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NWFlyer

Passed out under canopy: watch those leg straps!

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Appointment with my doc tomorrow morning, in case anyone was losing sleep worrying. ;) He's a sports medicine guy who's into some hard-core stuff himself, so I'm hoping the discussion won't start and end with "well, just stop skydiving, silly."

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Remember, blood pressure in arteries feeding the extremities is much greater than veins returning blood to the heart. In fact veins rely on valves and muscular contraction to move blood back to the heart unlike arteries (no valves and much thicker to compensate for the higher pressure). It's much easier to push blood away from the heart than it is to get it back. Throw in cutting/decreasing circulation from the extremities, high altitude, and physiological factors and it's possible...

The best advice has been to visit the doc just to make sure all is well. He'll probably recommend the basics but leave Krisanne with a reassuring feeling of no serious problems.

Good health Krisanne!

:)

___________________________________________________

One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things. ~ Henry Miller

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Any thoughts on tight leg straps doing the opposite? I mean, fighter pilots where pressure suits that restrict the flow of blood going down into their legs...I know the only sensation I've had with super tight leg straps is feeling my legs start to get tingly-numbish, like they are going to fall asleep.
~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

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fighter pilots wear pressure suits that constrict the legs (and lower torso?), not leaving the blood anyplace to go but back up. If you put a rubber band around your finger it'll likely turn purple - that's blood, not a lack of it. ;)

You can have it good, fast, or cheap: pick two.

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Appointment with my doc tomorrow morning, in case anyone was losing sleep worrying. ;) He's a sports medicine guy who's into some hard-core stuff himself, so I'm hoping the discussion won't start and end with "well, just stop skydiving, silly."



Dopn't smoke :|
not that time of month:|
Eating OK:|

:$ Prego:S Don't go thereB|
Take your rig with you when you see the Dr:)
Last thought if all else fails KISS do a static hanging harness with your rig on, leg straps tight, for a long time and see how that feels;). If you pass out you found the problem. If you pee your pants go to the bathroom first and try again:D:D.

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I was going to PM this but thought better of it as it could play a factor in your loss of consciousness and if it is a factor, other women might be wise to just keep it in the back of their head. Is it that time of the month? Blood loss from that could, also, play a factor in your loss of consciousness.



Menstrual blood does not come from the bloodstream, it's been building up uterinely over the course of the previous few weeks, so would not have any effect on this.

Do or do not, there is no try -Yoda

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Update: Doc says probably nothing serious but we're doing tests. EKG and chest x-ray today (normal); I go back in on Thursday for a full physical, including blood work and stress test. He also said "Since the consequences of passing out are so dire for you we might consider a neuro consult as well."

Nice thing was he took the fact that I skydive seriously and the discussion didn't revolve around whether or not I should do it.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

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NW:

What did he thing of the possibility it was tight leg straps restricitng your blood flow combined with the G's from the spirals and slight hypoxia? (Just for my own curiosity.)



He said it seemed like a reasonable possibility. We didn't really talk about the spirals. I'll ask more questions on Thursday - I think I'll have more time with him then.

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I hope you're able to get back in the air soon. :)



Oh, I was back in the air Sunday and felt great. Barring a premature deployment, I will be avoiding long canopy rides for now, though.

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Just to educate all you non-medicals out there. Arteries have thick walls composed of both smooth muscle and elastic fibres - while they can be compressed it takes some pressure to do so and you will have to use positive pressure to keep it closed. When you release the artery it will spring back to its normal size even without blood in it. A vein is the opposite - the only thing that keeps it open is the pressure of the blood in it. Take out the blood and it collapses.

Now take the scenario of tight leg straps:
Ateries and veins run alongside one another. The arteries supplying the leg and veins draining the leg are large - app 1cm in diameter. There are more than one but the largest ones, the femoral artery and vein run anteriorly from the pelvis down into the deeper anterior thigh muscles. With a really tight legstrap the veins will be pushed close before the arteries are effected - i.e blood continues flowing down and into the leg but cannot flow upwards out of the leg to the inferior vena cava as the vein is compressed shut by the leg strap. The nett effect is that blood continues to accumulate in the legs at a steady rate while venous outflow is impeded.

The end result is a decrease in blood flow back to the heart which means there is eventually less blood available to supply the brain with oxygen resulting in a faint (reduced bllod volume) - similar to orthostatic hypotension.

Have you ever seen a parade where soldiers are standing on parade for hours without moving and some of them faint - due to increased blood stasis in the legs and decreased heart output to the brain (as soon as they collapse and are lying on the ground the blood flow to the heart increases and they recover quickly). Remember venous flow from the legs is reliant on muscle contractions in the lower leg - standing motionless for hours at a time causes blood to pool in the leg veins. Pretty simple.

The effect of tight leg straps could easily cause similar problems and would be compounded if you spiraled down - the G forces would cause more blood to pool in the veins of the legs and the tight leg straps would impede blood flow out of the legs while arterial flow to the leg is maintained. As soon as you land and release pressure on the occluded vessel - return to normal. Of course muscle movement will also help.

We are not all built anatomically the same - different arm and leg lengths, obese, thin, different harness sizes. We may wear different clothes each time we are on the DZ and wear our harness. All these factors may be variable from day to day, jump to jump.

Bottom line it is entirely feasible that the cause of her problems are too tight leg straps from an ill fitting harness. The fact she did a few spirals could have contributed. Also the fact she hadn't eaten all day may have been a small contributing factor. Nevertheless having a full medical won't harm anyone but I doubt they will find anything "wrong" with her.

Some of the advice given in previous postings is excellent. Like alter body position in straps under canopy, let a master rigger alter her harness etc. I would also like to suggest she move her legs while hanging under harnes even if its only contracting/relaxing her calf muscles to assist blood flow out of her legs.

Hope the above helps.

Cheers
Rich
(oh I am a medical doctor by the way - in fact a specialist pathologist - for those who have never heard of me before).
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Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.
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Yes take it easy. Basically you end up with an acute hypotensive (low blood pressure - as mentioned above) episode causing decreased blood flow to the brain and loss of conciousness albeit briefly if you stop the spirals immediately. If you don't you may end up in trouble i.e. loss of conciousness with all the sequalae thereof !
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Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

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I don't think it's enough blood to have any effect, but all your blood comes from the bloodstream! Your confusing the endometrium with blood. The endometrium is what builds up, the blood comes from ruptured (soons more scary then it is) small blood vessels.
The trouble with skydiving; If you stink at it and continue to jump, you'll die. If you're good at it and continue to jump, you'll see a lot of friends die...

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I was going to PM this but thought better of it as it could play a factor in your loss of consciousness and if it is a factor, other women might be wise to just keep it in the back of their head. Is it that time of the month? Blood loss from that could, also, play a factor in your loss of consciousness.



Nope, not that time of month, either.



I was thinking something similar. Given that the two people who've responded in this thread describing similar problems (Gia and Sunny) are also women, perhaps a poll in the women's forum and input from a kbordson type could shed some light on something we're not thinking of.

Blues,
Dave
"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

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WOW!!!!!!
Glad you're ok. That could have been a very serious situation!!!

Reading through this thread, there are some helpful and some not so helpful replies (from my perspective and understanding of the human body - but remember, 200 years from now, they will be laughing at what we think about "modern medicine")
Overall, I would have to completely agree with tustinr.
I think it's possible that the venous pooling in your legs could lead to hypotension and thus.... passing out. Can I tell you for sure? Nope, that's why it's very wise of you to go to the Dr and get the work up to make sure that it's not something more serious.

Here are a couple of articles that might help explain syncope (fainting)
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4749

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BUY/is_11_10/ai_67881675#continue

http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic3385.htm


Another thing to briefly chat with your doc about is the possiblity of a new onset seizure disorder (although it's unlikely at your age to get epilepsy)
here's a website to just scan with some info on seizures

http://www.epilepsy.com/101/101_epilepsy.html

And no, I don't think "that time of the month" would influence whether you have a syncopal episode or not. It might make you feel less on the game, but not to the point of passing out. The amount of menstrual flow amounts to a total blood loss of 60 to 250 milliliters (4 tablespoons to about 1 cup). And some of that isn't really "blood" rather the endometrial lining (tissue)

Again.... WOW, you've got some angels watching over your shoulder.

Karen

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Thanks, Karen and Rich! I appreciate the info from the medical/skydiving community. I certainly understand that neither of you can properly diagnose me, but I do appreciate the additional info that I can bring to discuss with my doc. With as little time as we get with doctors these days, I like to do as much of my own research as possible, and of course, this is a tough topic to research.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

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Yeah I have no doubt you can discount the theory of menstrual blood loss - it is minimal. It would take a lot more blood loss to cause loss of conciousness.

And nah I don't particularly like Holiday Inns - sleeping there anyway.
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Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

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Thanks for the post.
Question: what are the risks of having the leg straps too loose? Broken femur on hard opening?
If there are inherent risks, should then leg straps tightness be adjusted according to the type of jump (ie high altitude H&P vs regular altitude pull)?

"For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

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As per Robs post. Mostly traumatic injuries - you can probably add whip lash injuries and broken neck to the list (from chest strap smacking chin).

Rich
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Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

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Venous blood does not carry oxygen. Arterial blood does. In the leg veins, as stated in the article, blood flow from your feet to your heart in one direction helped by the so-call vein valves. This flow is very passive and the movement of your legs is vital for the flow, it help it grandiously. The problem here is that if you don't move your legs enough to create this flow, blood tends to slow down and the possibility of forming blood clots increases (some people are more prone to form clots than others). The g's increases as you make the turns (no matters how small the turn) and this also contribute to reduce your blood flow. Now, this is a REAL and SERIOUS problem. If blood clots form in you veins, and they are not degraded by your homeostatic system before they reach the heart arteries, lungs or your brain you will either have a heart attack or a pulmonary embolism, and last but not least a brain stroke. You could had experience a minor brain stroke or a pulmonary embolism that cut you oxygen supply for a nanosecond. Thats all it takes to make you lose conciousness. If you felt chest pain, headache or shortnest of breath after the landing, then you should go to the ER and get check out. A D-dimer blood test that takes about ten minutes to perform can confirm if blood clots had form in the last 4-6 hrs. A MIMS- (troponin) (myocardial infarction marker series) test can confirm a heart attack. I'm not expert in the medicine field, but if that what you really experienced, then you are the luckiest person I have ever known. Blood clots are NO JOKE.

"Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted Just an earth-bound misfit, I". pf

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