60 replies to this topic

[Bubble2Bubble]

SquattingRadishDM

Or take Chinacats advise and wait as long as possible before taking a shower, although your probably gonna increase ur risk of remaining a SingleDiver 

B2B

[Dive_Girl]

How about a sponge bath instead....?

Will pass along the hot shower incidents to our local divers and remind them to avoid the hot water temptation as we are heading into our cold water months, er I mean COLDER water months...

btw, excellent info posts SquattingRadishDM, thanks.

Edited by Dive_Girl, 19 October 2004 - 12:18 PM.

[peterbj7]

I don't think anyone told Charity why DCS is called "the bends". The name comes from the early days when people only dived to do a job and DCS was barely known about and not understood (not that it is fully understood even now). The agony was extreme, and the victim contorted (bent) into the fetal position in an attempt to cope with it. Charity - are you a diver, or just following the board? Nothing at all wrong with that, but if you are a certified diver you should have covered DCS in your basic training, and you should have some understanding of it to dive safely. If you missed it you'd best get a book on it and read up.

As to showers, we installed hot showers at our dive center but recommend that anyone who has just dived keeps the water tepid. A very hot shower just after a dive approaching the no-deco limits is quite likely to give a skin bend, especially if the reason it's very hot is that the diver is feeling cold.

Actually Charity, I've just checked your profile and see you're an Open Water diver. Is this subject of DCS and its symptoms really new to you, because if so I'd like to know who taught you?

Edited by peterbj7, 19 October 2004 - 12:51 PM.

[randy54]

Hot showers or bathing has got to be a very random cause. Here out of SoCal most boats have showers, and many, encluding the one I dive, even have hot tubs. With all this hot water, if it was a major factor, you'd excpet to see a high number of bent divers, with all the diving done. Yet it is very rare to hear of any. And the few that do happen most always have other conditions that set the stage.

[DandyDon]

I don't think anyone told Charity why DCS is called "the bends".  The name comes from the early days when people only dived to do a job and DCS was barely known about and not understood (not that it is fully understood even now).  The agony was extreme, and the victim contorted (bent) into the fetal position in an attempt to cope with it.

Actually Charity, I've just checked your profile and see you're an Open Water diver.  Is this subject of DCS and its symptoms really new to you, because if so I'd like to know who taught you?

Hey, I tried...

The only stupid question is the one not asked! The term "Bent" is the diving slang term for "DCS" or Decompression Sickness. Why its called getting 'bent' I'm not sure but I'm sure our diving guru's can answer that one for ALL of us!

I always thought it came from finding miners and bridge builders "bent" over in pain after coming from a pressurize lock without a slow decom?

Originally called Caison's Disease, I believe

I'll bet that Chairty was warned about DCS, but may not have remembered the other name of "Bends." It's difficult to remember all that sutff cramed into a quick, streamlined course. This is why these chats help between training.

[jextract]

How about a sponge bath instead....?

Line forms here!

[dive_addict]

The only stupid question is the one not asked! The term "Bent" is the diving slang term for "DCS" or Decompression Sickness. Why its called getting 'bent' I'm not sure but I'm sure our diving guru's can answer that one for ALL of us!

I always thought it came from finding miners and bridge builders "bent" over in pain after coming from a pressurize lock without a slow decom?

Originally called Caison's Disease, I believe

When building the Brooklyn Bridge a huge number of workers, called sand hogs, died from what they called caissons disease. The footings for the bridge had to be built on bedrock. But the bottom of the river was mud. So to solve this problem they created a box with no bottom, called a caisson. They pressurized it with compressed air to keep the water out, this allowed workers to hand dig the mud from the bottom of the river until they hit bedrock. The caisson would sink as the workers removed the mud. At the end of shift, workers would take an elevator to the surface! Needless to say, countless people died. There isn't an exact number of the deaths because many workers went home and died. Because they died at home or in the alleys nobody made the connection to work.


I believe the term "bent" comes from the fact that people would double over from the pain in their joints.

[Charity6262]

I don't think anyone told Charity why DCS is called "the bends". The name comes from the early days when people only dived to do a job and DCS was barely known about and not understood (not that it is fully understood even now). The agony was extreme, and the victim contorted (bent) into the fetal position in an attempt to cope with it. Charity - are you a diver, or just following the board? Nothing at all wrong with that, but if you are a certified diver you should have covered DCS in your basic training, and you should have some understanding of it to dive safely. If you missed it you'd best get a book on it and read up.

Actually Charity, I've just checked your profile and see you're an Open Water diver. Is this subject of DCS and its symptoms really new to you, because if so I'd like to know who taught you?

I had just never heard it called that. I have always heard it called DCS so I didn't make the connection. I also didn't know why it was called "bent" ... like the reasoning behind it, but as you can see i am very new to this and I need all the help I can get on explaining stuff.

[Laura]

... as you can see i am very new to this and I need all the help I can get on explaining stuff.

Charity,

Feel free to ask any questions you want on this board. There' are a lot of great people here and wealth of knowledge available for the asking. Everyone here is happy to help any way we can.

Keep on diving....
Laura

[SquattingRadishDM]

had just never heard it called that. I have always heard it called DCS so I didn't make the connection. I also didn't know why it was called "bent" ... like the reasoning behind it, but as you can see i am very new to this and I need all the help I can get on explaining stuff.

Dont worry about it, Im sure there are other ppl reading this thread who didn't know what "The Bends" was and are glad you asked the question. Diving, like other technology driven persuits tends to have alot of jargon and slang. Feel free to ask for explanations about anything that doesnt make sense or ur not sure what it means. After a few days you'll be using all the slang!

[Walter]

They are 100% correct. Always feel free to ask. Bends is a slang term. You are familiar with the concept, that's important.

[jextract]

Feel free to ask any questions you want on this board. There' are a lot of great people here and wealth of knowledge available for the asking. Everyone here is happy to help any way we can.

True ... plus unlike other places you might visit, we don't tolerate people being nasty or supercilious to each other. So ask away!

[Laura]

Feel free to ask any questions you want on this board. There' are a lot of great people here and wealth of knowledge available for the asking. Everyone here is happy to help any way we can.

True ... plus unlike other places you might visit, we don't tolerate people being nasty or supercilious to each other. So ask away!

That's right, you can't be supercilious, but you CAN be super-silly!

[peterbj7]

I did wonders for WW

Just spotted this. I did wonder how she did it.

[Brinybay]

A friend of mine just informed me that she got Bent after she went diving. she came up slow , 3 min safety stop at 15 ft. everything was alright till she got back to her room and took a HOT Shower.

I feel stupid asking this but ... what does that mean?

The soap escaped her grasp and she Bent to pick it up...