Finished with the hyperbaric chamber

Had a further two follow up sessions this week and on Friday I was given the all clear. Well, I say "the all clear", what I mean is they've given me as much hyperbaric treatment as is practicable. The patches of tingling and numbness have cleared up although my hands don't quite feel normal as yet. All down to the nerve sheaths regenerating now!

I've been signed off diving for four weeks, which is a shame. Still, only thing I've planned for definite was a weekend in Mull in early October which I should be able to make although I had been hoping to get a way for a couple of weekends before then. Ah well, probably be able to get some in after before it gets too cold for me and got to make sure I'm fully healed.

Yes, the Isle of Mull. To be honest I'm apprehensive about diving again after this bend, particularly Mull... the diving there is meant to be around the 30m mark in the same sort of UK waters and I really don't want a repeat of this not so little incident! I was fortunate in that this bend manifested itself in my arms where the nerves can regrow. Heard a lot of talk of spinal bends where you really are fucked as the nerve does not have the same abilities to regenerate itself. All part of life's knocks I guess, along with the capped teeth and assorted scars: still, the prospect of picking up permanent pins and needles is something else again, let alone paralysis.

So, what can we learn from all this? Those of us who dive should take this away: keeping hydrated when diving doesn't just mean drink a few glasses of water, better something uncaffeinated with sugars and the like in it. If you DO feel tingly post dive (or have any other DCS symptoms) ring the RN Institute of Naval Medicine pronto, they've a doctor available 24 hours a day. The number is 07831 151523, I'd advise putting adding it to your logbook if you dive in the UK. Seriously, I thought I'd never need it. I was wrong.

Chamber session two

Had the follow up session in the chamber today, which went quite well. Whilst in the unit I had a good chatting with the folks there and what we're doing now is using high pressure oxygen treatment in the chamber to help the sheaths over my nerve cells to regrow. This will stop the itching and help the small dead patch on the heal of my left hand go, if it works. If it doesn't, well, in the words of Dave, "You're fucked". Can't say fairer than that really can you? Still, fingers crossed.
< looks at left hand>
Yup, they are.

Seriously, the treatment seems to be working and my body repairing itself. Feels better now, this afternoon, than it did this morning before treatment which is a good sign. Having another session tomorrow, I hope it'll be the last, but lets see.

Nice weekend diving, shame about the bends

Ah, the traditional British August Bank Holiday, traffic jams and rain. And extended hospital treatment.

So, I went off to Eyemouth with the Orca crew this Bank Holiday for three days of boat diving. And there was some great diving to be had, as although the visibility was only OK at three to four meters the macro life there was fantastic! Plenty of anemones (easier to spell than say and not so easy to do that either), many nudibranchs, lobster, squat lobster, all sorts of crabs, scorpion fish, leopard spotted goby, the list goes on and on. Wow!

The time passed quickly and we were soon looking at the last days diving. We went out for a meal the previous evening and I had drunk a fair bit of alcohol (a pint of Guinness, half a bottle of red wine or so and a whisky) although I made sure I drank lots of water. I also ate something which disagreed with me, causing a few trips to the toilet in the night.

The schedule for the day meant an early start, breakfast whilst the boat went out with the second group and finally a dive on the Glanmuir, a wreck lying in 28m of water. So it was a cup of tea for brekkie and go! Nice dive, plenty of gullies and sculling about to be had. There then followed a leisurely breakfast and preparation for the last dive of the weekend. We had to dive on the slack which meant in the water for 12:30 sharp, a nice four hour surface interval. In and on the wreck no problem, and a nice wreck it was to boot! Big, plenty of dead mans fingers, few large fish hanging about. We approached the NDL times on our computers, so it was time to surface even though we still had enough air in our tanks.

A quick lunch and then time to head back to Manchester as Colombo, our driver, needed to get back before 8pm to get to work on his nightshift. Nutter. Personally I was looking forward to a curry and a glass of red wine as the bowl of soup I'd had for lunch just hadn't cut it! About three hours into our journey I started to get a slight tingling in my right wrist, slowly followed by pins and needles in the hand. After an hour I was pretty much convinced that it was DCS (Decompression Sickness, AKA "the bends"), which was paradoxical in some ways as being in denial that you for DCS is often stated as a symptom of DCS so thinking I had it meant... well, it meant there's a time and a place for philosophical niceties, and when it comes to potentially serious problem that ain't it. Now whislt some folks didn't think it was DCS, I was pretty much sold on it being DCS by that point particularly as it increased in intensity the higher we went. Nothing much to be done when you're hurtling along the M62 but I prepped the numbers for the UK diving hotline and rang them as soon as I got in.

Yup, as suspected, I needed to go to a hyperbaric unit AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!! So, being based in Manchester I was offered Hull or the Wirral. Hmmmmm. Lemme think. I'll take the Wirral... I was told to expect a call back from the hyperbaric chamber there and one quickly came in from a very nice man by the name of Dave who pretty much told me I had what sounded like a neurological (ie type 2) DCS and to get in there AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Oooo-kay. I get the picture....

To the great and eternal credit of my friends it took just two connecting calls at 8pm on a Bank Holiday Monday to arrange the 50 mile lift. Phill had already had a drink, Russ and Andrea were about but jumped straight in the car for me. Love you guys, seriously. And I know you would've done Phill, but to fair, you were slurring evvvver so slightly when I got through to you. No judgement call there, if I hadn't have been diving I'd have been there with you. Although pople never seem to call me for an emergency lift do they... huh, what's your problem that you don't think I'd care enough, hey? Well I do! And just saying "But Bill, you haven't got a car or even a driving license and it was an emergency, I only had a few minutes before loss of blood would've made me pass out and possibly die!" is MISSING THE FUCKING POINT MAN!!!! And relax.

So, where were we? Ah yes, speeding, at the national limit of course, towards the hospital! Russ made excellent time as Andrea and I made small talk and we were soon there. Dave, who was the director of the unit, a senior paramedic and ex-commercial diver went through the first round of questions with me as we waited for the doctor to arrive. We went through a number of bits of information both concerning my general health (no, I'm not pregnant, I always look like this) and the events leading up to the main event itself. When the doctor arrived he went through a similar medical evaluation and questions. The consensus was that dehydration was at the root of it, mainly from the dose of squits in the night.

Next step was to put me into the hyperbaric chamber for a few hours. Russ and Andrea volunteered to come at pick me up when I was out, which was estimated to be 04:15 at the earliest (I was in for a "Table 62" session I believe). They were to ring the chamber at 03:00 and check I would be out then and not requiring an extended stay. I waved them bye-bye and prepared for my journey into the unknown...

The preparation consisted of selecting a set of green scrubs (none of that tie-up-the-back-exposing-the-bum malarkey, nosiree bob!), choosing my books and picking the types of sandwiches and chocolate to take in... Ah yes, Wirral hyperbaric chamber, you'll come out fitter AND fatter!!! And then Dave and I were in the chamber.

Now, let me explain some of the procedure here and just why, exactly, Dave would be accompanying me. The chamber was to be pressurised to be the equivalent of 18 meters below sea level. This would encouraged the pesky bubbles of nitrogen in my system to redissolve into my blood stream and be allowed to off gas naturally through my lungs. To further encourage this process I was to spend most of my time breathing 100% O2. Most of my time as for every 25 minutes on I had to have 5 minutes off to avoid oxygen toxicity, a lovely effect that can occur when you the effective pressure oxygen is greater than 100% (go look up your gas laws if you want more on this). The main symptom of oxygen toxicity is having a fit: hence the presence of Dave and the reason why nitrox diving is so conservative with PO2 levels.

In we went and the pressure dropped, causing the chamber to heat up a hell of a lot. When we stabilised at 18m equivalent on went the O2 mask for 25 minutes. Horrible thing, very uncomfortable, that last word summing up a lot of the evening. I'd not slept since 06:30 the previous day and wasn't allowed to sleep in "the pot" (as us hardy diving types call the hyperbaric, apparently) as I had to concentrate on breathing properly. My symptoms gradually lessened, with the writs pain going first followed by a gradual diminishing of the pins and needles in a tide like fashion down my hand towards the little finger. After a few rounds of treatment we "came up" to 9m equivalent and I went on the O2 for an hour, a couple of times.

Eventually we equalised and it seemed to have worked. Alas, some of the symptons returned pretty bloody quickly, albeit to nowhere near the same extent, so I have another two hour session tomorrow. I'm also pretty tired but I'm not sure if that's sleep that needs to be caught up on or another symptom: either is possible. Russ and Andy picked up, the stars, and I came home to find myself locked out of the house. But that's another story and I have pretty diving photo's to sort through!

I'll follow up on this tomorrow with any luck. Hopefully the session (a Table 60 session) will sort the rest of the niggles out and I'll be diving again in time for a planned trip to Mull in early October... I shall, of course, be properly hydrated by then, drinking juices and squash rather than water.

Kudos and thanks to the Murrayfield hyberbaric guys, you were fantastic. Russ, Andrea, that was friendship above and beyond the call of duty (particularly given the whole "Kidnapped in the Lebanon" thing I did on Russ a few years back) I owe you a meal and the movies (Tropic Thunder, yeah?). Phill thanks for caring and wanting to be there only to be constrained by those pesky UK drink driving laws (buy you a drink, yeah?). And thanks to everyone who's already sent your well wishes. It should all be OK now. Fingers crossed. You buy me a drink yeah ;)

Breaking news... Mars Bar found!

Heard from Kathryn, who's one of the Orca dive master trainees: she was helping with a rescue diver course at Capernwray and... well, I'll let her tell the story!
"We found your Mars Bar!!! Well one of the Rescue students surfaced with it looking confused. mucho sniggering. Think he unwrapped it n left it for the fish. Assuming it was one of your rogue chocs, unless there's a copycat out there."

Which leaves two more out there to be found by lucky people (prize: one mars bar). Assuming that it isn't the work of a copycat of course, which is almost too scary a thought to contemplate

Summer time diving

Been getting a few dives in over the past couple of weeks which is always fun.

Last Sunday it was the Orca Divers Trefor Pier Shoot Out, which is a photo comp organised by and for Orca divers. Again, nice day out. I'd not been to Trefor Pier before and whilst it was a fairly surge-y and with low vis I managed to get some nice photos, including some of Tompot Blennies, beautiful little fish (I say little but I think they're the largest blennies you find in the UK, although I could well be wrong!). Anyway, it was a shot of one of them I took which was voted the winner last night, which was great. Really shouldn't have drunk all that wine whilst we were judging though...







And a fortnight ago it was the Orca Divers trip to Abersoch. Alas, Nick James couldn't make it due to stomach problems, so I got a lift with Mike who is an amiable chap. We arrived in Abersoch around 7ish in the evening. Nice little village suffering from minimal parking which is problematic (well, I say suffering and problematic but that is purely from my tourists perspective). Myself and one other chap, Alex, were in the Ship Hotel with everyone else billeted in another place so I bounded in and enquired as to my room. "Got a room booked, my name is Bill Watson. Probably in the name of Orca Divers!" This met with a look initially of confusion which was soon followed by a look of worry as the landlord said the immortal words "Err. Divers? That's next week...". The room contracted somewhat as did my chest. The old lady behind the bar chipped in and pointed out with a chuckle that there was always space available under the village bridge. Fantastic, a room with a view, albeit lacking in amenities. Mien host shuffled off (literally as he had a gamy leg) in a hurry to check his bookings leaving me to contemplate bunking down with the local trolls. Good job I've shaved the goatee off.

Turned out to be a cock-up over names (Dawn who was organising the weekend had booked it her name) and the room was available. And very nice it was too even if we did have to have brekkie with the main party in a different hotel. Too difficult to get the cook up at 7 am or something.

The last weather forecast I'd seen wasn't that brilliant, and on the Saturday it looked like it might be right. However it brightened up over the course of the day and we ended up with glorious weather over the course of the weekend. Diving off a boat, The Shearwater, which is the best dive boat I've been on! Very well designed and laid out cat, plenty of space to kit up and then store kit out of the way. Not surprising given that Alan, the owner and skipper, has decades of experience as a diver and applied that knowledge to his boat.

We aimed for an earlier start on the Sunday in order to try and get to dive with the seals without being buzzed by jet skies and other pesky hazards. Alas, it was not to be due to a set of car keys going adrift and much too-ing and fro-ing ensuing. Went for it in the end but the bloody seals didn't want to play anyway ;) All in all the dives were fun, with the water being almost sub tropical temperature wise. Well, a good 17 degrees Celsius anyway, which is good as. Plenty of spider crabs, velvet crabs, pollacks, hake, dog fish, some shrimp and a few wonderful nudibranchs. Great group of people as well, including Kathryn the Spider Crab Queen! All in all a fantastic weekend...