When I left the house last Sat (1/10/04) the bank said it was 41 degrees out. My usual rule is to not go diving if it is much colder than 70, but I had been sick for the last two weeks and hadn’t been diving for a while because of it. I was going diving, and a F*#%G cold day was not going to stop me.

I headed out for fills (32% for my dive & O2 for my deco bottle), met my two buddies, and drove over to Ginnie to sign in. One of the guys I met had done a dive earlier in the day, and the other hadn’t been wet since the previous weekend.

We geared up and got into the water, which felt nice and warm. On our dive we took the main line in to the Bone Line, jumped to the Expressway, then into the Mud Tunnel. Upon exiting the Mud Tunnel we the vis was great and we took our time exiting on the Bone Line through the Big Room. Max depth 105, Avg depth 75, BT 71 min, 12 min Deco on O2.

I felt good after the dive, but the air was pretty cold. I put my gear in the car and headed for the hot showers, but my hands were freezing.. They were so cold that they hurt! (Yes, I am a Floridian.) The showers warmed me up, and on the way to dinner I stopped by my house to unload my gear and put my batteries on charge because I was thinking about diving the next day. While unloading my tanks I banged the knuckle of my left pointer finger, and it bruised.

That evening the area near my left pointer finger felt a LITTLE numb. The same area on my left foot felt numb also (I crack my toes, and would notice the numbness when I did). Over the next day or two the feeling on my foot came back to normal, but my hand stayed the same. On Tuesday before work I did some light lifting with my dumbbells - arm curls etc. That morning at work my left forearm started to feel numb.


I decided to call DAN and they suggested I see a Dr to get evaluated, and they gave me the number to call (through the hyper baric medicine center at Shands Hospital). When I called the Dr they were already expecting me. They checked me out pretty quickly and decided to put me in the chamber to see if my symptoms were relieved. If they were I would do a table 6. In the chamber (large enough for 2 cots and a bunch of medical equipment) they took us down ‘really fast’ to 60' - 15' per min. After 60 min on O2 at 60' the numbness in my arm went away, so we were in for the longer ride. After 250 min my hand was feeling normal
The entire ride went this way:
130 min - 60': 60 min O2; 5 Min air break; 60 min O2 at 60'; 5 Min air break
30 min - 60' to 30': Ascend to 30' at 1' per min while on O2
165 min - 30': 90 min O2, 15 min air break, 60 min O2
30 min - 30' to surface: Ascend to surface at 1' per min while on O2


By the way - the mask they use to deliver the O2 in the chamber was awful! It was really hard to inhale and to exhale. After complaining a lot the attendant eventually showed me how to adjust it. I had to make it feed me O2 so that I didn’t feel like I was going to black out (is that possible at such a high O2 concentration?). Also, the two big hoses would pull the mask to the side, twisting my neck.


I was told to take it easy for 4 days, drink 4 liters of water a day, not lift anything heavy, stay away from typing much, etc. No diving for 3 months. I was pretty tired for a few days, sleeping 12 hrs a night twice in a row. For the first few days I would get a tingly feeling in my hand/arm from typing for an hour or two (at work), so I worked as little as possible. It has been a week since my treatment and after a full day at work my arm started to feel a little tingly again. At first I didn’t take the 3 month hiatus from diving seriously, especially since it was just a little spot on my hand & arm that was a little numb... but seeing how sensitive it still is makes me realize that it is probably a good idea to take my time.



I am not sure why I got bent. The entire dive team did about the same profile, and neither of my buddies showed symptoms. I have done much more aggressive dives than this, longer bottom times, more N2 exposure. I can only think that there were too many shocks to my hand all at once to recover from - the cold weather, the hot shower, and the bruise.


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