Canyondreamer
Registered
I am a physician AND an avid (new) SCUBA Diver - got certified in July 2011, certified Master Diver (SSI) and have just completed my 80'th dive. I dive all year, local reservoirs and lakes as well as Hawaii, Australia, New Caledonia, Vanuate, Fiji, Mideterranian, Bahama etc. Have my own equipment and then some, including dry-suit - so all-in-all trying to really be serious about catching up with my learning about my late-in-life newfound passion!!
I am super healthy and a vigorous work-out buff, doing 60-90 min cardio on average 5 times/week.
Over the last 3 months my exercise endurance steadily decreased and over the last month I got dizzy when I stood up from sitting, thinking I was just getting old (I am 61) and being a physician, I of course did not do what I tell everyone else to do for much too long, which is to have such symptoms checked out!. Eventually I got some blood work that showed I was profoundly Anemic (hematocrit of 20% compared to my usual 55%), and was acutely admitted and underwent a million dollar work-up that showed no other abnormalities other than a pretty good sized hiatal hernia (which I had known for years I had, but which should cause no trouble), but with no evidence of bleeding from it. I got tranfused and given iron and my hematocrit went up to 33% prior to a 2 day diving trip to the Bahamas this last weekend. Did 7 good (wreck) dives in the 50-80 foot range and had no symptoms. But lo-and-behold, when I came back, my hematocrit had dropped down to 25% in the 4 days since I had the 33%. This clearly suggested that diving had/has something to do with my blood loss.
When I h ad my millionp-dollar work-up, I had not been diving in the 3 weeks prior (though usually dive every other week).
So since the only major change in my lifestyle over the past 12 months is my 80 dives since my certification in July 2011 (which some, i.e. my wife, consider insane!), I am now wondering whether the pressure differences between the chest and abdomen when down deep (Boyle's law!), makes the hiatal hernia slide up into the chest too forcefullly resulting in (small) asymptomatic tears that bleed (with it being known that this can happen in Hiatal Hernias in people who do NOT dive!!).
I did a literature and web search, and while there is much literature on SCUBA diving and hiatal hernias, on various web-sites,. including DAN's, I found none that specificly linked heavy-duty diving w/hiatal hernia and active bleeding, though most diving literature strongly recommends to get a large hiatal hernia repaired.
I think I will hold off diving until I had my surgery and healed up in the hope that this will fix the problem permanently.
Thus the purpose with this post is twofold: 1) a tale about how you can be super healthy, an active diver and still possibly become deadly ill because of the diving if you have what otherwise is considered a trivial abnormality and 2) to see if there are any out there in the diving community who may know more about what the pressure difference in the abd and chest, and the air trapped in the stomach vs the air in the lungs that equalize through the reg may be doing as to the displacement of the Hiatal Hernia during the dive and the forces that may be at play.
(not surprisingly, when I was under water, even with the Hct of 20%, I felt good and at peace and at home - my problem was above water where schlepping the tank and equipment almost killed me, certainly knocked the wind out of me!!)
I am super healthy and a vigorous work-out buff, doing 60-90 min cardio on average 5 times/week.
Over the last 3 months my exercise endurance steadily decreased and over the last month I got dizzy when I stood up from sitting, thinking I was just getting old (I am 61) and being a physician, I of course did not do what I tell everyone else to do for much too long, which is to have such symptoms checked out!. Eventually I got some blood work that showed I was profoundly Anemic (hematocrit of 20% compared to my usual 55%), and was acutely admitted and underwent a million dollar work-up that showed no other abnormalities other than a pretty good sized hiatal hernia (which I had known for years I had, but which should cause no trouble), but with no evidence of bleeding from it. I got tranfused and given iron and my hematocrit went up to 33% prior to a 2 day diving trip to the Bahamas this last weekend. Did 7 good (wreck) dives in the 50-80 foot range and had no symptoms. But lo-and-behold, when I came back, my hematocrit had dropped down to 25% in the 4 days since I had the 33%. This clearly suggested that diving had/has something to do with my blood loss.
When I h ad my millionp-dollar work-up, I had not been diving in the 3 weeks prior (though usually dive every other week).
So since the only major change in my lifestyle over the past 12 months is my 80 dives since my certification in July 2011 (which some, i.e. my wife, consider insane!), I am now wondering whether the pressure differences between the chest and abdomen when down deep (Boyle's law!), makes the hiatal hernia slide up into the chest too forcefullly resulting in (small) asymptomatic tears that bleed (with it being known that this can happen in Hiatal Hernias in people who do NOT dive!!).
I did a literature and web search, and while there is much literature on SCUBA diving and hiatal hernias, on various web-sites,. including DAN's, I found none that specificly linked heavy-duty diving w/hiatal hernia and active bleeding, though most diving literature strongly recommends to get a large hiatal hernia repaired.
I think I will hold off diving until I had my surgery and healed up in the hope that this will fix the problem permanently.
Thus the purpose with this post is twofold: 1) a tale about how you can be super healthy, an active diver and still possibly become deadly ill because of the diving if you have what otherwise is considered a trivial abnormality and 2) to see if there are any out there in the diving community who may know more about what the pressure difference in the abd and chest, and the air trapped in the stomach vs the air in the lungs that equalize through the reg may be doing as to the displacement of the Hiatal Hernia during the dive and the forces that may be at play.
(not surprisingly, when I was under water, even with the Hct of 20%, I felt good and at peace and at home - my problem was above water where schlepping the tank and equipment almost killed me, certainly knocked the wind out of me!!)