Call me bender

[gaz]

Ah, this is starting to get a bit common and it's before i've even had chance to post my bio on the introduction page - oops.

I went off to wraysbury last wendesday night for an easy evening dive and ended up getting bent. The dive in question was pretty uneventful, 45 mins with a deepest bit of 11mtr and a 3min stop at 6mtr, nothing too special there. My buddy and i spent a bit of time doing shutdown drills and just doing seneic diving, getting out at about 21:30.

By 23:00 i was driving home and noticed a slight pain in the back of my right hand. I assumed that it was due to a combination of shutdown drills and driving.

The next morning, it had gone completely, but driving to work i start to get a pain in my right lower arm. Once i got to work, the pain dissapeared and i put it down to noting in particular. The same thing happened on friday, but the pain didn't go and got worse through the afternoon and the growing numbness was a bit offputting.

So, by the time i got home, i thought it would be 'prudent' to ring up for a bit of advice, especially as i was planning to do go diving at the weekend :0.

Choosing Whipps X as the localist chamber, i rang up the duty doctor and explained my situation. Now at this point, i was expected to be told that it couldn't possibly be dci as it was too long since the dive. wrong, the doc suggested that i should goto the hospital for an examination and mentioned about bringing some stuff for an overnight stay <hint hint>.

i got to the hospital at about 10pm and had a chat with the doctors, by 11pm i was in the chamber starting a 5 hour treatment. i stayed in hospital overnight and got to go back in the chamber for another blast on saturday afternoon for  2 1/2 hours.

Obviously, the last few days have been something of a whirl and a shock. None of my diving buddies can believe that i managed to get bent with that profile, and i find it hard to beleive too.

Of course, the doc's told me no diving for a month and organising a pfo test too. Ironically, i'm hoping that this is a pfo as at least it will start to make sense. The events of last week have completely destoryed my established views of dci which had come from a veriety of training organisiations and the web.

if you're interested, i'll let you know what happens when i visit the doc.

Dive safe,

gaz.


BTW,
this may come in handy if you're looking for a local chamber.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bha/map.htm

Pot Map

[Jules]

<font color='#736AFF'>whats a pfo?

[angleseydiver]

<font color='#000080'>Julia,
pfo- hole in the heart in reallityspeak. Apparently, IIUC we all have one at birth and in 75% of us it heals over quite soon. However, for the other 25% of the population, should they dive, it makes them more susceptible to bends.
It looks likely that Gaz has one given his dive-profile. They are curable and there is loads about them in earlier threads in this section.
ATB,
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Terry

[Fiona]

<font color='#0000FF'>A PFO (Patent Foramen Ovale) as Angelseydiver said is a hole in the heart about 20% of the population has one but only only 1% have one large enough to cause a problem when diving.

Simple ecg test to check and they can be repaired.

Fiona

[Adrian Kelland]

Fiona

I wonder what 'large enough' means?

I was with a diver last month, his was 8mm before repair. He said that the largest he was told about was 12mm!

I would think that any hole is probably large enough to allow the cross over of bubbles.

Adrian

[Fiona]

<font color='#0000FF'>sorry Adrian, no specific's on size, its just that it was the only information I had to hand, so I quoted it!!  I'll try and find out.

When I had my bend I was also told I had a PFO but I had two tests and both were negative.   So very happy

[Dr Stevil]

<font color='#0000FF'>My (admittedly limited) understanding is that a pfo can be not much larger than a pin-prick and still allow bubbles through the membrane so several millimetres would seem quite large.
However, as I haven't gone to much length to research this alleged &quot;factoid&quot; I will stand to be corrected
Chee-az
Steve

[Diving Dude]

Hi Gareth,

You`re not the same Gareth, twin 7s, thats doing the Ad nitrox course with Dave by any chance.

If so l`m the loud mouthed,`fick builder, slightly overweight, good looking guy with the multi coloured dry-suit thats also on the course.

Hope everything works out OK and see you soon.

added

Oh and welcome of course, we`re a nice friendly bunch on this board.

[gaz]

Yes that's me.

apparently, if we'd made it there last weekend we would have got the adv. nitrox bits signed off.

i think i had a good excuse for not going ....

[Fiona]

<font color='#0000FF'>OK, size isn't everything or so I am told.  Just found this:

How common are PFO's?   A post mortem study from the Mayo Clinic found a prevalence of around 20-25% depending on age. This included very small holes which were described as probe patent, measuring only 1-2 mm in diameter. Studies in normal populations have been hampered by detection methods, and conventional echocardiography detected only 20-50% of cases (as compared with transoesophageal echocardiography, the gold standard). Holes big enough to cause significant paradoxical gas embolism are probably only present in 1-2% of the normal population.