Bent at Edwards

[mcmacken]

I have not written a dive report in a few years, but this one was very interesting. On Friday February 9, a few buddies and I arrived at Edwards Spring. This is a pretty interesting site: a narrow entrance shaft that drops straight down to 120 ft. with connections to Suwannacoochee Spring and possibly to the Cathedral-Falmouth system. Access is a little tricky as the banks are very steep, but there are a few well-positioned vines and footholds in the limestone. The plan was a 40-45 minute bottom time on TMX 21/30 with O2 for deco. Although I was going to deco out on my VR3, I cut a couple of tables before hand with DPlan both to get an idea of what the curve should look like and to use as backup. I was looking at a 75-87 minute runtime with 17-20 minutes on O2. The first stop was at 60 ft.
It took about 16 minutes to hit the bottom of the shaft what with finding and tying into the main line, dropping the deco bottles and finding a way through the tight spots. I had been here once before, but it was a few years ago. Vis was very poor, less than 10 ft. The passage in Edwards is fairly small, but even with my new 20W light, I often couldn’t see into the alcoves on the opposite wall. After 43 minutes of no fun, we headed up.
My VR3 called for the first stop at 80 ft., followed by 60, 30 and 20. As usual, I filled in some time at 70, 50 and 40, arriving at 20 ft with 18 minutes on O2. I surfaced with a run time of 88 minutes.
I knew immediately that something was wrong. I was hit by a jolt of adrenaline, and began to feel very cold, confused and tired. After floating around for about 15 minutes surface deco, I climbed up the steep bank, taking one rest on a convenient rock. When I arrived at my truck, I was bone cold, and very fatigued. A buddy fetched my O2 bottle and I just rested a while sucking down the gas. It didn’t help much. After a while I changed into all the dry clothes I had, cranked up the truck’s heater and got out of Dodge.
After about an hour I was warm again, but still bone tired. I also had the distinct feeling that my brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders. I spent the next six hours waiting to feel better before I went to visit the nice people at Shand’s Hospital. Poor Catherine was pulled out of a warm bed to sit in the chamber with me while Patty drove us on a Navy Table 6. The hatch was cracked around 6:00AM Saturday morning and I went right to bed, feeling a different kind of fatigue :-). Otherwise, I was fine.
I’ve spent a lot of time since trying to figure out what went wrong. The profile was very similar to ones I have used before. I downloaded the dive out of the VR3, fed the depths, descent and ascent rates into V-Planner and came up with the same deco schedule that I had used. I wasn’t dehydrated. I never felt cold during the dive, only after. The next day though, I found out that I wasn’t diving in nice warm spring water; Suwannacoochee Spring, which connects directly to Edwards was happily siphoning down river water. No wonder the vis was so bad. I wasn’t using an Argon inflation system either. I know climbing out of a steep sink can bend you, but I was bent when I hit the surface. Maybe the climb made it worse.
One other possibility comes to mind. As a 50 year old geezer and AARP member, I just may not be able to dive the profiles that I used to.
Anyway, I thought it was useful to post the experience. We learn more from a CF than a hundred good dives. - John

[Daedalus]

Thanks for posting your experience, good read and a good warning to not take anything for granted

[lonestarfl]

I have not written a dive report in a few years, but this one was very interesting. On Friday February 9, a few buddies and I arrived at Edwards Spring. This is a pretty interesting site: a narrow entrance shaft that drops straight down to 120 ft. with connections to Suwannacoochee Spring and possibly to the Cathedral-Falmouth system. Access is a little tricky as the banks are very steep, but there are a few well-positioned vines and footholds in the limestone. The plan was a 40-45 minute bottom time on TMX 21/30 with O2 for deco. Although I was going to deco out on my VR3, I cut a couple of tables before hand with DPlan both to get an idea of what the curve should look like and to use as backup. I was looking at a 75-87 minute runtime with 17-20 minutes on O2. The first stop was at 60 ft.
It took about 16 minutes to hit the bottom of the shaft what with finding and tying into the main line, dropping the deco bottles and finding a way through the tight spots. I had been here once before, but it was a few years ago. Vis was very poor, less than 10 ft. The passage in Edwards is fairly small, but even with my new 20W light, I often couldn’t see into the alcoves on the opposite wall. After 43 minutes of no fun, we headed up.
My VR3 called for the first stop at 80 ft., followed by 60, 30 and 20. As usual, I filled in some time at 70, 50 and 40, arriving at 20 ft with 18 minutes on O2. I surfaced with a run time of 88 minutes.
I knew immediately that something was wrong. I was hit by a jolt of adrenaline, and began to feel very cold, confused and tired. After floating around for about 15 minutes surface deco, I climbed up the steep bank, taking one rest on a convenient rock. When I arrived at my truck, I was bone cold, and very fatigued. A buddy fetched my O2 bottle and I just rested a while sucking down the gas. It didn’t help much. After a while I changed into all the dry clothes I had, cranked up the truck’s heater and got out of Dodge.
After about an hour I was warm again, but still bone tired. I also had the distinct feeling that my brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders. I spent the next six hours waiting to feel better before I went to visit the nice people at Shand’s Hospital. Poor Catherine was pulled out of a warm bed to sit in the chamber with me while Patty drove us on a Navy Table 6. The hatch was cracked around 6:00AM Saturday morning and I went right to bed, feeling a different kind of fatigue :-). Otherwise, I was fine.
I’ve spent a lot of time since trying to figure out what went wrong. The profile was very similar to ones I have used before. I downloaded the dive out of the VR3, fed the depths, descent and ascent rates into V-Planner and came up with the same deco schedule that I had used. I wasn’t dehydrated. I never felt cold during the dive, only after. The next day though, I found out that I wasn’t diving in nice warm spring water; Suwannacoochee Spring, which connects directly to Edwards was happily siphoning down river water. No wonder the vis was so bad. I wasn’t using an Argon inflation system either. I know climbing out of a steep sink can bend you, but I was bent when I hit the surface. Maybe the climb made it worse.
One other possibility comes to mind. As a 50 year old geezer and AARP member, I just may not be able to dive the profiles that I used to.
Anyway, I thought it was useful to post the experience. We learn more from a CF than a hundred good dives. - John

Could be too with the strong outflow, you may have had episodes of a more rapid ascent than intended. But getting chilled would definitely increase your risk. I always come in from the Swanacoochee side to avoid the strong flow and the steep climb in and out of Edwards.
I am glad that you are OK. It seems you did the right things yourself to try to help and then made the right choice to take a chamber ride.

Lee

also a member of the 50 yo "geezer club"

[Mike]

We run a rope down, around the trees to the edge of the water to help get back up.
I've only dove it a couple of times but, it's pretty rough coming back up with dbl's.
We don't use a line to the main line because it's pretty much open water above it, swim in & drop down to to it & then swim like hell to the bottom.
Sorry to hear you had a hit, I know mines coming, it seems to happen when you've done every thing right (not that I do everything right all the time).
I use a VR3 also & hope it never lies to me.

Mike M

(AARP will be sending me stuff next year I guess)

[Angie Reim]

As a 50 year old geezer and AARP member.....- John

I didn't know that! You mean to tell me that all this time you could've been getting 'us' senior citizen discounts?! :smt017

It's only Ruth and Telford for you buddy! (Dang. I was really hoping for an obvious reason for the hit.)

No depth for you!

HE Nazi

[BillBowden]

Sometimes they happen. What you describe is an experience not a CF. Maybe you should have bothered the nice folks at Shands a little sooner, but with symptoms so vague... who knows.

My hit was in 32%nox, ON AIR TABLES, on a recreational dive. My symptoms were not fully relieved by the chamber ride, so I had to self treat for a few months.

Good luck, and don't give up on what you love.

For the hard climbs, you might want to consider sidemount. (My knees thanked me)

[Webmaster]

You just need to hire a dive sherpa. ;-)

If you got cold during the dive, your body would start to shunt blood flow from extremities. So wouldn't that reduce the rate at which it could be transported back out during ascent? Would it be enough to make a difference when you started to warm up?

[akcaver]

Weve been diving Edwards lately, but shunted it on saturday because of the river intrusion. The low viz of the system definatly plays a key part, ive felt narked at 125' on 30% there more than i have at deeper places on air, and my buddy has had problems there with our mixes being oxygen rich, even though theyve been below 1.4 pO2. The banks do pose a problem for me diving backmount, but I just take my time and kinda slide down on my butt. Sorry to hear about the hit, its normally a pretty cool place!

[OFG-1]

Sorry about your hit, bit I just a couple of ideas

First, increase the conservatism setting on the VR3! When I hit 50 several mango seasons ago, that was the first thing I did, increased deco times at all levels (pre computer days). A friend of mine got hit on a VR3, and he had the conservatism at 0. He got out of the water 25 minutes ahead of another team member with a Nitek He. 25 min difference is a lot. The guy on the He ws fine.

Second, for Edwards (Luraville to us old farts), take an 16' extinsion ladder. Extend it, tie a couple of rungs together tight to make it stay extended, and tie it off to the tree on the North side of the hole. You can pull it to an angle that only has one step that is awkward. That is also how we used to get into Challange. Don't use a cheap ladder, you and your doubles will be sorry. Other than that, siedmount and tie your tanks off coming out.

Cheers

[Jay]

Wow John! Sorry to hear about the hit, but thanks for sharing!!!

Just a couple of quick Q's, did you double check your gas and how were you feeling before the dive?

I am guessing your gas was fine and I should crank up the conservatism on my VR3. :-D

[Angie Reim]

Sometimes they happen. What you describe is an experience not a CF. Maybe you should have bothered the nice folks at Shands a little sooner, but with symptoms so vague... who knows.


Yes. Exactly. It was vague but as time passed, he got crabby and crabbier. Not John-like. His only physical complaint was fatigue. I haven't told him about this observation yet, but I went and stayed at the hospital for the first hour after his descent in the chamber. After only 20-25 minutes at depth he went from flat and turdsy to happy and jovial (comparatively speaking it was ~1am by then). A trip in the chamber was the right decision. His personality changed.

I mention this because I want other buddies to be aware of each others moods too. There is crabby & tired and then there is crabby & bent. I suppose it might have almost been considered a subclinical event and maybe it would've resolved itself eventually (I bet most of us would've just tried to sleep it off) but after a few weeks how much brain damage would've occured? I'm glad he went to the chamber. Bent John is not as pleasant as Regular John. Who would want a permanent change like that?!

Hey John -
Thanks for sharing with everyone. It is brave and the right thing to do. It's a public service announcement and I wish more people would share such experiences without fear of ridicule. You all (Dear Readers) don't have to give your name but other folks - especially new divers - could learn a lot from similar stories. This was NOT a CF. John was conservative. More so than the VR3 recommended. He just happened to need a little more deco than was predicted this time. He is very fit. He is careful about hydration, etc. It's all about the statistics and the odds.

[DeWayne]

Thanks for sharing your experience with us John, I hope your recovery is quick and complete. Did the doc offer any recommendations about when you can return to diving (i.e., did he prescribe the dreaded three month reprieve)?

You make some good points Angie. Next time someone calls me a crabby old SOB, I can just tell them that I am bent (might work better than my telling them to go get bent) :twisted:

[Angie Reim]

You make some good points Angie. Next time someone calls me a crabby old SOB, I can just tell them that I am bent (might work better than my telling them to go get bent) :twisted:

Right. You 'cain't' help it. That's kind of funny.

You know after all these years I finally understand the phrase 'go get bent'. Telling someone to 'go to Hell' just doesn't have the same impact with regards to working off my own angst or aggression. Wishing death on someone makes me feel guilty. Cursing them to be temporarily, painfully bent......priceless.

Not my usual behaviour but every now and again I meet a Rat Face. :lol:

BTW OFG-1, I thought your commentary about being fair to the shooter because of rat-faced people was hilarious. I got my first good laugh in a few weeks from that.

[Webmaster]

You can always come back up here and do some shallow diving.

[mcmacken]

Thanks all for your kind words. I think I'll spend the next three months looking into those air-filled caves. I always thought they were a waste of good underground space, but I may have been wrong :?