled to go back in but because of insurance problems, basically getting an approval number, I didn't get in until Tuesday afternoon. I then was scheduled for a Table 5 two hour dive and ended up doing a Table 6 extended to 6 hours. The pain and pins and needles sensation was gone in my left hand and wrist and diminished in my right and the pain in my elbow was gone.
Wednesday morning everything was as good as when I left the chamber Tuesday night. I went back in Wednesday afternoon for a Table 5 two hour dive and again had it extended and did 4 hours 50 minutes. Following the dive my left side is about 90-95% normal and my right improved to pins and needles sensation in three fingers but no real pain.
Being as mild as my case is, I thought I'd be in and out of the chamber with all the pain quickly resolved but I was wrong. The hyperbaric doc, also a diver, was great. He looked at my profiles and and agreed I shouldn't have gotten a hit. He also reaffirmed what I already know that a diver can do everything perfectly and still get hit. It just happens.
He also said they never know how someone is going to react to chamber treatment. Everyone responds differently. The hyperbaric staff at DRH is great. Sundau was a long day for everyone. But they were extremely pleasant and took good care of me. They even delivered Jimmy John's sandwiches into the chamber for me and the technician with me.
Looking back I can't find any glaring reason why I got bent. I have a few suspicions though. One, with a newborn baby at home I'm probably more tired all the time than normal. Two, I did probably work a little harder than normal on the surface. Three, I don't normally choose 80% for a deco gas using 100% instead. But by using 80% I could boost my cylinder to 3000psi making it possible to get an extra dive off the cylinder. It's a compromise which I've done before. So maybe it was a combination of those factors. I'll never know.
I don't know that I'd probably not do much different except use 100% O2. My hydration levels were good. In the future I'll probably set my V-Planner at +4 conservatism for extra safety. But going by the numbers I should have been fine. But as an instructor friend of mine told me, "that's why it's called decompression THEORY."
The folks at DAN were excellent. The medic did a follow up call on Tuesday and we had a nice conversation. He said DRH gave me the exact same treatment DAN would've given me at Duke Unversity. So that's comforting.
My outlook is good. I should easily recover to dive again but it won't be this year. Because of the intense treatment I got I'll be out of the water for at least 6 months. The real lesson learned is listen to your body and don't deny the symptoms. The DAN medic said they have a joke that denial is one of the symptoms of DCI. I think he's right.
