Bad dive at Ginnie

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Originally Posted by Squirrel Girl

. . . I make a point of stopping, letting my heart calm down, and that seems to make a difference. . .

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Stopping and letting your body & mind "clear," so to speak, is essential anytime the symptoms you described (e.g., tunnel vision, etc.) appear. The process, at least for me, always takes several very long minutes. One thing is for certain, and that is nothing is going to get better - whether you decide to go farther in or turn around and start heading out - until you're back in control.

It can't be said enough: If, for any reason, it doesn't feel right, then don't.

Excellent post. Glad you're OK.

Glad you made it out. I've always been real keen on listening to that voice in my head. When something tells me to go....I listen the second I get that feeling no if, ands, or buts....Nothing in any cave that is worth risking not coming home to my husband and little girl for. I've had a handful of dives where I had that feeling like the cave was out to get me that day. Best to listen and not push it.

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Originally Posted by nkavallar

I appreciate everyones input, to answer a few questions

- I did not have a buddy bottle (stage) with me on that dive
- I did not check for CO2 in my tanks, I always analyze my tanks 2 times for O2 but I dont have a CO2 analyzer, I'll have to check with my fill place and see if they have one available
- As far as I know I have never been narc'ed, also I'm not sure but if you get narc'ed going down the ear and then up in the gallery, wont that effect diminish?
at no point during the dive I felt drunk or anything like it. I did however feel incapacitated mentally (fuzzy, blurry and even hyper realism at times)

Thanks everyone for the advice, and I will stop doing solo dives until I get more training and more dives. I just wanted to share my story as it might help someone less experienced (like me) to recognize these signs earlier and call the dive. Also just to clarify, at no point during the dive did I think I'm going to die - I don't think it was a life threatening situation, it was a "oh-crap" I gotta get out of there dive.

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CO != CO2

Your symptoms could be CO related, if the tank has not been drained, I would buy an analyzer and check it.

Amigos and Cave Country have CO analysers for customer use.

Narrowed vision like you described as tunnel vision is a classic effect of nitrogen narcosis. Ken

CO2 has (according to wikipedia) 20x the narcotic potency of N2. Sounds like a combination of nitrogen and CO2 narcosis.

As in rebreathers, when in doubt, bail out!

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Originally Posted by nkavallar

I did not have a buddy bottle (stage) with me on that dive

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That's crazy.

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Originally Posted by nkavallar

As far as I know I have never been narc'ed

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Yes, you have. Anybody that's been to 100' on air or nitrox has.

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Originally Posted by Slüdge

Anybody that's been to 100' on air or nitrox has.

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I don't remember being narc'd... :D

frankly most of us have done stupid stuff. The important thing is to learn from it and not do stuff so stupid (or more often a series of small stupid things that snowball) that kills you.

I tell students that their judgment is the most important thing and the hardest for me to evaluate. Judgment comes from maturity, experience (including mistakes), and individual aversion (or lack of) to risk and of course other individual aspects including intelligence. You made a bad call. You lived, you had enough balls to share your stupid moment so possibly others can avoid and you can figure out why it went the way it did. All not bad by any means

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Originally Posted by nkavallar

I did check for a roll off which I didn't have, also I didn't switch regs. Also just because it's not posted in this threat doesn't mean people don't disagree with my solo dive openly. Also my instructor has told me that I absolutely is against solo diving at this level - looking back I'm not sure why I decided to to it, and I'm sorry about it. I made my mistake and learned from it. I'm glad it happened like this, lots to take away from.

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