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GORDON wrote: That is really shitty. My thing was autoimmune, too, and that sucks. It's bullshit. Hope it goes ok.

Yeah, were the doctors as useless for you? Our new, pay for everything ourselves (high deductible) healthcare isn't exactly helping.

Tested me for a hundred known things, sometimes twice, and never nailed it down. Hit me with chemotherapy as a "shotgun" approach, last ditch effort, to shut down my immune system. It worked, but nerve damage is lingering.

So I wouldn't say "useless," but it helped form my opinion that doctors are only really sure if there's a bone sticking out. Or they are Doctor House.

I used to watch that show and wish it were true.

My thing was prior to the Affordable Care Act, so it was much more affordable. We only had $2k out of pocket for the year, for a reasonable monthly rate. The good old days, before insurance got "improved."

GORDON wrote: Tested me for a hundred known things, sometimes twice, and never nailed it down. Hit me with chemotherapy as a "shotgun" approach, last ditch effort, to shut down my immune system. It worked, but nerve damage is lingering.

So I wouldn't say "useless," but it helped form my opinion that doctors are only really sure if there's a bone sticking out.

That's about how I feel. I have a less serious condition, where my knee gets easily inflamed. My orthopedic surgeon thinks it's rheumatoid arthritis. My rheumatologist say it's not.

Yeah, who knows what's going to happen with my wife, but the uncertainty isn't something either of us is dealing with well.

GORDON wrote: We only had $2k out of pocket for the year, for a reasonable monthly rate. The good old days, before insurance got "improved."

Yeah. I think our max is $9k/ year for a single person, $12k/family or such. Ugh.

Being made aware of your mortality at a young age is a hell of an unfair thing.

That really sucks. Hope things work out.

Not to derail the thread, but it amazes me how many folks I know with conditions that baffle doctors.

Leisher wrote: I know with conditions that baffle doctors.

Right? We're still in the stone age, medically.

At any rate, on brighter news, this has made my wife want to travel more, and we're going to St John in June, and I might dive.

Aha! Thread underailed. Seems like it might be a great time to be diving with friends, so don't be embarrassed to pay for me and the kid to come diving with y'all.

We somehow found tickets for only $300/each. But housing is not cheap... we haven't quite settled on a place yet.

When you going?

GORDON wrote: When you going?

6/12 to 6/20

Hmm.

GORDON wrote: Hmm.

HMMMMMM

3 Days on the GBR. 4 dives a day. Big boat, it had three public decks, and our own little cabin w/ ensuite. They weren't sure what to do with free divers at first, but after we dive-bombed the the beginner scuba classes a few times they gave us free reign at the dive sites.

The fear-mongering is true, a lot of the coral in ~10 feet of water is dead. It looks like a white, boney graveyard. Bums me out to consider what it must have been like at it's "peak". Even the graveyards still support life, but not as much as the living coral does. The top of the water column in the NE Australian summer is so goddamn hot, feels like surfacing into a hot bath.

I mostly wore a stinger suit, which is less than 1mm and mostly to prevent sun and jelly fish damage. The one they gave me was a little tight around my junk, which was also somewhat empowering.

Under 10 feet, the reefs were still very much alive, and much cooler. I got a ton of turtle, shark, super colorful fish, the works on GoPro. The last dive site today was a bunch of really cool caves, and we had fun doing runs in and out the sides of it. Day 1 saw a black tipped reef shark in the water, chased it.

We are flying back to Sydney tomorrow, and then drive up the coast to hang with some Australian friends who recently moved back home. Maybe do some surfing.

The wife had a bright idea to create a "wet bag" of our booties, swimswear, and other stuff. So we went from 2 bags to worry about to 3. And then she promptly left it on the boat. There was a sign in our room that said that if you leave stuff like that, it's considered a biohazard (rightfully so, it stinks) and they'll destroy it immediately. Welp, $300 in gear.

We're still fighting about it.*

* I was vocally against the idea - "throw it in the dive case and then we'll sort it at the hotel - me"

Spring break tripped locked down, 6 days of diving, 3 of them in salt water. Excited.

This will be our first dive, on the way down. A nice, easy spring... my kid hasn't been under water since September, and I want to run him through some drills before we just jump off the back of a boat in the ocean, in shark infested waters.

http://ginniespringsoutdoors.com/

We've never been there, but it looks nice.

Two quick videos.

1) Bombing a coral wall on a very calm day in the GBR. Startled a big green fish at the end.
https://youtu.be/g5RyVyuNfFc

2) Cool black-tip drive-by
https://youtu.be/nfEiwGekLvc

Very cool - What kind of camera do you use? And how long can you hold your breath?

TheCatt wrote: Very cool - What kind of camera do you use? And how long can you hold your breath?

A GoPro Hero 5. It's a bit finicky the last few trips, but still works for the most part. I think we've been pushing it's max un-housed depth too much.


I can get a 2:45 breathhold on land. Cat and her yoga breathing can do 3m. In water, half that on our best dives. We don't push it, and we weren't diving with weight so we lost a lot of 02 on the way down.

Dove the zoo today, and got asked.my favorite question: why don't the sharks eat the little fish?

The answer is that sometimes they do, and i explain why, then get to use the line, "even though they are well fed, sometimes a shark is gonna be a shark."

They needed me for both dives.at the zoo today, and they even had me clean a window while I was down there, ha.

Next dive at 2. Come see me. I'll wave. Maybe.