I'm famous.....!

[Davey Willo]

Way back when YD was still a puppy I wrote a little story about an incident I'd survived in Oban where I truly thought I'd f*cked up in a major way.

This story was picked up by a guy called Gary Ladd ( A professor of Psychology in the States) who runs an excellent site about dive psychology.

Gary asked if he could put my story onto his site and of course I agreed, well I received an email tonight informing me that its now there and so I thought I'd let you guys know. A few of the YD old timers will remember this post and its ensuing thread, Gary's site is filled with enough horror stories to make your toes curl, plus its section on dive psychology is great.

My particular story is titled 'My battle at Oban' it's been altered slightly by the webmaster for continuity but is still 99% the story as I told it.

Enjoy the story's, enjoy the site - see the 'Stories' section about Oban.

http://www.psychodiver.com/

[Jay]

Didn't I tell you that anything that appears on YD first, is OUR intellectual property? F**ker owes me a million dollars!!

At least you will be at home on Psychodiver!!

Nice one mate.

[Big Steph]

Great story Dave.  Yes getting narked can be both frightening and enjoyable to the point of getting into serious shit.  You have also answered your own questions as to what caused it.  You did not say how long this effect lasted, but 1 minute can seem like hours.

The guys I do deep diving with always exchange OK signals on a very regular basis, every 30 seconds or so when we go below 30 metres.  As soon as somebody does not respond quickly, we get hold of them gently and swim to a shallower depth.  Diving regularly to these depths will not make a diver immune to the narks, it will only give us the experience of it's effects, therefore we should start heading up.  

My mate Billy has this theory that our air has a 'metalic' taste just before narcosis sets in.  Has anybody else experienced this??

Safe diving guy's and gals

Big Steph.

[Hobby]

Mmmm narcosis,Steph says "getting narked can be both frightening and enjoyable to the point of getting in serious shit"
As for the metallic taste question,well I reckon it's fairly personal.I beleive narcosois as described above ,is like acheiving orgasm with a gorgeous girl....as her husband walks in.You know the ramifications might kill/injure you but it might,to you ,be worth it,so you continue.The physical side is the same,like pain or indeed an orgasm.We all know what it feels like(I think)but what we can't be sure of is that it feels the same for us all if you get my meaning.
Narc.hits,like orgasms,can be diffent according to mood,surroundings etc.and how we feel in ourselves,it's a variable phenomenon.Some days they may be hardly worth bothering with and you're able to cope,other days they may end up being really messy and you have to clean youself up afterwards (curtains usually go un-noticed till you've departed!)
Forgive me I digress,I've never encountered the taste sensation altough others may have,as I said it gets us all different ways at different times it must be good in a way to have prior knowledge of impending problems though).Some epileptics experience an aura just prior to fitting,it may present as a visual,tactile,auditory or taste sensation,this again appears to be a personal thing.Can't remember what I was on about now.
Narcosis can kill,seriously,and it can affect YOU,even (maybe moreso)if you don't dive that deep and don't treat it with caution.Take care,Hobby.

(Edited by Hobby at 10:45 am on Nov. 15, 2002)

[Ben Harris]

Nice one Dave,

Thats a really well written account. Could be in a book!

Theres an idea for a collection of short stories -  YD Horror Stories To Tell The Wife Before You Go And Dive!!!!!!

Maybe not!!

[Dr Stevil]

Re metallic taste, I've always felt that pure O2 does have a very distinct metallic taste and I guess that increased ppO2 may possibly be detectable in this way, assuming you have a sensitve enough palate.

As for why it may taste metallic, I'm guessing this may be because O2 in the breathing air may be reacting with metals in your body - many enzymes and proteins in your body will contain a metal ion or two and O2 can react with these; especially the transition metal ions e.g. Fe, Cu, etc. As your mouth contains a cocktail of digestive enzymes there's bound to be a reasonable amount of metal around in there.

Sorry Frog, science nerd strikes again!
Chee-az
Steve

[Dr Stevil]

Read your tale now Dave, and a very sobering one it is too. I'm not sure I would have done a 35m and then a later 23 metre dive myself under those conditions.
Glad you're still here to tell the tale
Cheers
Steve  

[Mr T.]

Re the Metallic Taste.....

From memory, doesn't pure O2 bring the blood corpusles in your soft tissue in the mouth closer to the surface?? If you've ever (as I have on inumerable occasions) been hit in the mouth whilst playing rugby and found it to be pissing blood, then blood itslef tastes of a slightly metallic flavour, right? Correlation perchance??

[Dr Stevil]

I've alway assumed that metallic taste of blood to be due (at least partially) to the iron in the haemoglobin of your red blood cells.
Not sure about the blood vessels dilating in response to O2, I always associate that with NO (nitric oxide), but I'd guess there could be an NO-mediated vasodilation in response to elevated extrinsic O2, will have to check that out.
Steve

[Ben Harris]

Wow,
What have you lot been reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!