[someone]

Forget the insurance company. Does the insurance company follow you everywhere? How in the world are they supposed to know if you go diving?

[Simon]

The trouble is: dive clubs won't allow me to dive without insurance and neither will comercially run dive boats. A buddy willing to risk diving with me would be good but hard to find outside a dive club.

[JediSkipdogg]

The problem lies in that rules are tough for a reason. If they allowed ANYONE to dive that had diabetes, then those that have terrible control may dive. You get 10 of them over a span of say 10 years and they have problems at 100m, then you may have a huge rule changed that could just refuse allowing diabetics to dive.

I know of this from personal experience and working in the police world. There are a bunch of huge changes going on in the state of Ohio that a firearm cannot be drawn on anyone that shows any sign of mental instability. Basically meaning that if someone that is bi-polar comes charging at an officer with a sawed off shotgun, the officer can't use a gun on them, they have to use a non lethal force.

Sometimes I understand that places make it too hard, but you have to look at what happens when there aren't rules to govern certain items. We have lawsuits and frivilous rule changes that hurt more than they help.

[someone]

Originally Posted by Simon

The trouble is: dive clubs won't allow me to dive without insurance and neither will comercially run dive boats. A buddy willing to risk diving with me would be good but hard to find outside a dive club.

Oh ok, I see what you mean.

[Mario]

I'm a diver for 10 years now. I'm certified with NAUI (Master Scuba Diver) and took also my Ice Diving certification. Have about 90 dives since my first certification. I dived most of the time in cold lake in Canada. Many time with a dry-suit for cold water and 44pounds of lead to be neutral. Extremely physical. I think I'm wearing about 100 pounds of stocks when diving in cold water.

I never had problems with hypo under water. I'm testing 3 hours, 2 hours, 1 hours and 30 minutes before diving to make sure sugars are not going down. I try to have a Bg of 8 to 10 mmol/l (144 to 180mg/l) before diving. If the BG is too high, to problem is dehydration. When you are dehydrate, you have more risk to have hypothermia.

It is easier to dive since I'm on the pump.

For those who are afraid with hypo underwater, bring some skittles on a zipploc bag in a pocket of your Buoyancy Compensators. Even if water come in the zipploc bag, they wont smelt.

Also, in the book "The diabetic athlet", there is a good section (about 3 pages) about the effects of the dive in a diabetic body. Interesting.

[DaveC426913]

I was certified two years ago, shortly after being Dx'ed.

Other than making sure I eat well before & after, and ensuring I've got some sugar (Lifesavers) in a water-tight pocket, I've never taken any precautions. And I have spoken to a diving medical specialist about it.

But I like the idea of the icing sugar in a tube! That's even more convenient than lifesavers.

[modbom]

I was type 1 when I got certified. Luckily the instructor had a diving buddy who had diabetes and he wasn't overly worried. I also had a one on one class.

Question: does anyone leave their infusion set in when diving? I take the whole thing out and use a syringe when I come up from the last dive. By then my bg is usually quite high. It would be nice to be able to just reconnect the pump but I've cetainly never been on a dive boat with any kind of privacy or dry/clean space for tapping a new site. I've assumed that leaving the infusion set in is asking for an infection but I wonder if anyone has tried.

[DeusXM]

You might find the 'unteathered' approach helpful - I'm not sure on the details, but I think it's a case of using Lantus or Levemir to keep you normal whilst you take your pump off for a bit. You'll probably want to ask the pumpers on this forum about that.

[modbom]

oh yeah. That's a good idea. I travel with lantus anyway in case I have a pump failure or loss.

Has anyone actually eaten from a tube of cake frosting/iceing while underwater? Does the pressure make it explode out or hard to suck out? I think I would just come up to the surface if I felt any symptoms.

[Mario]

For myself, if I dive with a wetsuit, I just unplug the pump, put it on standby during the dive and put a IV3000 patch over the infusion site.

But since I'm from Canada and we usually dive in cold water, I'm diving in a drysuit so I don't need to over-protect my infusion site.

[DeusXM]

Has anyone actually eaten from a tube of cake frosting/iceing while underwater? Does the pressure make it explode out or hard to suck out?

I've been advised that you can do that or drink from a sports cap bottle whilst underwater, but I've never done it myself. But even if I did do that, I'd come straight back to the surface anyway - obviously a controlled ascent though.

[141engineer]

Hi, I'm a diver living in the Pacific Northwest. I would enjoy hearing from any divers with cold water experience who might have ideas on how to avoid a low glucose level underwater, or how to handle it if it does occur. I was diagnosed five years ago as a Type II.

Jim

[Mario]

I did many of my 90 dives in cold water in Canada. I also have my ice diving certification. I often dive in a dry-suit for cold water. What do you want to know about cold water diving ?

[JJM335]

I am PADI OWD qualified and have done 3 of the 5 Advanced modules. The Dive Centres that I dived with in Greece and the Canary Islands simply wanted a "Doctor's Certificate" saying that I was fit to dive. They didn't insist on a specific Dive Qualified Physician.

I follow the BSAC procedures for testing beforehand, and dive with a Buddy that is familiar with my condition. We both carry glucose tabs in a waterproof container. I have never had a problem with a hypo whilst diving.

I was hoping to dive again this summer, but I have been having problems with hypos that makes this inadvisable at present.

Joel

[art]

If your doc said it was ok why tell anybody?
Go, have fun. Me?
I'll be 10,000 feet over you falling really fast

Art