I got signed off fit to dive at the end of February. On my birthday as it happened which was a nice present. The regular tests (balance, lung function, etc.) checked out much better than back in September. The battery of cadiological tests (cardiogram, stress echocardiogram, some others) showed a normal and healthy heart. I've been signed off but with conditions - 2 dives per day max, 30m max and no CCR.
This allowed me to firm up on my presumptive trip, at the end of March, to Key Largo. I wanted to dive somewhere first world with first world medical care on the remote chance something should happen to me again. I also wanted warm water so diving at home was off the menu.
Before I went I did an hour or two with the LDS in a pool. All fine although even there I firmly briefed my buddy about what to do if things headed south. Can't be too careful.
A couple of weeks later it was off to Key Largo and Silent World. As we approached Silent World, I felt a strong desire to tell Tony and Rachel to just go ahead and I'd sit the week out and take in the sunrays instead. But I resisted. Getting back in the saddle was always going to cause a little anxiety and I accepted this as normal.
Prior to heading over to KL, I explained to Chris from Silent World about my little episode last year but he was fine with taking me diving. Kit-wise I just had a single tank and a 40cuft pony for redundancy. However overkill or unnecessary I can’t really accept diving without a redundant gas source, even silly shallow.
First dive was the Spiegel Grove. 30ish metres with moderate current (1kt). Wasn't exactly what I'd planned for my first dives back, but it was fine. I did have a couple of moments where I was a little anxious and considered calling the dive but I stuck with it and the moments passed. Second dive was the Spiegel Grove too. Following day some shallow reefs which were nice with no anxiety at all.
I had a couple of dodgy dreams one night. In one I had to go back down to do some missed deco but the water had gone so I had to come up and hope for the best. When I came back to the surface people were asking me how I felt. I said fine but then the room started swimming and I could feel myself fading out and having tunnel vision. I woke up shouting 'I can't breathe'. The other dodgy dream involved the very attractive Lithuanian girl in the coffee shop next door to my work but I won't go into that here
My buddies did the Northern Light at 56m with some bull sharks which I had to sit out. I was a bit gutted but there you go. I did some seriously shallow dives in the afternoon, including one short solo dive which was lovely to just be alone in the water and not have to wonder who's doing what.
So there we have it. Back diving. It feels good. And somehow different: listening to my body a lot more carefully now and not taking anything for granted. At all times cognisant of my escape/rescue plan/protocol should something bad happen to me - or one of my buddies. I doubt I’ll ever be a carefree diver again and my diving for the time being at least will remain squarely in the recreational zone.
Thanks to my buddies Tony and Rachel for going diving with me. I know they were watching me like hawks, which must be tiring. Thanks also to Chris at Silent World and his crew. They had complex competing needs to reconcile in me (wanted shallow and OC), Tony and Rachel (wanted CCR and deep) and we all wanted to dive together. Life's no fun without challenges so hopefully Chris was suitably challenged. Rachel was recovering from surgery and I'm pre-surgery with a shoulder injury so we must have seemed like a basket case
.
I’m now just in the process on booking another trip. Liveabord in the Red Sea. Prior to my trip I had thought perhaps a liveabord, often being somewhat remote from land (and hence hospitals, emergency services etc) were probably too risky. However increasingly my feeling is that given that pulmonary edema tends to either kill you or spontaneously resolve within an hour or two and that in many situations the odds of emergency services getting to you inside this timeframe probably aren’t great, that geographic location may be less of an issue than I first thought. It’s Russian roulette no matter where you are. And indeed the cases that I’ve read with regard to IPE, recurrence and in particular fatal recurrence, were in developed countries so it’s not clear to me that being in a developed country and/or at hand to emergency services necessarily stacks the deck in one’s favour particularly more than diving in remote locations. My thinking is that it's probably less about what country I'm diving in or how remote the location and more about people on the boat understanding what to do in case of emergency and making sure they have adequate O2. A doctor also recently suggested that I should carry IV Furosemide (Lasix) but I haven’t checked this up yet with my dive doctor.
My reasoning above may be flawed and/or biased – happy to get feedback on this.
Thanks and safe diving,
John
Anybody?
