Hey guys,
As a used-to-be competitive spearfisher, I know some of the stuff you guys are talking about, without getting into the top performance details, but here's a story you may find interesting.
As a son of a spearfisher, I started freediving and hunting recreationally when I was ten. My first comp. was when I was 26, so I was quite experienced at this point. In 2002 I did the whole season of spearfishing competitions here - about 10 - stretched from may to september. Since most of you don't know what a spearfishing competition is here, it's kind of like that - you're dropped in the water for 6 hours and then you're picked up with whatever fish you were able to take. The usual depths are between 8-15m., but sometimes we go deeper.
During the first comp. day of the Nationals (last start for the season), we had really bad weather and I personally didn't feel very well. Nevertheless I did the whole day without any success only to find myself feeling even worse and vomiting from my buoy in the water. After that day I was convinced that I better drop this comp. But on the next day we had fine weather, calm water and everything seemed ok. So I did another 6 hours of almost perfect diving pushing myself to the comfort limit, but not beyond. I scored some fish that kicked me up the ranks so I ended up way infront of my teammates. I felt really tired but happy. The only thing I didn't know was that it's going to be my last real dive.
One week later I suffered a 100% haemo pneumothorax (total lung collapse with heavy internal bleeding), which was filed as spontaneous, even though the ER guys claimed they see such severe cases only after major car crashes. I was literally dead when they did their surgery. After that 50% of the docs were conviced that it's a result of complications from a barotrauma I suffered without even knowing. The other half refused it and called it a genetic issue since they couldn't, just as me, believe that after more than 20 years of diving it would suddenly pop up (or collapse down actually). Well... I did the tests for conectivity tissues disorders and the CT scans and they all came out negative... As a result, I am more and more convinced that a barotrauma complication may be the reall issue. It took me more than 6 months to recover enough so I can go to work and I am completely unable to do any sport besides competitive Monopoly probably. The doctors confirmed once again a month ago that due to the heavy adhesions and the lost of ellasticity in the lung any diving is a big NO for me. Of course I cannot just stop and I already do some very mild snorkeling trying not to go below the 3rd meter... And since I feel a bit better with every year passing, I may return some day to the recreational spearfishing at shallow depths. :wave
But the actual reason I am sharing this with you guys is that whenever I read somebody's question whether he should seek medical help after spitting blood, I get the cold shower feeling. I was convinced the hard way that the human body is quite fragile and even though we learned to do some patching and stitching it's not 100% repairable. I admire all the pros for doing what they feel they have to, but shit happens - no matter how well trained, and how many techniques we've theoretically developed and tested into practice. And when there's an obvious smell of the shit going to happen (like bood in the saliva, wheezing breatheng, any kind of pain or abnormal feeling, whatever) the easiest thing is to go and see a doctor. Otherwise we push our luck too darn far.
Sorry if I bored you with the don't-end-up-like-me stuff...
Cheers,
Ivan