Spontaneous Pneumothorax
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Hi ronanm98,
Paul last visited this board on April 18 of this year.
As such, you're unlikely get a response unless you email or PM him.
Regards,
DocVikingo
Paul last visited this board on April 18 of this year.
As such, you're unlikely get a response unless you email or PM him.
Regards,
DocVikingo
Hi guys,
Sorry I failed to update this...
Well I had a full chest CT done, and then contacted a DAN certified diving pulmonologist.
He reviewed the CTs, and noted that there was a small amount of bipecal scarring which is normal after a pneumo. In itself it is nothing to worry about.
He had me do a ton of tests which involved me sitting in an air-tight booth breathing through a mouthpiece. Basically he was testing lung volume, and my ability to exhale the full volume.
We found out that my lungs hold more air than normal, but more importantly, my ability to exhale the air is not really what it should be. I cannot push out as much air in 1 second as I should be able to. I don’t have the actual measurements with me, otherwise I could put up the numbers, but basically he determined that I do have some minor blockage in the lungs.
I do not and never have smoked...
So with that, he gave me a shot of albuteral, and we did the tests again with the same results.
Based on all of that, the doctor recommended that I stay away from diving. He said that even a minor blockage could lead to major problems at depth with compressed air.
So unfortunately no, cannot dive.
Which really sucks because I am a photographer, and I really wanted to try my hand at dive photography.
Sorry I failed to update this...
Well I had a full chest CT done, and then contacted a DAN certified diving pulmonologist.
He reviewed the CTs, and noted that there was a small amount of bipecal scarring which is normal after a pneumo. In itself it is nothing to worry about.
He had me do a ton of tests which involved me sitting in an air-tight booth breathing through a mouthpiece. Basically he was testing lung volume, and my ability to exhale the full volume.
We found out that my lungs hold more air than normal, but more importantly, my ability to exhale the air is not really what it should be. I cannot push out as much air in 1 second as I should be able to. I don’t have the actual measurements with me, otherwise I could put up the numbers, but basically he determined that I do have some minor blockage in the lungs.
I do not and never have smoked...
So with that, he gave me a shot of albuteral, and we did the tests again with the same results.
Based on all of that, the doctor recommended that I stay away from diving. He said that even a minor blockage could lead to major problems at depth with compressed air.
So unfortunately no, cannot dive.
Which really sucks because I am a photographer, and I really wanted to try my hand at dive photography.
Sorry to hear you can't dive, but it sounds like you made the right (and safe) decision.
I'm very sorry to hear that you cannot dive, but in all things, better alive and finding another passion.
Missdirected
Contributor
Wow, I am terribly sorry you won't be able to dive. However, I am so glad you found out beforehand.
Ever tried SkyDiving?
Ever tried SkyDiving?
1_T_Submariner
Contributor
Sorry to hear you cannot dive. Thanks for sharing your experience though. Can you snorkel/Freedive?
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Hi Paul,
That is unhappy news.
Some degree of "biapical" scarring is not unusual as a result of pneumonia, nor is a somewhat below normal FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in one second).
Whether these, especially the latter, pose a contraindication to SCUBA is a matter best determined by a pulmonologist with knowledge of dive medicine.
Given this history, there should be no issues as far as snorkeling goes, and there is good u/w photography that can be accomplished on snorkel.
Regards,
DocVikingo
That is unhappy news.
Some degree of "biapical" scarring is not unusual as a result of pneumonia, nor is a somewhat below normal FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in one second).
Whether these, especially the latter, pose a contraindication to SCUBA is a matter best determined by a pulmonologist with knowledge of dive medicine.
Given this history, there should be no issues as far as snorkeling goes, and there is good u/w photography that can be accomplished on snorkel.
Regards,
DocVikingo
Paul,
Sorry to hear about that. I also suffered a pheumathorax in November 2007 and my respiratory consultant advised me not to go back diving, although he hadn't a background in diving medicine. I understand what he is saying although I feel like seeing a specialist in diving.
Thanks Ronan.
Sorry to hear about that. I also suffered a pheumathorax in November 2007 and my respiratory consultant advised me not to go back diving, although he hadn't a background in diving medicine. I understand what he is saying although I feel like seeing a specialist in diving.
Thanks Ronan.
I went through some of this about 5 years ago. came up from a dive coughing up blood. No other symptoms. GP checked me out and did a chest xray which missed a huge problem. She said I could go diving again but since she hadn't been able to explain the blood, I contacted a cardiologist DAn referred me to at Temple University in Philadelphia. I emailed him the xray results and he said tell the GP to do a high resolution CT. Sure enough I had a really big bleb, probably from a lot of smoking cigarettes years ago. They referred me to a pulmonologist (another dive guy) who did all the tests and said he thought they could fix me to dive again. Had the head of the lung/heart transplant unit do the surgery, removed the bleb, sewed in a piece of cow pericardium to seal the lung and I was cleared to dive 6 months later. Moral of this story is that there's no substitute for having a doctor that's a diver and there's no substitute for going to a big teaching hospital in a big city. I have about 150 dives since without a single problem.
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