111days: DCS - The diving accident Summer 2020 Corona

Wed 12.8.
AI#7 and XR#3
Fiat BR-20
XR Dive, Deco planned, 15Liter Tank Air, stage tank 7 liters with Nitrox EAN36 (I did not analyze it...), for switch at 28meters.
I intend to document this with a video from my GoPro8, no artificial light. Everything fine, reached 40 meters after 3 minutes. Dipped below for 6 min, then ascend, switch tanks at 28m. At 24m the computer displays a deepstop for 2min, which I do. At 12m the computer displays a second deepstop for 2min, which I do. The rest of the group is already at 7-8m or even safetystop. I ascend much slower than the rest of us. I follow up to 5m, do the safetystop for 4min, everybody else is out of the water already. When the safetystop is done, I ascend. As I am surfacing, the computer demands another stop at 3m. When I take the Nitrox36 reg out of my mouth I feel strange immediately. Fatigue, aching legs and arms, like after 24 hours of exercise.
- - Later the dive profile shows that after finishing the safetystop the computer demanded another mandatory safetystop. Didn’t see that somehow? Also the profile shows the computer demanded two deepstops of 2minutes, at 24m and at 12m, which I did…- -
20 minutes navigation to get back to the dive center. On the boat I can hardly get me together to remove my weights and set up my equipment post-dive. Legs start to feel as if I had been sitting on them too long, ants. At the pier I cannot walk off the boat, ants in my legs, cannot control my movements.
Still on the pier, we administer O2 100% for 15 minutes and 0,5 L drinking water, After that, I can control my legs again. Vince helps me walk back to the DC, there we administer another 20 min of O2 100%, plus 1,5 L water. Then I feel good again.

Alessandro says Today and tomorrow no diving, next up is Ratteghe on Friday afernoon. I stow away my stuff and drive home on the motorbike, eat panino with bressaola, creamcheese. No symptoms, just a bit tired.
I rest on my bed, but cannot sleep. Drink a lot of water.
Later the shit hits the fan.
In the evening, I try to walk over the camping ground, I walk like a drunk, can hardly control my moves.
Back home I lie on my bed again, and around 10pm, before I want to sleep, I go to the toilet.
I am not able to piss. I feel pressure on my bladder, but I cannot piss. I try to ignore the urge to pee for the sake of sleeping. Every hour I have to get up and press at least some drops out to relieve the pain.
At 4am I decide to take a warm shower while sitting, this might help with pissing. I sit there under the running shower, imagining waterfalls and heavy rain, but I can pee just a little more than the times before.
I notice that the water feels hot on my shoulders, but only lukewarm on my legs and belly. The frontier is somewhere below my ribs, near the diaphragma. After 45 minutes in the shower I cancel this experiment and try to find sleep. My belly blows up from all the pee in my bladder. Every hour I try to relieve by pressing out some drops.

Thu 13.8.
In the Morning Chiara asks via WhatsApp how I feel. When I tell her she suggests to contact my insurance. I do, and after some zigzag I put everything in their hands. I call Ale asking which is the next hyperbaric chamber, and he tells me the next chambers are in Nice, France, and in Genova I give the Genova info to the insurance.
They call back, they made contact with the chamber in Genova. Tell me to take a taxi. I pack some things, computer, phone, dive computer, t-shirt and a boxer short. Take all keys and money with me. Mili calls a taxi for me. 1:45 minutes drive, I sort of sleep for half an hour. Driver doesn’t find the right entrance, we go to the official post adress of this huge policlinic, I need to piss super urgent, find a toilet, press out some drops to relieve the pain. Then the doorman calls an ambulance, which brings me to Pronto Soccorso.

I show the email from my insurance Aquamed, translated to Italian, saying I have go to the chamber immediately, and Dr. Amelia is waiting for me.

Finally at 16:19 I am checked in, full first assessment, electrodes, blood, entrances on hand and arm, corona test, neuro exam, they give me a katheter, which is a relief. Then off to the chamber. Treatment Navy Table 6, that is 5-6 hours. One of the doctors joins me in the chamber, I am still on the carriage they used to transport me through the hospital, with infusion, katheter and everything. I fall asleep almost immediately for 30 minutes. The rest is working hard to breathe deep and slow.
Out at about 22:00. I am brought to a room somewhere at the end of a corridor. Still fully wired and with Katheter.

I ask a nurse for food, had only a coffee and a piece of bread in the morning some 15 hours ago. I get lukewarm boiled rice and cooked chicken, leftovers from the dinner round on some station nearby.

I post on FB:
"When was the last time you did something for the first time?
I went to see the hyperbaric chamber in Genova today ... for 6 hours ".
Later I will add: "Or so I thought..."
Half hour later they roll me to another station, because my corona test is negative. I fall asleep immediately.

Fri 14.8.
Wakeup call at 7:30. A lot of doctors and nurses standing at my bedside, about a dozen of them, they take out the katheter and want to see, if I am able to pee without. Watch me how I try to piss after they pulled out the katheter. Sitting on my bed I try to force it, with the result that I shit in my pants because I press so hard. Put on the prothesis, go to the toilet, wash myself and the shorts. Boxer shorts full of shit, i throw it in the bin. Also on the toilet pissing not possible.
Next katheter for relief and back to the chamber, second session Table 6, now 5 hours.
When I come out lunch time is over so no food. Nothing happens until dinner is served, katheter bag changed, then good night. Wait, that’s it now?

Sat 15.8.
Pissing without katheter is not possible, so new one and to the chamber, for a follow-up of 1:30 hours. After that I am transferred to neurology. Neuro exam: lift legs, close eyes do it again, follow finger with eyes. Checking reflexes on all four extremities.
I talk to Kate on the phone, she is on her way to Italy and makes a stopover at Lake Garda.
I use the oxygen mask at my bed as much as possible, 15 l/min continuous flow...
Nothing happens until next morning.

Sun 16.8.
Second follow-up without katheter Test before. Nothing happens for the rest of the day.
Kate arrives at the Camping site in Diano Marina, after 3 days of driving from Berlin, she takes my bungalow. I am glad she is finally at the sea, she needed a vacation so much.

Mon 17.8.
Chamber again, 1,5 hours follow-up, Nr. 3. I report to my insurance everyday, they get no information from the hospital. I message with Kate what to bring when she comes to Genova tomorrow to see me at the hospital. In preparation for her visit I store my Katheter tube and the piss bag in my old drybag.

Then walk down the stairs to find the entrance to the building and the bus station where she will arrive. I want to give her a detail plan how to find where I am.
During this expedition, I find the chapel and the "Cafeteria" of this part of the hospital.

The Chapel

The Cafeteria

I've been to the chamber 5 times by now, cannot pee myself and still walk with shaky legs.
Starting despair, imagining myself in a wheelchair with a silicone tube in my penis and a plastic bag full of piss hanging by the side for the rest of my life.

- - - Insert: During all the time in hospital many people reacted to my FB post. I communicated with friends from all around the world, via Messenger, Whatsapp, SMS etc. I was determined not to give up on myself, just as I wasn't ready to give up after the amputaion 38 years ago. I tried to see myself as a warrior.

They all tried to cheer me up and I am most grateful for all this communication, it saved my spirits during some very dark hours of despair.

- - -

Tue 18.8
Today Kate wants to come for a visit. Before I go to the chamber at 10:45 (follow-up #4), two nurses appear with a wheelchair telling me they accompany me now to therapy. I make one of the Neurology nurses confirm that. I am brought to MRA, Magnet Resonance Analysis, in Italian it’s RM. Scanning the lower spine area. Then Chamber for 1,5 hours, but before I reach the Lift, I am called to MRA again, now scanning the upper part of the spine and brain. Out at 1:30, an hour later than planned, but I can pick up Kate waiting at the entrance. She delivers greetings and best wishes from all staff at the camping site, namely Mili the owner, Stefano the handyman, and Enrico owner of Cap Landen Beach Bar. In between a Urologist comes to my bed and examines my prostate. He asks Kate to wait outside. I get her in and have a nice afternoon with her. It is good to see a familiar face after being alone here for 5 days. I enjoy very much the fresh fruit she brings, and talking with her in German.

Wed. 19.8.
Katheter out! Wheelchair to the chamber (follow-up #5). Barbara from the Hyperbaric team greats me as „Volker, Texas Ranger“. I will make something out of that.
Managed to piss 200ml after lunch. Later not possible again. I take a shower, maybe that’s easier, just some 100ml, not more. After that, no more success. So, new Katheter in at 7pm. At least I tried.

Thu 20.8.
Wheelchair to the chamber (follow-up #6). I show Barbara the Volker Texas Ranger, she wants to have it on her phone tomorrow.

The former Navy Diver in the team asks why Texas Ranger and we explain. Italians pronounce my first name almost like "Walker", not with an "F" as in German. The former Navy Diver runs most of the hyperbaric treatments with me. With every chamber session, there is always a doctor with you inside, and a technician on the outside, who is called "Ground Control" over the intercom. You are closely moniotored, Ground Control can even check your breathing pattern.

Fri 21.8.
Before chamber I am brought to Neurophysiology. The Examination is called SEP or SSEP, Somatosensory Evoked Potentials. We test the running time of electric impulses from my head to my knees and Penis. (You can read about this examination here )
I get two needles in the skin of my head, two needles in the skin near the lower spine region, two in the back of my knees. Normally they test down to the ankles, but I have only one, the right one is amputated.
Later two in the skin above my penis.
Result is the impulses travel fast enough in the peripherie (legs and penis), but not fast enough back to the cortex in the brain. Thus, the spine is not ok. That means damage to Central Nervous System, CNS. The possibility of permanent damage looms on the horizon… Again despair, imagining myself in a wheelchair with a silicone tube in my penis and a plastic bag full of piss hanging by the side for the rest of my life.

Then last chamber treatment (final follow-up #7), this is Session Number 9, bringing the total time to 21,5 hours in the chamber. All staff wishes me luck, I tell them I will come back to say good bye before I leave the hospital. Barbara is totally delighted with my second version of Texas Ranger.
Kate arrives as I finish Lunch, we sit outside and I give her update.
When I come back to the station I learn from the neurologist that one of the hyperbaric team wanted to see my dive computer. I offer to bring it now but he says we do it on Monday. Also learned he will release me from hospital on Monday or Tuesday, Diagnosis is finished and they don’t do Rehab here.

Sat 22.8.
Weekend. No doctor. Take my third pill of Alphablocker Tomsulosin. Nurses don’t take out Katheter without doctor’s consent. Lost day.
Inform Insurance about doctor’s plan to release me in the coming days. They want to start to organize a transport to a Berlin clinic with neurology and urology.
Organizing our way back to Germany with Kate. Bungalows and dive center will have to be paid, all my equipment must be taken from the dive center, motorbike has to be put somewhere or be transported to Germany etc.
editing a first version of the video of the dive with hyperbaric chamber in the end...

Sun 23.8.
Katheter out. I can piss all day. Night still horrible, get up every hour, piss a little. No doctors, no exams, no treatment.

Mon 24.8.
Morning visit doctors. Tamsulosin. I tell them I am without katheter for 24 hours, they want proof and documentation.
I get a 2,5 Liter bin, document every 0,5 Liter of water I drink and every ml I pee. Starting 9:00 am, I fill the bin at 19:00. get a new one.

I inform my insurance company in Germany about the success and ask them to call off their plan to transfer me to Germany. Now that I see light at the end of the tunnel, I want to stick to our plan of vacation together in Italy by the sea. The Insurance company agrees.

Tue 25.8.
When the doctors do their morning round, I present them the documentation. I drank 3,5 liters of water and pissed 4,9 liters. The rest is coffee, soup, fruit. I even made a spreadsheet and a digram:

I get my dismissal papers, go to the basement to say good bye to the staff of hyperbaric chamber. One of the doctors gives me a form with recommendations, stating I may dive again 28 days after the accident... . I take the bus to Station Brigniole, riding on a ticket one of the nurses gave me as a gift, because there is no more ticket sale on the bus, due to Corona pandemic. Then train to Ventimiglia. Kate picks me up at the train station Diano Marina, we drive to Oneglia and I have my first cold beer after the hospital at U Teccu de Ma. I feel like I have been released from prison.