I'm not sure where to post this, but this seems as good a spot as any. Today has been an... interesting day. At 5 AM, I was to wake to begin the day. This isn't so unusual... the unusual bit is that it wasn't my alarm that woke me.
From nowhere, static. Blasting through the apartment. It was as if someone was watching TV, maximized the volume, and found the snowiest channel imaginable. Which in a way might make sense, I imagine, as an effort to winterize this lovely warm season we're having... except that there is nobody else in my apartment. I woke with a start.
What was happening? I rushed around to try to pinpoint the senselessly infuriating noise (note to self: I may have found my new alarm clock tone?). Eventually I found it - it was coming from where my tanks were stored.
I quickly dove in to search for the culprit. It didn't take long to single out the tank.
But why? The valve was closed. The valve airway was blocked with my little bolt things. I fished the tank out and stood it up so I could look closer to figure out what was going on. My hand found the source of the air first, quickly followed by my eyes - the neck o-ring had failed. For no reason in particular either; these are practically brand-new tanks. If I had to guess, I'd say that the one tank whose "little inside snorkel thing" (my term for the dipstick) fell out and had to be repaired... I'm betting they misaligned the o-ring or damaged it when doing so, and it's been working its way out ever since. But it doesn't really matter.
I had no idea what to do... what do you do? I'm sure my neighbors now hate me, but for the next 15-20 minutes... I let it bleed.
Once it had bled to death, I noticed something peculiar on my hand. One of the fingers that had discovered the leak had an odd white 'blister'-looking spot. I went to wash and look closer; it turns out that the air had actually frozen a spot of ice on me. It slowly melted away, and I noted that it had actually cut my finger. Thinking nothing of it, I applied some polysporin, bandaged myself up, and was off to work.
Well, fast forward to later that morning. I was sitting at my computer, plugging away and... my hand started aching. The pain that had been local to the finger was starting to spread across it. So, being the masochist that I am, I started poking around. Literally. Does it hurt here? Here? Here?
... and I noticed something peculiar. It wasn't so much that it hurt... but now... I crackled.
It felt, and sounded, like I was the proud new recipient of surgically implanted bubble wrap.
This made me think... I wonder if I should be concerned. Obviously, I have air in my tissues now. One doesn't just become bubble wrap man without reason (... that would be an entirely useless super hero...) Was this the manual version of a subcutaneous emphysema? Did I just give myself an artificial, localized version of the 'bends'? Should I be concerned that a bubble will travel through my blood and into my heart or brain and... do worse things to me than give me an aching hand? I decided that, since I've never been injected by compressed air before... and since I've heard that having air injected into one's body can be a... bad thing... well, it was time to go to the hospital.
So, I went to the hospital. It was a lengthy wait; eventually a doctor saw me. She was fantastic - a diver herself, we agreed that the bubble wrap thing was "so cool" and compared some of our favorite dive spots. Then she sent me off to get some x-rays.
The x-rays show that yes, I do have bubbles in my hand. (Is anyone surprised at this point?) But, not as bad as it could have been apparently. This confirmed, we then took my show on the road.
Well, that is to say, she brought me around to various doctors around the room.
"Feel his right hand."
*insert very puzzled look*
"Do you know what that is?"
"Uhm..." *pokes some more*
Repeat.
I had become the ER version of a show and tell. Apparently this isn't an injury they see very much. Ha!
Long story... well, still long... she ended up getting me a tetanus shot, prescribing some antibiotics, and telling me that if it starts to swell and hurt that I should "be afraid... be very afraid."
Fun times.
And for the rest, I just have to wait for the bubble wrap to dissipate.
I'm not sure what the point of this post was, besides feeling that I needed to share it with... someone. And so the anonymous InterWeb should work. I guess looking over the whole thing, there are a couple things I might take away from this:
1) Failing scuba tanks make awesome alarm clocks, other than the fact that you can't "turn them off." That being said, I no longer fear it failing during a dive and me not noticing until I run out of air. There is NO way that someone can NOT notice that sound!
2) I really oughtn't try to 'touch the air' again. Especially not at high pressure. Bad idea.
3) Though this is admittedly a very... interesting experience, with some rather fascinating sensations, bubble wrap is way more fun when external to one's body. That said, I think I'm glad I went to the hospital for this - despite the wait, it's good to know that I... probably will not die from this. Maybe.
From nowhere, static. Blasting through the apartment. It was as if someone was watching TV, maximized the volume, and found the snowiest channel imaginable. Which in a way might make sense, I imagine, as an effort to winterize this lovely warm season we're having... except that there is nobody else in my apartment. I woke with a start.
What was happening? I rushed around to try to pinpoint the senselessly infuriating noise (note to self: I may have found my new alarm clock tone?). Eventually I found it - it was coming from where my tanks were stored.
I quickly dove in to search for the culprit. It didn't take long to single out the tank.
But why? The valve was closed. The valve airway was blocked with my little bolt things. I fished the tank out and stood it up so I could look closer to figure out what was going on. My hand found the source of the air first, quickly followed by my eyes - the neck o-ring had failed. For no reason in particular either; these are practically brand-new tanks. If I had to guess, I'd say that the one tank whose "little inside snorkel thing" (my term for the dipstick) fell out and had to be repaired... I'm betting they misaligned the o-ring or damaged it when doing so, and it's been working its way out ever since. But it doesn't really matter.
I had no idea what to do... what do you do? I'm sure my neighbors now hate me, but for the next 15-20 minutes... I let it bleed.
Once it had bled to death, I noticed something peculiar on my hand. One of the fingers that had discovered the leak had an odd white 'blister'-looking spot. I went to wash and look closer; it turns out that the air had actually frozen a spot of ice on me. It slowly melted away, and I noted that it had actually cut my finger. Thinking nothing of it, I applied some polysporin, bandaged myself up, and was off to work.
Well, fast forward to later that morning. I was sitting at my computer, plugging away and... my hand started aching. The pain that had been local to the finger was starting to spread across it. So, being the masochist that I am, I started poking around. Literally. Does it hurt here? Here? Here?
... and I noticed something peculiar. It wasn't so much that it hurt... but now... I crackled.
It felt, and sounded, like I was the proud new recipient of surgically implanted bubble wrap.
This made me think... I wonder if I should be concerned. Obviously, I have air in my tissues now. One doesn't just become bubble wrap man without reason (... that would be an entirely useless super hero...) Was this the manual version of a subcutaneous emphysema? Did I just give myself an artificial, localized version of the 'bends'? Should I be concerned that a bubble will travel through my blood and into my heart or brain and... do worse things to me than give me an aching hand? I decided that, since I've never been injected by compressed air before... and since I've heard that having air injected into one's body can be a... bad thing... well, it was time to go to the hospital.
So, I went to the hospital. It was a lengthy wait; eventually a doctor saw me. She was fantastic - a diver herself, we agreed that the bubble wrap thing was "so cool" and compared some of our favorite dive spots. Then she sent me off to get some x-rays.
The x-rays show that yes, I do have bubbles in my hand. (Is anyone surprised at this point?) But, not as bad as it could have been apparently. This confirmed, we then took my show on the road.
Well, that is to say, she brought me around to various doctors around the room.
"Feel his right hand."
*insert very puzzled look*
"Do you know what that is?"
"Uhm..." *pokes some more*
Repeat.
I had become the ER version of a show and tell. Apparently this isn't an injury they see very much. Ha!
Long story... well, still long... she ended up getting me a tetanus shot, prescribing some antibiotics, and telling me that if it starts to swell and hurt that I should "be afraid... be very afraid."
Fun times.
And for the rest, I just have to wait for the bubble wrap to dissipate.
I'm not sure what the point of this post was, besides feeling that I needed to share it with... someone. And so the anonymous InterWeb should work. I guess looking over the whole thing, there are a couple things I might take away from this:
1) Failing scuba tanks make awesome alarm clocks, other than the fact that you can't "turn them off." That being said, I no longer fear it failing during a dive and me not noticing until I run out of air. There is NO way that someone can NOT notice that sound!
2) I really oughtn't try to 'touch the air' again. Especially not at high pressure. Bad idea.
3) Though this is admittedly a very... interesting experience, with some rather fascinating sensations, bubble wrap is way more fun when external to one's body. That said, I think I'm glad I went to the hospital for this - despite the wait, it's good to know that I... probably will not die from this. Maybe.
