Scuba Diving?

[ColoradoMom]

My 14 year old son was recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Our family (including him) are scuba divers (PADI open water divers), and usually take one or two dive vacations each year. I was wondering if anyone had personal experience -- have you been able to take a teen with Type 1 diabetes on a scuba vacation, while diving on a boat with a dive operator? I know that you would need to provide a signed note from your doctor but even with that, will a dive master or dive operation agree to it? You can't hide it because we'd be testing blood glucose's before and after each dive, and besides, hiding it would be unsafe. The dive master would need to know.

[Mom2rh]

Good question. I'd like my 13 yo to get certified so he can dive with us. I know that the extra testing would be important. As well as having glucose gel with him and being able to ingest it underwater if needed would also be good. I'd talk to your local dive shop or where you got certified. I think there are a couple of other considerations...but since one of you would be his buddy I don't see how the divemaster would have a problem as long as you could describe what your protocol was for diving.

Good luck and let me know how it goes...

[skimom]

Having done lots of scuba diving my self, one recommendation is that there be no deep dives (ie one that requires decompression stops along the way) as in the event of an emergency ie a low where he needs to surface asap you may be getting into bigger problems with decompression issues etc. Also, only one dive a day so that you are not dealing with the issues associated with multiple dives. You might want to consult an expert opinion as to the physiological responses during diving so that you understand what else you might expect, if it might affect air consumption, does it increase chance of lows/highs etc.

[dGirl]

Wow! that's cool! I scuba dive too! It's sooo fun. But I havn't since I was diagnosed. I'm glad I still can.

[Mom2rh]

Having done lots of scuba diving my self, one recommendation is that there be no deep dives (ie one that requires decompression stops along the way) as in the event of an emergency ie a low where he needs to surface asap you may be getting into bigger problems with decompression issues etc. Also, only one dive a day so that you are not dealing with the issues associated with multiple dives. You might want to consult an expert opinion as to the physiological responses during diving so that you understand what else you might expect, if it might affect air consumption, does it increase chance of lows/highs etc.


Those are good questions to ask. Thanks.

[DallasAg]

Type 1 does not have to preclude anyone from diving! Prior to being diagnosed with Type 1 I had achieved the Rescue Diver Certification from PADI and had been diving many times in the Florida Keys.

I was actually diagnosed a couple of weeks before a planned trip to Belize to dive. Since being diagnosed, I have safely been to about ~110 feet.

Prior to diving I read over the Diabetes & Diving guidelines published by the Diver's Alert Network. http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/news/download/SummaryGuidelines.pdf

Diving will affect your son similar to very strenuous long duration exercise. On diving days, I made sure to give plenty of time to eat a large breakfast, and would purposely under-bolus for the food. I would test like crazy on the way to the dive site to try and establish exactly what my BS was doing. I also took plenty of powerade and bananas along with me. A few minutes prior to the 1st dive I would consume some powerade or a banana. I was on MDI at the time, and my BS would drop rapidly on the dives, but using this method I never experienced any lows.

In my BCD, and in my dive buddies, we each carried a bottle of the liquid gel glucose. I have heard you can still consume the gel under water, which makes sense, but I have never tried (It would be worth a shot to try test the theory in a swimming pool). I would recommend buddying up with a more experienced diver, should anything go wrong.

During the PADI open water class, you have lots of pool time & open water check out dives. Utilizing all of these opportunities to understand how diving affects your son would be prudent as well.