My Big Toe Story

[ponybottle]

West Ireland Diver

Did a dive in Donegal in March ( my 60th ) hit 23 mtrs for about 30 mins.

Sat down to dinner about 6 hours later and when I finished eating and stood up felt a discomfort in by big toe, under the nail. Thought nothing of it.

Went to bed to be woken at 1am with a really bad pain in toe. For about an hour I was torn between toughing it out or calling an ambulance. I eventually was able to tear away a bit of soft toenail which relieved the pressure and eventually drifted off to sleep. Aborted the next days diving.

I suspected an infection as I would have thought a bend would have become apparent earlier but not so sure now.

I have had 6 dives since with no ill effects but not to that depth.

Looking at your own situation, since you started off with a pre-existing injury I'd suggest that you could consider continuing to dive at shallow depths and see if it is the physical exercise of finning is causing the problem; bends being less likely to be the causal vector at shallow depths. You can then progressively deepen your dives. If the symptom arises again it's a trip to the chamber and a reassessment.

I have no expertise in this area and I suppose the best people to advise you may be the chamber staff themselves.

Best of luck and hope all goes well.

Chris

[West Ireland Diver]

Chris

One bit of advice I would give to anyone with suspect pains.....phone a chamber immediately. Because my symptoms were borderline I phoned three different chambers to assess whether it was worth the drive to Craigavon from Galway.

ALL of the chambers were happy to give me advice. In fact the London Dive Chamber spent ages chatting to me on the phone, took my number and asked another doctor to call me back to give more advice even though I was never actually going to go to their chamber.

The doctor in Craigavon even gave me his mobile number so I could phone him anytime during the night if I needed too.

So for anyone reading this....just phone a chamber, let them decide if it's worth treating as they are the experts.

Now I've had a few days to think things through I will be doing a few shallow dives to see what happens. Probably start off in Salthill in Galway, max depth about 5m, just have a swim around. Next dive will probably be out in Carraroe, max depth 8m at the site used for training dives. We also have a decent drift dive down in Clare but with a max depth of 8m so once I'm back diving I'll probably do that dive for a bit of excitement. After that who knows, just start building up I guess.

Ed

[wreckferret]

Hi,

I got bent approx 6 years ago. I used Craigavon chamber - they were excellent.
Before any chamber does any treatment they have to run tests. When you have treatment you are in the chamber with a volunteer - they risk their well being by being there.

If you want I can give you the details of a very good diving doctor.

[West Ireland Diver]

Originally Posted by wreckferret

Hi,

I got bent approx 6 years ago. I used Craigavon chamber - they were excellent.
Before any chamber does any treatment they have to run tests. When you have treatment you are in the chamber with a volunteer - they risk their well being by being there.

If you want I can give you the details of a very good diving doctor.

A lovely nurse went into the chamber with me. I did feel a little sorry for her though, it's almost impossible trying to have a conversation with an oxygen mask on and she didn't have a book or anything!

I also found it much harder trying to equalise my ears as they increase the pressure. One thing that was a bit bizarre was having lunch passed in while I was at 9m!

Can you PM me the details of the doctor please.

Cheers
Ed

[wreckferret]

Ed,

PM sent.