21 November 2024

ISSUE 5 ARCHIVE - CAN I DIVE WITH..?

Epilepsy

No you blinkin' can't my fine fitting friend.

This is really sad news I know. But there are hard and fast rules here, sent down from the powers that be. These state that the diver must be "fit free and off all medication for 5 whole years". That's a long time to wait, I know, but hey there's always Sudoku. And X Factor.

The issue here is two-fold. Firstly it's the medication.

There is a theoretical risk that anti-epileptic medication can cause nitrogen narcosis at shallow depths. Now I know that most divers dive real fine with narcosis at the normal levels of say 40m. However, if you are acting all strange and pissed up as you nark on the whole dive, there's going to be problems aplenty. Wrong reg hose; up instead of down; that sort of thing.

The second issue is what if you fitted underwater?

The first fit phase is the tonic one. You go all stiff, won't be able to breathe and can lose your reg from your mouth. Imagine if you ascended here, unable to exhale as you were all stiff. Lung barotrauma time. After this is the clonic phase, where you are seen to jerk about. Here you can inhale the whole ocean down inside you. I can't see your buddy appreciating this situation.

So that's why the rules is the rules.

But there is some light at the end of this miserable tunnel. If you have been fit free for a while, you may not have to be on the meds anymore. Speak to your neurologist, as you may be able to come off them altogether and at least there will be diving in the future.

If the fits were only at night, then it's 3 years off. And if the "fits" were only the feverish ones that kiddies get – that used to scare the sh** out of me in Casualty – then you are fine... as long as they weren't followed by proper epilepsy.

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