Wow!

I am stuck in this loop. In the 1980s, the British Sub Aqua Club were a bit silly, they wanted chest x-rays and full diving medicals for recreational sport diving. You also had to be under body mass index 30. I passed for many years, then was refused in the mid 90s at BMI 33.

Then the American organisation PADI set up offices in Bristol, they did not have such requirements. The BSAC, who previously looked down on this "low standard", suddenly dropped the BMI 30 thing completely. Later, like PADI, they used a self declaration form, so no medical was required, not even if you were BMI 40 and otherwise fit.

On the self declaration form, you have no answer no to all of the questions. Question 18 states "Have you ever been refused a diving medical certificate..." which of course I have to answer "yes" to. Therefore, I have to send the form to a medical referee with a £10 cheque and they are supposed to OK it based upon my written declaration. Quite understandably, all the referees I have spoken to say "look, we really want to see you", and the BSAC have been no help so far in explaining this stupid anomaly. One diving medical referee even told me to lie on the self declaration form, because he realised what a stupid thing it was.

So I rang yet another referee in South East England, and actually this one sounded reasonable, but wanted to see me. So I agreed, and said "today? or wait until I finish my Atkins diet? [fib!] because I know your ketostix will turn purple if you test me". He said well stop doing that and I will book you in later this week". I said, "ah, can't do that because I am doing a program which I stick rigidly to" (another fib - I am actually doing a joint fast with bella lucia).

At that point he became really interested in my "program" and wanted to know more, because he himself was overweight and wants to kick smoking as well, so I came clean with him, told him I was fasting and doing a joint fast with someone so I didn't want to give it up today, and in my usual manner I said what I thought about conventional medical opinion.

To my great surprise he was really interested!!! How great it felt to meet a doctor with a truly open mind. So I am not going to bother to go through all the grief to get this verbal declaration lark even if it does saves me £30, I want to see him for a full medical to show him I am living proof that fasting works, and he will then sign my permanent exemption certificate. He is welcome to prod me, poke, me, test me, stick things in various orifices and do any test he wants. Bella lucia has inspired me here, because all her tests came out 100% apart from vitamin D, which has been explained for other reasons.

I am going to email this doctor with my weight ticker

http://www.tickerfactory.com/ezticker/weight_loss.php/wjfZGk0

so he can watch my progress, and I think will tell him about this forum, or maybe I will see him first then tell him about the forum if he is interested after he has examined me.

Now I am really happy! I really hope it benefits him too, because he sounds like a really good guy :) Tweet