Me and my PFO
Posted By Becky Varns on 11 July 2003
I have been diving since 1996 and have been working and diving in the industry since then. I have done underwater photography and video; some basic free diving and love wreck diving. I qualified as a PADI Open water diver in early 1996. The water was cold, the visibility was bad, but I loved every minute of it.
Having a low breathing rate, I was prone to headaches post diving which I always put this down to skip breathing. At this time, I had a breathing rate of approximately 5-8 breaths per minute. I also used to get headaches regularly on the surface, and felt that post-diving headaches were not unusual.
Not being the fittest person in the world, with back, knee and pelvis problems I was often pulling muscles and getting bruises, from knocking myself about pre or post dive; which meant to have muscular pain post diving appeared justifiable.
As quite a young adult, I did not have the best diet or fluid consumption in the world. I was always looking for a ‘chocolate fix’, fizzy drinks and fast energy foods. However, I would always eat a good meal post diving.
In 1998 my diving became more diverse and in 1999 I completed PADI Master Scuba Diver qualification and Basic EANx course.
At this stage, a large percentage of my diving was at an inland site with the majority of the dives conducted at 7-9mtrs for 20-40 minutes. Which, as far as decompression theory suggested, made the amount of nitrogen loading almost negligible.
On deeper dives I ensured I had a long surface interval between dives, however I always felt worse after a second / third dive and put it down to increased energy used on the previous dive and dehydration.
In early 1999, I completed my IANTD Advanced Nitrox Course, which was a real turn in the tables for me. I thought the content about foods and there effects on diving were unbelievable, so very quickly my eating habits began to change, and my fluid consumption increased dramatically. I was now eating boxes of sandwiches, drinking at least 1 litre of weak orange juice and the occasional chocolate bar, or fruit before diving. My gas mixes were chosen for optimum decompression benefits and the result was that I felt much better after dives.
However, things were to take a dramatic turn for me during one weekend of diver training, even though it would not become apparent for several hours after I returned home from diving.
Day One
It was a rather chilly day at my local dive site. I was helping a novice with some skills, and it was his first time in open water in a dry suit. We were doing a little bit of bobbing up and down as he got to grips with his buoyancy. Max depth of 7 meters for 20-25 minutes.
After an hour surface interval, we were back in the water again. Another skills dive for my student, for a total dive time of 20-25 minutes and max depth of again of 7 meters.
As ‘usual’, I experienced a headache post dive, but had no aches or muscular pain. The water temperature was around 5-6 degrees Celsius. Both dives were conducted using a 36% EANx mix.
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