Tahiti Bound
18 June 2012 | 16 15.7'S:146 18.7'W, West of North Fakarava Pass, Tuamotu, French Polynesia
John

We have just departed Northern Fakarava bound for Tahiti. It should take us about 30 hours but will stretch it to about 36 so to arrive Papeete at daylight on Wednesday. So far the winds are trade and out of the Southeas at 16-18. We are on a broad reach averaging 7.5. We are dragging a couple of fishing lines in hopes of a tuna or mahi mahi.
Fakarava is one of those places you will probably never forget the rest of your life. The great barrier reef is another. In our case not because of the beauty of the diving but of incedences at each place. At the great barrier reef several years ago, Lisa and I were diving with a dive organization when Lisa ran completely out of air at 40 feet. That time I tried to give her my auxiliary octopus but failed to purge it from the water when the dive master that day was right there and assisted. I know the ascent to the surface seemed like an eternity to Lisa when it happened to her and she nor I will ever forget that experience.
Well at Fakarava it was my turn. Only I didn't run out of air, I still had 2200 lbs, but I ran out of oxygen. That is I overexerted myself and could not get the oxygen from the compressed air into my blood through the lungs. i.e. shortness of breath.
So let me explain a little further. As I get older, climbing mountains or walking up hills becomes a little more difficult. The mountains and hills it shows up first in my legs becoming exhausted not my breathing. Well on a mountain or a hill you can just stop and catch your breath or let your legs rest. Not quite so under water. Yes you can just stop, relax and take good solid inhales and exhales. The difference in my case is the initial indication that I will be getting short of breath does not show itself under water. Swimming and kicking your legs don't wear out your leg and arm muscles before you become short of breath. So yesterday morning we are scheduled for a dive in the north channel passe. The dive was scheduled for 8:00 and the dive shop came by the boat and picked us up. Off we went on a 20 minute high speed RIB ride to the dive site. There happened to be two dive masters on the boat, as well as the skipper, Lisa, myself and another gentleman doing the dive. This dive was billed as a no strain, no current slack tide dive. These guys do this all the time so mayby their idea of no current and mine are different or they really didn't think there would be any current down there. In any case there was not an alternate dive course so we all dawned our wetsuits, equipment and went overboard. The lead dive masters instructions were to stay at the same depth as he was and just behind him. Lisa had her typical descent problems with clearing her ears so the second dive master stayed with her until she got to the bottom. We had dropped down to 70+ feet and I was having trouble keeping u p with the lead dive master as there was some current against us. On two occasions he stopped and turned to me and motioned to catch up. As he and the other diver waited I was working my fanny off trying to catch up to him. Well just like jogging as a group, the guy in the back of the pack needs the rest more than the front group so when they are nice enough to stop and wait that is just it they were trying to be nice. It doesn't do much good to wait then take off just as soon as the struggler catches up.
Well that is exactly what happened and when I proceeded behind them I realized I was completely out of breath. No matter what I did to try and slow down my breathing it didn't work. I was gulping air so fast that the moisture in the compressed air wetted my lungs and caused a caughing/hacking fit. I saw the lead dive master turn and look at me so I gave him the sign I was having a problem. He came right over to me and could see I was inhaling and exhaling at a tremendous speed, almost like hyperventilating but much deeper. He gave me the big crossed arms sign which means my dive was over and then had the other diver master take both me and Lisa to the top. So now because my legs were unable to tell me that I was going to be out of breath, I may have gone much further than I normally would have. I wasn't out of the woods yet. I don't believe we made a valid decompression stop so that gave me some problems when I got on the boat. Throughout the entire ascent, I was ha cking up phlem and removing my regulator to spit it out then purging my regulator to put back in the mouth. That part of the training worked. Ok we are at the surface. In a way this is kind of a comedy of errors but formost language barrier. The dive master's native tounge is French and so is the skippers. I speak no French and Lisa enought to count to 10+ (exaggeration). As soon as we break the surface the dive master puts his training to work not knowing what my problem is, he inflates my BC to it's maximum which now puts so much pressure on my chest that once I exhaled I cannot expand the BC to take in any air. I took care of that right quick and dumped all the air. I finally get through to him that I am totally out of breath and not getting oxygen. After we all manage to flop me into the dive boat they administer oxygen and nothing is improving. So off we go leaving the lead dive master and the other diver under the water heading for the dive shop and medical attention. We were doing about 25kts in a 3 foot chop all the way back to the dive shop, getting beat to a pulp on each wave. Once we are headin g towards the dock, the decompression raises it's head in my left hip joint or tendon. Now I don't know which is worse, no oxygen or the darn sharp pain in my hip. We finally get back to the dock and there was the shop manager, a nurse, and a couple other locals helping roll me out of the boat and onto the dock and further onto a couple of blankets to be used as a gurney. They stuffed me in the back of the managers car and drove me the 5 blocks to the clinic.
There I was thrown onto a table and greeted by a PA or Paramedic that spoke very little english. The dive shop manager, Jerome had a pretty good command of english and stayed with us the whole time. It took me nearly an hour with oxygen to start to feel normal again so they proceeded to do a couple of tests that indicated I had a high glucose level, possibly diabetic. In the end all turned out very well. After spending 4 hours in the clinic, the Paramedic after consulting a doctor at Papeete pronounced me good enough to leave. At one point, my oxygen level in the blood was down to about 65% but once it came back up to 97% he said I could go. Had my oxygen level not increased they were going to have to get a plane in from Papeete to fly me back to the hospital in Papeete. So with this little episode I will have to see yet another doctor to see if my blood sugar levels are tolerable and also get a pulminary check up to evaluate my lung capacity. Until then I guess I am limited to cleaning the bottom of the boat or snorkeling.
There are some lessons here. Had I been on a walk or hike with Lisa or friends, I would not have had a leader like the dive master trying to do his job to my detriment and I would have stopped and rested and for that matter if I didn't feel like it I wouldn't have gone any furtner. I have already done that in the Galapagos with Lisa, Donna and Veronica. Lisa and I are more cautious and if diving together we generally don't look for the deepest hole, the fastest current or a wild ride so maybe we are safer for ourselves that way. A dive shop has charged you good money to get you to some spectacular sites and they will push the limit as in this case. The lead dive master really didn't take the time to evaluate my problem and instead canxed the dive. Had he been the one to take me too the surface, I would hope he could recognize that it wasn't an air problem but a breathing problem. I am glad Lisa and I are members of Divers Alert Network (DAN). Had I needed to be transp orted to Tahiti, New Zealand or Hawaii for treatment, the membership insurance covers both me and Lisa. Thank goodness I didn't need to be transported. So how am I today. Well quite fine thank you. Yesterday I talked to my brother and sent an email with all the gorry details to my children. Two of which called me this morning to gang up on me by sharing their affection for me. Thank you. It is on their advice and Lisa's insistance that I get the job of cleaning the bottom until I seek other medical advice. After all the bottom of the keel is only 4 feet below the surface which is twice as deep as our bathtub at home.
No pictures of the gorry details, but posted a picture of myself with the paramedic once he cleared me to leave the clinic. Lisa was impressed by his long hair, tattoos, and board shorts!
All for now.
John