Dry Dive, But Not Bent
After a dive, assume any niggle is a bend unless medical advice says otherwise.
This is a difficult axiom to follow for most divers, including me. So 3 days after a dive, and there's still an ache and swelling of a toe, so what? Is it a bend?
A late-night battle between embarrassment, shame and fear of being a hypochondriac ends up in a phone call to the London Dive Chamber. Next day a dive doctor - none other than the irrepressible Jules Eden of SportDiver magazine - makes the assessment: "we--eeell - it could be, or it couldn't. There is conflicting evidence. So just to be sure we'll put you in the pot and see if it helps".
So bets are taken. If the pain subsides after oxygen at high-pressure, then it was a bend. If not, it wasn't. I'm hoping furiously, bitterly, to still be in pain at the end of four hours.
The excellent staff at the LDC include the man who sets me up with paperwork and blue clothes and the man who gets into the chamber/pot with me. Both ex-commercial divers, both rational, good men who make an insecure diver feel un-mocked for being unduly worried ("You did the sensible thing", one says. Now that's a loaded word - "sensible". Does it mean "totally, unutterably weak and beneath contempt"?)
Down to 18 metres, nice and slow. After each 20-minute O2 session the loudspeaker burbles a question; still no change - toe still red and hurts. Repeat.
3 sessions, no change, but carry on regardless - we're doing a "62 Table". This means 2 more hours, including:
* an ascent to 9 metres
* a full hour of O2, followed by another half-hour
* the slowest ascent from 9 metres to 0 metres in the history of diving (i.e. it took 30 minutes)
* the most god-awful straight-to-DVD action movie, starring the ever-worsening Wesley Snipes, and mockingly entitled 7 Seconds. It includes English actors putting on Romanian and Russian accents, and is a filmic crime worse than bestiality and murder. We were, however, a captive audience. At least the harsh sucking of the oxygen mask drowned out half the dialogue.
What the Doctor Did:
* skin sensitivity comparison on the two feet; one suspected of having bubbles, the other clear.
* reflex tests on knees and fore-arms; being particularly "pingy" is seen as an indicator of being bent. Unfortunately it turns out I'm essentially pingy, as evinced by the post-pressure-treatment reflex test.
Conclusion:
Not a bend. Get diving, sonny!
This is a difficult axiom to follow for most divers, including me. So 3 days after a dive, and there's still an ache and swelling of a toe, so what? Is it a bend?
A late-night battle between embarrassment, shame and fear of being a hypochondriac ends up in a phone call to the London Dive Chamber. Next day a dive doctor - none other than the irrepressible Jules Eden of SportDiver magazine - makes the assessment: "we--eeell - it could be, or it couldn't. There is conflicting evidence. So just to be sure we'll put you in the pot and see if it helps".
So bets are taken. If the pain subsides after oxygen at high-pressure, then it was a bend. If not, it wasn't. I'm hoping furiously, bitterly, to still be in pain at the end of four hours.
The excellent staff at the LDC include the man who sets me up with paperwork and blue clothes and the man who gets into the chamber/pot with me. Both ex-commercial divers, both rational, good men who make an insecure diver feel un-mocked for being unduly worried ("You did the sensible thing", one says. Now that's a loaded word - "sensible". Does it mean "totally, unutterably weak and beneath contempt"?)
Down to 18 metres, nice and slow. After each 20-minute O2 session the loudspeaker burbles a question; still no change - toe still red and hurts. Repeat.
3 sessions, no change, but carry on regardless - we're doing a "62 Table". This means 2 more hours, including:
* an ascent to 9 metres
* a full hour of O2, followed by another half-hour
* the slowest ascent from 9 metres to 0 metres in the history of diving (i.e. it took 30 minutes)
* the most god-awful straight-to-DVD action movie, starring the ever-worsening Wesley Snipes, and mockingly entitled 7 Seconds. It includes English actors putting on Romanian and Russian accents, and is a filmic crime worse than bestiality and murder. We were, however, a captive audience. At least the harsh sucking of the oxygen mask drowned out half the dialogue.
What the Doctor Did:
* skin sensitivity comparison on the two feet; one suspected of having bubbles, the other clear.
* reflex tests on knees and fore-arms; being particularly "pingy" is seen as an indicator of being bent. Unfortunately it turns out I'm essentially pingy, as evinced by the post-pressure-treatment reflex test.
Conclusion:
Not a bend. Get diving, sonny!
posted by El Rev at
10:29 pm
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