Ode to Diving

[MicahEW]

This is a story of how much I love diving I give it my all and never want to quit learning. I am set to sign my life to the USN at the end of next month to go to their NDSTC. Meanwhile I have been in hot persuit of my DM cert so a few weekends ago i went with a few of the WELL experienced instructors from my LDS these guys are my good friends and dive buddies. We went to a quarry in KY for a few dives on Sat and Sun. All dives and night dives on Sat went without a hitch. Sun we were scheduled to do a deep dive that morning PD 80ft. SO i got suited up in my 3 mil hood and 3 mil full and jumped in. ( never had much of an issue with temp until this day) upon our descent I grew a bit un nerved due to the viz and had frequent mask fogging and sqeezes. At about 65 ft i could see the bottom and I was freezing surface temp was 86 and at 50 ft had dropped to 48 which quickly sucked my core temp down. i looked at my buddy who is keeping an eye on me knowing that something is up (benefit of diving regularly with the same buddy) and told him that i wanted to go up so we bagan the trek by holding on to the others BC and keeping eye contact. As we ascended i could feel the pressure increasing in my left ear but was more focused reaching the surface. About that time (abt 20 ft deep) i felt a POP and screamed through my reg. I then felt like i was rolling down a hill MAJORLY disoriented so and i had quit kicking which started me and my buddy going back down I remember feeling us drop back into the therme and was bracing for us to hit the bottom. but he managed to haul my butt back to the surface and sit me down on the bank. Standing up was a funny feeling LOL. but The air temp was in the 90s and i laeft my wetsuit on for a good 45 min not even breaking a sweat i had lost that much heat. So after going to the ER that night and getting some drops I had my fallow up today. Apparently your eardrum is slightly smaller than a nickle and my hole is abt the size of a pencil eraser. the doc said no diving for a while with another fallow up in 6 weeks. That stinks I want to try out my new gear not to mention my new 7mil wetsuit lol. So i have a new respect for diving and the severity of things that can happen. Hope my ear heals up fine but if it doesnt Ill find a way to dive.