On Mon, 2 Dec 2002 17:12:56 -0600, John Nitrox <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> During the '99 NEDfest a my buddy had a cold and the congestion
>that goes with it, but had no problem keeping his ears clear.
John, that "buddy" of yours sure is accident prone, ain't he? ;)
Since it's your dumbass buddy, and not you <G>, I'm going to call
the game without giving him any breaks. :-))
Monday morning quarterback perhaps, but with a cold AND congestion,
don't you think that buddy should have considered sitting out until
either the congestion or the cold got better? He would have plenty
of good company with Elisa and Broozie who didn't dive ...
Strike 1.
( vividly told story snipped )
> both nostrils were badly clogged. Of
>course, the boat was right there and the crew seemed to think it was mighty
>peculiar that he turned away from them - but he thought it might be better
>if they didn't see his efforts to clean up the bloody mess.
Shouldn't your buddy have gone to the hyperbaric chamber (which was only
a two-minute walk away) for treatment and consultation after this dive?
They do have doctors there where Sue and I have both gone for such,
with MUCH, MUCH less severe problems and symptoms.
We'll let this one slide :-)
Did you ever notice how often it's the last thing an otherwise intelligent
diver think of is to see doc when the situation called for it? Not even
with the head of an ax lodged in his bleeding head.
> Things seemed better for the 12:00 p.m. dive, but the result was
>still more bleeding even though his maximum depth was only 62', and the
>bleeding continued long after the dive.
This dive definitely should have been called.
Strike 2.
>The night dive at Columbia Shallow
Strike 3! Doing a dive, ANY dive, after THOSE first two dives?
> That evening he thought things over and
>candy ass that he is, he decided to skip the next day's dives.
Not a candy ass at all IMHO, but a dumb ass for STILL not going to
see a diving doc when the doc was still on call 24 hrs a day,
practically next door.
Strike 4. It's a good thing in Mexican baseball it takes 6 Strikes
before one's out. :-)
>On the 26th
>he did the Punta Sur and Paso del Cedral dives both with more bleeding
Not calling the dive, and STILL not seeing a readily available doc.
Strikes 5 and 6.
>The WWW came to
>the fore, and he wimped out on the rest of the diving, while still
>thinking that it was a long way to go not to dive.
Your "buddy" finally did something right! The evil thought probably
should have earned him yet another Strike. :-)
>
> When he got home his first stop was at the otorhinolaryngologist
>who speculated that the expanding gas had broken a paper thin sinus
>bone. No cast, just a steroid spray for his nose and that was the extent
>of the treatment. The doctor didn't seem to have any opinion on whether
>the Sudafed made things worse, but it's hard to conclude that it made
>things better.
Why so? His Specialist doc didn't know. Is it not possible that
had your buddy NOT taken Sudafed, he could have blown his brains out,
given all the dives he did that shouldn't have been done AND not
having consulted a doc at any time during the interim?
>However, the doctor did make one very important point which
>has been taken to heart or at least to nose. He said that the gas might
>well have broken a bone which would not have allowed an exit through the
>nose; for example, the blood, gas, and mucus might have entered the
>brain. I don't know enough about anatomy and physiology to say if this is
>a high risk possibility or not, but to me it's like Pascal's Wager; the
>price of error is so high that one doesn't want to take the bet.
John, I am glad your buddy came out of this alive. Had I known your
buddy's shape, or were on the boat in any of those dives, I would have
dragged his ass to the diving doc at the hyperbaric chamber.
John, glad you told your buddy's story so that we'll have the benefit
of learning something from it without having risked or actually had
our sinuses and brains blown out. :-)
-- Bob.
|
