I Got the “Bends”
After an amazing 9 dives in 3 days, I managed to get the Bends. I’m not sure if the Scuba Junkie dive shop is to blame, but my instructor most likely is. Frankie, possibly not really a PADI certified Dive Master was the “leader” of my Sipadan dives. He had a group of 7 people of varying skills from 3 newly certified open water divers to some more experienced divers. He was also my dive buddy so I technically was supposed to follow him wherever he went. He went into the cave so I went into the cave. He went to 30 Meters, so I went to 30M. Unfortunately, he has a lot more experience than me and can control his breathing much better than I was able. So I managed to go thru 100 of my 180 Bars of air in about 15 mins in a strong current drift dive with a possible down current at the end of the dive. I still slowly ascended to finish my dive in about 30-35 mins with a safety stop at 5M for about 3 minutes. I didn’t have a watch. When I surfaced with less than 10 Bars left, I had a slight headache, but I hadn’t been feeling all that great anyway so I didn’t think much of it. I did one more dive that day and still seemed alright. I hopped on a bus that took me back past Mt. Kinabalu back to Kota Kinabalu for a flight to Bangkok. After the suggessted 24 (26 actually) hours before flying I got on a flight and really didn’t feel well. I tried to shrug it off with daily massages to sooth my aching muscles, but the symptoms didn’t clear. So off to the Thai Navy Hospital I go to see the doctor. After a few Xrays and a quick check up, Doc says u got the bends and I recommend a Table V decompression regiment with pure oxygen. Unfortunately, that’s a 10,000THB treatment. OUCH! Nothing I can do, I can’t go around with expanded nitrogen bubbles in my body so I get in the decompression chamber for about 3 hours breathing pure oxygen. They bring me down to the equivalent of 20M and there I sit for the next 3 hours with no fish to look at. They should have at least given me a fish book to study. I didn’t feel better right away, but after a day or 2, my headache went away, my dizzy spells cleared, my joints didn’t ache as much, my muscles felt a bit better (after several more massages) and my body returned back to normal. But the doc said that I’m not allowed to dive again for at least 1 month. So much for my glorious return to Thailand to do the diving that I had planned to do 13 years ago on Koh Tao, but didn’t make because I got stuck on Koh Phanghan for 45 days. Ooohhh the backyard bar. I’ve heard from people that were just in Koh Tao that the diving isn’t that good anymore. Much of the coral has been killed by the thousands of divers that go there every year. The running gag these days around Koh Tao is that you see more divers than fish on your dives.
Tags: Indonesia, Malaysia
Kane
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