[Paul Kotik]

I 've looked back over my notes, and found that during a period of two years when my hemoglobin and red count were drastically reduced by chemotherapy, I didn't see any significant athletic performance decrement going from hemoglobin 16.5 to 13. The decline began as it fell below 13, and by the time it got to 8 my breath-hold max was less than 30 seconds! There are obviously confounding factors there, but it suggests that your numbers, Chefkoch, may well be nothing to worry about. You feel good, dive well - don't worry, be happy! I can think of plenty of people with big numbers who would be thrilled to dive as well as you do.