My diving is pretty conservative these days, due to my PFO. My restrictions are:
- 1 dive a day
- 15 metres equivalent nitrogen depth
- 1 hour max
- No deco, which is a bit redundant given the other constraints.
However, it was exercise after a dive which got me bent. (I walked my twin-set up a hill after a dive to get to a shower to rinse my kit. This seemed to cause a shunt through the PFO, causing the bend.) So I need to be prudent about exercise. I try to avoid all exercise for 4-ish hours after a dive. This isn't always completely possible - I may need to put some kit around. But I dive single tank now, so the kit is quite light.
After 3 hours, I may do some light exercise. The most aggressive I've done recently is probably bouldering about 8 hours after the dive. That particular dive had been quite shallow (10 metre average) and I had been on 32% nitrox. If the dive had been more aggressive or recent, I probably would have skipped the bouldering.
I am hoping to get the PFO closed in November. It looks like my insurance should pay. There is around a 1% chance of the surgery going wrong (causing a stroke, or needing open heart surgery to close the plug.) So I'm not 100% decided if to go ahead.
If I do get the surgery, I will still try to avoid exercise post dive. However, there will be more variety in my dive profiles, so I will take into account the likely extent of any bubbling more than I currently do