On my trip to the Philippines in 2004, I am convinced I got the bends. At the end of the 2nd week of my 6 week trip I developed an unusual rash on my arms and feet.  I commented on the rash to a few people, in which I received a standard response "It's just heat rash", because I was in a warmer, humid climate. Hot weather is something I am use to (summers in Perth get quite hot) and I actually prefer humid weather. Heat rash is something that I had never had before, and something I have never had since. Driving from Moalboal to Malapuscua, I was travelling up a small mountain when I started to get a slight discomfort in my right elbow. It wasn't painful, just uncomfortable.  By the time I had arrived in Malapascua the discomfort had dissappeared, but returned for a short time later that night. But the rash remained.

I continued to dive however (5am the next morning) After all, I was on holiday, I was finally in Malapascua, time to see Thresher sharks (the reason I went to the Philippines).  In the back of mind I new that if I was bent, more diving would probably make things worse, but I also knew there was a chamber close by and I had insurance!!! I wasn't going to miss my date with the Threshers

Thinking about the events leading up to the rash developing makes me think even more that I was bent.  My first week in the Philippines was spent in Dumaguette. The diving there was pretty straight forward. My second week was in Moalboal - wall diving.  The one thing I find about wall diving is I always want to see what's at the bottom of the the wall. Sometimes this just isn't possible, but at Moalboal, alot of the walls bottom out at around 45-50meters. I was fortunate enough to buddy up with a guy who also liked diving deep. Looking through my logbook, I only did one dive that was above 30m, and that was my first day of diving.  For the rest of my time I was doing 2 dives a day between 35-50m (and sometimes not in that order). This in itself isn't too bad, we always had at least 3hrs between dives, and being wall dives, alot of time could be spent at shallow depths (at least the last 20minutes per dive was spent in 5m or less) The think problem I had was that every night I was going out having a "few quiet drinks" with my new dive buddy - after all, I was on holiday. Unfortunately, a "few quiet drinks" sometimes ends up being a few too many. But each morning I felt fine, and made a conscious decision to dive.  To this day I believe the type of diving I was doing and the evening activities lead to me getting "bent".

Now most people think of the "bends" as a serious diving accident. I once thought that way aswell.  One of the reasons I was so "casual" about my condition is that I've spent alot of time reading about decompression sickness and diving medicine and I believed I had what could be known as a Type 1 Skin Bend. A Type 1 Skin Bend is where bubbles form under skin and nowhere else. This type of bend fortunately doesn't warrant a trip to a decompression chamber as it doesn't pose any real long term threats.  The one thing that did worry me though was the discomfort I had felt in my right elbow, but as I had only felt it twice only for very short periods, I've since dismissed it as being totally unrelated. Once I was in Malapascua I started diving on Nitrox (36%) to increase the time I could spend diving with Thresher Sharks. Within a couple of days the rash completely disappeared. I am only speculating here, but I believe the increased partial pressure of oxygen I was breathing may have had something to do with the rash or "bend" going away. I also started diving alot more conservatively and a "few quiet drinks" in the evengings were just that, a "few" quiet drinks. 

Whether or not I was actually bent, I can't be 100% sure. Maybe it was heat rash. Maybe it was my wetsuit (although the rash was on my arms and feet). Maybe it was something totally different., although I am 99% sure that I did have a Skin Bend.  One thing is for sure though, I won't be diving the same way I did in Moalboal ever again. If I was bent and it was only a Skin Bend, next time I might not be so lucky!!!