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Bill, I have read some of the 'extreme exposure' decom posts, including the below, and found it a nice surprise that others experience what I do on 9 ATA + dives. Up here in Missouri, 9 ATA + divers are rare so gathering information on those dive types is almost nonexistent. The waters on the deep cave dives here are cold (48F-50F) and a sizeable portion of the 300' er's at actual 30 min. BT are done swimming. I felt the aforementioned 2 reasons was why the flu like feeling and joint/muscular pain was more pronounced. These after dive symtoms are temporary and seem to leave after a few hours. The dives are calculated conservatively and I am sure we spend more than enough time in deco (without a habitat, though). Although everything has turned out fine so far, I do wonder about the long term effects. --------Jason Weisacosky On Tue, 08 Apr 1997 19:36:59 -0400 Bill Mee <wwm@sa*.ne*> writes: >There has been quite a lot of disbelief and possibly a few stuffed >mailboxes of late and much of it related to George's and other's >pronouncements on the subject of decompression. > >Bill Bott and Jeffrey Marks have demonstrated particular doubt and >apparently are still waiting for an explanation from George regarding >either his personal version of decompression theory or his "secret" >deco >tables. There is another genre of disbelievers who are convinced that >George is doing the wrong deco because he consistently experiences >varying levels of DCS symptoms following extreme exposures. This group >of folks is especially irate because the author of "Doing it Right" >would seem, at first glance, to be "doing it wrong". Unfortunately, >for >the long time adherents and new converts to "technical diving" the >real >truth here is going to be a big disappointment. Naturally, we didn't >want to spoil the fun for everybody so we've kept the open discussion >about this to a minimum. > >The truth is you will experience physical damage, which most of the >time >is noticeable, when you dive in the 250' plus range for actual, on the >bottom times, in excess of 35 minutes. This result you will enjoy no >matter how correctly you perform your decompression, including the >addition of deep stops, which seem to mitigate the problem somewhat. >Some among you would term these symptoms as "minor aches and pains" >others would be dialing DAN or 911. It all depends on your relative >physical conditioning and threshold for discomfort. > >Now I can just imagine the gasps and indignation over what I have just >said, but I have yet to see a post from anyone other than George >Irvine >or WKPP members (who do these dives routinely) which would contradict >this statement. In fact I don't know how many occasions I have >observed >George to beg for a response from anybody who has performed similar >dives so they might share their experience with all of us. > >For those of you who read DAN's most recent "Alert Diver" publication >you surely will recall the article on the flu-like "Scuba Disease". >These folks attempt every explanation for this condition except the >obvious, which is an immune response to compression and >microcirculatory tissue injury. We occasionally experience fever >like >symptoms following a dive with "hard" deco. An antiinflammatory drug, >such as ibuprofen, has a profound effect on alleviating these symptoms >and we make copious use of it. > >Any type of chronic neuromuscular injury, such as tendonitis, pulled >muscles, low back pain etc. is seriously aggravated following an >extended range dive to 9+ atmospheres. I understand that tissue is >largely incompressible; however, there is quite a bit of open space in >joint and other connective tissue which is rapidly compressed >following >a fast descent. Joints and muscle must now function under this >external >mechanical loading which you can be certain is causing grinding and >hemorhaging and damage at the cellular level. Broken capillaries leak >circulatory fluids into the interstitium, which not only will trap gas >bubbles, but initiate an immunulogical response at the injury site. I >can just picture the wreckage, in the capillary bed, with macrophages, >leukocytes, monocytes neutrophils and all the rest of the >hematological >defense team swarming around ruptured capillaries and trapped micro >bubbles. What a mess. > >By remaining in extremely top cardiovascular condition your body is in >a >constant state of reconstruction due to damage at the microscopic >level. Excellent collateral circulation as well as a boosted immune >system, I have no doubt, help the body to cope with the damage >resulting >from extreme exposure diving. Think about it. It is almost impossible >to >perform one of these dives without using the muscular machinery of >your >body in some way or the other. The trick is to minimize the damage and >this is why you must use DPVs and of course be prepared to take the >beating. > >For dives of 200' or less and moderate exposures most of the deco >software out there will get you out of the water fairly intact. This >is >because the multicompartment models for gas transfer reasonably >approximate actual physiology and the mechanical beating is not so >bad. >Needless to say that none of this applies if you have a PFO or some >other circulatory, neurological or organic abnormality. > >Frankly, I would like to hear about the experiences of others who have >done dives in the 9+ atm range for extended periods of time. Please, >don't anybody tell me "if you only do your deco correctly you'll be >just >fine". In my case, I find the end result worth taking the beating >for. > >Bill > -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send list subscription requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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