David Strike wrote:

> Mate!  I'd say lucky rather than tough!  It sounds like a combination of
> factors and one that, with an aggressive(?) diving schedule using nitrox
> tables close to the limit, might still have occurred had you been using
air.
> (One of the reasons that I dive nitrox observing the MOD for the
particular
> mix but according to the air tables.)

There's little doubt that I was lucky, but my schedule was not as agressive
as it sounds.  If you go by the numbers, I've got considerable no deco time
available when my computer first hits the caution zone.  Neither of us let
our computers cross that line the entire three days.  I was on the edge of
my chosen level of nitrogen, but well away from what the computer said I
could have done.

> I suppose it's a bit redundant to suggest that you consult a hyperbaric
> physician?

I don't know.  Do you think there's a point to doing so almost 4 months
later?

I have to say that the one I saw when I had a lesser hit several years ago,
the case Michael referred to, didn't impress me.  I got his name and the
hospital's name from DAN.  I came equipped with downloads from my Citizen
which did not seem to interest him, information on my diving that day, which
also didn't seem to interest him and almost had to insist on treatment
before he agreed.  I think my high option medical insurance was the deciding
factor.  He stuck a tech with me who, in turn, stuck me in a one man
chamber, ran me down to 60 feet or so on O2 and then proclaimed me not bent.
That chamber was the scariest place I've ever been.  Running out of gas 128
feet deep, 100 feet into a cave, by myself, was easier than being in that
chamber.  It was so small, I could not move my elbows from my body which is,
of course, what the tech wanted me to do.  Elbow hurts, move elbow. How?
They took all my clothes and my reading glasses, which is OK since the
didn't let me take my book either.  They informed me it was to limit the
risk of fire in the pure O2 atmosphere.  Gosh, thanks.  I really needed to
hear that.  Here I am, in a chamber full of O2, at 40 feet below a MOD I'd
consider safe in the water, expecting to spontaneously combust at any moment
or, almost as bad, go into convulsions in a tube full of O2 that ensures
nobody will be able to help me if I do.  I'm still sure the only reason I
didn't convulse is because I was damned scared I would.

It's easier to laugh now than it was then and even now, years later, it
gives me the willies just to think about it.  On the other hand, if there's
a chance of making it righter, taking might not hurt.  What do you think?

> According to Dr Simon Mitchell, past VP of the Underwater hyperbaric
> Society, a person's age does not predispose them to getting bent.  He did
> say, however, that it often takes longer to effect a cure.

I'd feel a lot better about my future diving if I figured anybody actually
knews what predisposes people to be bent except, of course the well known
PFO.
> Thanks for sharing that experience and I'm glad that it turned out for you
> as well as it did - and just to be sure: have you consulted a hyperbaric
> physician?  :-)))

Say it one more time and I'll call DAN for further advice, but I have to
tell you, I'm going to have to be a lot more certain of a cure than I am
ever likely to be before I'll get back into that one many chamber.  I
suspect you're one of the few who will understand this, but there are things
worse than a little pain.

Lee