Tiny bubbles…Tiny bubbles, in my brain, make me sad, make me lame… literally. Sterling had an incident while flying in January. He was doing one of his “routine” test flights in the F-15 and had a rapid depressurization up high. This is a fairly common occurrence, and he descended and landed immediately. He was on the aircraft oxygen and felt fine. However, about 45 minutes after landing he started getting a tingling sensation on the skin down his left arm and down his back, so he went to the flight doctor. They gave him 100% oxygen again and he felt better. Sterling thought, “Thanks guys, I feel fine,” but he was wrong. They immediately transferred him to the Macon hospital and into a dive chamber for 5 – 6 hours to dissolve any remaining nitrogen bubbles back into the blood.
The next day he had to go see a Neurologist to get cleared to fly again. Sterling was thinking it’d just be a “rubber stamp” and back to the skies. Wrong again! The doc said his left eye was acting goofy, and ordered an MRI to check for a stroke and/or brain damage since the symptoms were isolated to his left side… This got everyone spun up, Sterling included. The flight doc was on the phone with the Air Force experts in Texas, Shawna flew down that same day, and Sterling wondered if he’d just had his last flight in the F-15.
Well, we’re happy to report that everything is ok. There was no evidence of a stroke (although based on the symptoms, the neurologist said he probably had a very minor one). There also wasn’t any brain damage (no more than usual at least). Sterling had get some more tests done, and he had to wait a month for the experts in TX to clear him to fly, but he’s back in the saddle!
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