Using Nitrox during SSI Stress & Rescue course

[Divrtim]

If you are taking a class( or diving less than 98 feet in general) Nitrox is great. If you are preforming a rescue or underwater rescue under that 100' ceiling there is no down side to Nitrox either for you or buddy breathing.
If you are "rescuing" below 100' you most likely will be doing a search and body recovery( I have done both). In that case, dive air and have a separate and distinct bottle with a nitrox mix for ascent and deco. Managing and planning your mixes on the surface before you jump is in itself, a primary stress( your stress) management tool.

 

[rick00001967]

I don't feel good (generally feel ill) after diving on air, presumably an immune response to the nitrogen bubbles, which was rectified by switching to Nitrox, and confirmed by trying a dive with air again.

saying you "feel ill" has me wondering how clean the air was that you were diving. carbon monoxide in the gas mix can make you feel sick. possibly flu like symptoms.

is it possible the nitrox they gave you came from a different source than the air ? perhaps it is cleaner than the air you were diving ? it would be ineteresting to see both analysed for CO and compare.

i have personally never heard of an "immune response" to too much nitrogen. if you have medical info on that please share.

as an instructor, i would have no issues with you using nitrox during a class (seeing as you are nitrox certified). but i must admit i am unsure if this is ever mentioned in the SSI standards as far as using it during training with other students that are not nitrox certified.

i obviously have no details on what your instructor may have planned for you, but typically there is no need for deeper dives during stress and rescue. so imho, using nitrox would not provide any real benefit.

 

[tridacna]

An immune response to an inert gas? Nobel Prize on the horizon.

 

[Ukmc]

Focused ultrasound with microbubbles induces sterile inflammatory response proportional to the blood brain barrier opening: Attention to experimental conditions

 

[DandyDon]

is it possible the nitrox they gave you came from a different source than the air ? perhaps it is cleaner than the air you were diving ?

I saw that on the first day of a trip once. The air divers got their tanks from the contracted Op which turned out to pretty shabby, and they were all disabled for the rest of the day. We nitrox divers got our tanks from another supplier and were fine. This was before I knew about the dangers of CO or how common they can be so I did not have a clue or a tester then. I suspect the contracted Op went back to his fill shack, drained tanks, and worked on the compressor without saying anything.

it would be ineteresting to see both analysed for CO and compare.

Why isn't that done to every tank every dive? His air supplier may well have good days and occasional bad tanks.

 

[Scuba-Lad]

I'd rather this not turn into a debate about wether decompression stress or subclinical DCI exists or not. Obviously I'm going to follow the signals my body is giving me, not someone else saying "you'll be fine".

Here is an interesting (not a scientific study) read: Subclinical DCS, Decompression Stress and Post-Dive Fatigue %

My original question about using Nitrox has been answered, thankyou to those who replied

saying you "feel ill" has me wondering how clean the air was that you were diving. carbon monoxide in the gas mix can make you feel sick. possibly flu like symptoms.

is it possible the nitrox they gave you came from a different source than the air ? perhaps it is cleaner than the air you were diving ? it would be ineteresting to see both analysed for CO and compare.

i have personally never heard of an "immune response" to too much nitrogen. if you have medical info on that please share.

I've tried tanks from completely different islands and got very similar results. A lot of the scuba shops here have their own in house compressor so very unlikely they are all coming from the same bad source.

I saw that on the first day of a trip once. The air divers got their tanks from the contracted Op which turned out to pretty shabby, and they were all disabled for the rest of the day. We nitrox divers got our tanks from another supplier and were fine. This was before I knew about the dangers of CO or how common they can be so I did not have a clue or a tester then. I suspect the contracted Op went back to his fill shack, drained tanks, and worked on the compressor without saying anything.


Why isn't that done to every tank every dive? His air supplier may well have good days and occasional bad tanks.

That's interesting and I was also reading your signature. I will look into seeing if I can get an analyser that will measure all of this including the o2 percent since I insist on the shop providing the NX analyser for me to check the tank myself anyway. If you have any info on this it would be really handy.

Doctors here in Indonesia are not worth approaching, they literally have the IQ of a sponge.

Factors that could influence what is going on:

Regulator condition: I normally use rentals and I regularly see salt deposits on the yoke filter, never see green on there. (I have my own on order, waiting for it to be delivered, which should mitigate this factor)
My breathing that day: perhaps my breathing is off and I'm retaining Co2
Tank contamination: certainly a possibility here in Indonesia. Standards can sometimes be sketchy and I regularly pull people up on this.
My personal physiology: we are all different, bodies react to stress in different ways. This is a huge unknown in my opinion and I would be very interested to see where the science of diving is in 100 years time.

If people would like to discuss further, I would suggest starting a new topic, since my original question was already answered.

SL

 

[DandyDon]

I've tried tanks from completely different islands and got very similar results. A lot of the scuba shops here have their own in house compressor so very unlikely they are all coming from the same bad source.

Indonesia? I would expect the possibilities that all are bad. I wouldn;t dream of diving there without a CO tank tester.

That's interesting and I was also reading your signature. I will look into seeing if I can get an analyser that will measure all of this including the o2 percent since I insist on the shop providing the NX analyser for me to check the tank myself anyway. If you have any info on this it would be really handy.

No, the one company that did make a good CO & O2 analyzer failed. Not many choices. See Carbon Monoxide tank testers

 

[Bob DBF]

I'd rather this not turn into a debate about wether decompression stress or subclinical DCI exists or not. Obviously I'm going to follow the signals my body is giving me, not someone else saying "you'll be fine".

Here is an interesting (not a scientific study) read: Subclinical DCS, Decompression Stress and Post-Dive Fatigue %

I don't know what your dive profiles are, but would like to add that having issues with DCS, subclinical or not, may have to do with having a PFO (patent foramen ovale). If you are having issues with decompression stress and are not doing particularly deep, long, or near NDL, you may want to look into this as the next issue could be being bent when inside NDL.

Good luck with your training.

 

[Scuba-Lad]

I don't know what your dive profiles are, but would like to add that having issues with DCS, subclinical or not, may have to do with having a PFO (patent foramen ovale). If you are having issues with decompression stress and are not doing particularly deep, long, or near NDL, you may want to look into this as the next issue could be being bent when inside NDL.

Good luck with your training.

Thanks for the info.

I had already looked into PFO and getting a Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), however according to the DAN PDF I'm reading it's only about 10-18% accurate in detecting them - more chance of a false negative it seems. So even if I got the test, unless the result was positive it wouldn't really give any concrete evidence.

 

[Bob DBF]

Glad to see you are looking into it. Watch your dive profiles until you get an answer.

Good diving