Hi DB,
Wondering if the following injury sounds familiar to anyone, and whether anyone has any advice regarding resting & healing patterns...
Last November, I dove a 69m FIM, 71m FIM, and then a 73m FIM, with the first time noticing some blood in my spit on the 73m FIM dive. I struggled to equalise in the last few meters, so exerted some strain to make it to the plate. I logged this as the cause of some blood in my spit immediately after the dive. Not much, foamy, pink, sometimes bright red depending on how hard I tried to cough.
I then had ~14 dives @ 50m-60m for 2 weeks this April, before doing a 57m FIM comfortably - and noticed nothing in my spit. However ~2 hours later over lunch, my lungs felt phlegmy, and upon a deep cough, I summoned blood. Again, not much, foamy, pink, sometimes bright red if I tried. I logged the cause as jolted turn (I missed my alarm on an open line and it spooked me a bit), and perhaps lung packing, but sad to have this return for the first time since November.
I took 10 days off, and returned to diving, with no problems, climbing back up to 67m over 2 weeks across ~14 dives, this time with no lung packing just to try to avoid any additional strain. Across these 2 weeks, when checking my spit, very slight orange/brown bits were sometimes in my spit after a deep cough.
Now on my very most recent 71m FIM - it has happened again. No blood or problems or any pain at all after the dive. It was very enjoyable, relaxed, a good mouthfill, some air left in cheeks at 71m, a smooth turn, 2'48 total which is my usual. I then took a 10 minute rest, did a 21m FRC, about 8 minutes rest, a 20m safety, another 5 minutes rest, and then helped pulled the line up from 71m to 35m - at which point I then noticed fresh blood spats in my spit. Once again, not much blood, sometimes bright red if I tried.
To describe a little more - in hope that anyone can possible comment on what's going on - There are a variety of minor sensations throughout the day, very infrequent, in my left ribcage. Some tingling, a sharp sting if I stretch and tense my stomach muscles at the same time, a slow dull discomfort if stretching my ribcage on the left hand side - all of these are not present on the right side of my ribcage.
I can also say that I'm confident my lower left rib protrudes a little more than the right hand side - people have agreed visually it appears that way.
I'll leave it at that - but my questions to the forum are:
a) does this sound familiar to anyone? and if so, what do you think is going on?
b) in terms of taking time to rest and heal - should I be treating this quite strictly (i.e. 10-14 days off, or should I be treating it as an irritation and return to diving after 1-2 days rest? blood is of course not ideal, I would rather be diving without tiny specks of blood in my spit - but this sport is good at normalising things like this - and I have no idea how fast the lungs heal or adapt, and whether to get back into the water at 30m, and start climbing up again.
Thanks in advance
Wondering if the following injury sounds familiar to anyone, and whether anyone has any advice regarding resting & healing patterns...
Last November, I dove a 69m FIM, 71m FIM, and then a 73m FIM, with the first time noticing some blood in my spit on the 73m FIM dive. I struggled to equalise in the last few meters, so exerted some strain to make it to the plate. I logged this as the cause of some blood in my spit immediately after the dive. Not much, foamy, pink, sometimes bright red depending on how hard I tried to cough.
I then had ~14 dives @ 50m-60m for 2 weeks this April, before doing a 57m FIM comfortably - and noticed nothing in my spit. However ~2 hours later over lunch, my lungs felt phlegmy, and upon a deep cough, I summoned blood. Again, not much, foamy, pink, sometimes bright red if I tried. I logged the cause as jolted turn (I missed my alarm on an open line and it spooked me a bit), and perhaps lung packing, but sad to have this return for the first time since November.
I took 10 days off, and returned to diving, with no problems, climbing back up to 67m over 2 weeks across ~14 dives, this time with no lung packing just to try to avoid any additional strain. Across these 2 weeks, when checking my spit, very slight orange/brown bits were sometimes in my spit after a deep cough.
Now on my very most recent 71m FIM - it has happened again. No blood or problems or any pain at all after the dive. It was very enjoyable, relaxed, a good mouthfill, some air left in cheeks at 71m, a smooth turn, 2'48 total which is my usual. I then took a 10 minute rest, did a 21m FRC, about 8 minutes rest, a 20m safety, another 5 minutes rest, and then helped pulled the line up from 71m to 35m - at which point I then noticed fresh blood spats in my spit. Once again, not much blood, sometimes bright red if I tried.
To describe a little more - in hope that anyone can possible comment on what's going on - There are a variety of minor sensations throughout the day, very infrequent, in my left ribcage. Some tingling, a sharp sting if I stretch and tense my stomach muscles at the same time, a slow dull discomfort if stretching my ribcage on the left hand side - all of these are not present on the right side of my ribcage.
I can also say that I'm confident my lower left rib protrudes a little more than the right hand side - people have agreed visually it appears that way.
I'll leave it at that - but my questions to the forum are:
a) does this sound familiar to anyone? and if so, what do you think is going on?
b) in terms of taking time to rest and heal - should I be treating this quite strictly (i.e. 10-14 days off, or should I be treating it as an irritation and return to diving after 1-2 days rest? blood is of course not ideal, I would rather be diving without tiny specks of blood in my spit - but this sport is good at normalising things like this - and I have no idea how fast the lungs heal or adapt, and whether to get back into the water at 30m, and start climbing up again.
Thanks in advance