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.

[lwilson]

Hey yall and I am the girlfriend of this great guy and man was he a champ! Scared the crap out of me but he did awesome. Feel better sweetie!

Originally Posted by 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.

[cummings66]

For the first time in my life I experienced a reverse block last weekend. As I ascended I realized what was happening and I dropped down a bit and hung out for a while. When the pressure dropped I came up. The kicker was, it was at 6' when I couldn't go up any further and had to stop so close to the surface and yet so far away.

I'm glad I didn't do what you did, and I'll bet next time you experience that feeling you'll gladly suffer the cold a bit longer and drop down a bit and wait it out. Don't rush things, your body needs as long as it needs and if you push it you just might find yourself being hard of hearing or worse. Take your time, there are no shortcuts. Wait until you're completely healed up and then be more careful. A tip, if you must surface try to inhale instead of exhaling like you would to equalize. You're reversing the process because of the expanding air. It just might make it possible to surface. Because I dive dry I can always take the temps and so I prefer to drop down and wait for nature to take it's course which it always does.

[MSilvia]

Originally Posted by MicahEW

Hope my ear heals up fine but if it doesnt Ill find a way to dive.

I hope you heal up fine too.

I hate to be a downer, but I'm not sure I'd get my hopes up about NDSTC if I were you. I'm no expert by any means, but I'd be suprised if they took a candidate with a perforated eardrum from self-inflicted barotrauma. I hope I'm wrong about that, for your sake. Either way, I wish you luck, and if you go on to become a DM, I REALLY hope you'll act more cautiously with clients than you do without them.

I'm sorry you learned this lesson the hard way, and I really do hope you get to dive again soon.

[MicahEW]

yeah i have learned to tough it out when there are more serious things that can happen if you dont. I am not telling my recruiter about it so (WHEN) it heals ill be set to go thats a risk that im gonna take.

Originally Posted by MSilvia

I hope you heal up fine too.

I hate to be a downer, but I'm not sure I'd get my hopes up about NDSTC if I were you. I'm no expert by any means, but I'd be suprised if they took a candidate with a perforated eardrum from self-inflicted barotrauma. I hope I'm wrong about that, for your sake. Either way, I wish you luck, and if you go on to become a DM, I REALLY hope you'll act more cautiously with clients than you do without them.

I'm sorry you learned this lesson the hard way, and I really do hope you get to dive again soon.

[USF_Diver]

Ouch, glad you are ok.
Somebody should have told you the water temps were that cold a 3 mill won't cut it.

[MicahEW]

Yeah that would have been nice. I went and got a 7/8 mil semi dry with hood. I am ready this time just gotta wait on the ear. GEEZ its gonna be crazy cold when i can dive again.

Originally Posted by USF_Diver

Ouch, glad you are ok.
Somebody should have told you the water temps were that cold a 3 mill won't cut it.

[MSilvia]

Originally Posted by MicahEW

Yeah that would have been nice. I went and got a 7/8 mil semi dry with hood. I am ready this time just gotta wait on the ear. GEEZ its gonna be crazy cold when i can dive again.

If you're still cold in the warmer suit, you might try to pour some warm water in before the dive. The semi-dry seals should keep it from mixing with the cold water outside the suit, so you may be able to stay comfortable longer that way.

[MicahEW]

so more or less precharge the suite with heat??

Originally Posted by MSilvia

If you're still cold in the warmer suit, you might try to pour some warm water in before the dive. The semi-dry seals should keep it from mixing with the cold water outside the suit, so you may be able to stay comfortable longer that way.

[wgt]

Originally Posted by MicahEW

Apparently your eardrum is slightly smaller than a nickle and my hole is abt the size of a pencil eraser.

I believe that you received an inaccurate report concerning the dimensions of the eardrum. The eardrum is well less than half the diameter of a nickel (about 9 mm versus a pinch over 21 mm). I thus suspect that the size of the perforation has also been considerably overstated. This point notwithstanding, you remain in a debilitated state, and it's going to take a while to patch things up.

Good luck to you in a speedy recovery...everybody else, please care for those ears.