Posted by Bill McCuistion (198.64.206.92) on October 06, 1999 at 17:15:35:
I have had several "close calls" due to CH attacks. These attacks put me in a potentially life-threatening situation.
One was when I was SCUBA diving in Belize at a depth of 120/130 feet. In this case I violated my "5 minute rule" which states that my meds should be no more than 5 minutes away at any time. They were in the dive boat, but the nitrogen decompression times were a factor stipulating my access.
The other was when I was single-handing my sailboat. An attack came up quickly when I had my hands full with handling the boat during a thunderstorm on the open water. I managed to get the injection, but in doing so had to let the boat tend to herself while I tended to me. Things could have gotten real bad real quick.
I have started flying a small airplane again after a 25 year layoff. I had an attack about six weeks ago while flying with someone else. This attack put me down for about 20 minutes. I am not sure how I would have handled it had I been the sole pilot-in-command. I did know I was in a "cluster-zone" and believe that I would have not flown myself had I needed to make that decision, since I knew that this bout was a bad one to begin with.
Now, I hope no one from the Insurance industry or the FAA, or the DOT is lurking on this board as it could affect my rates. I would be interested in hearing about other "CH-related close-calls".