October 09, 2004
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Scuba two
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1702 hit(s)
After last weekend's scuba sessions in the pool, my ear didn't seem to be getting better. It hurt a bit to blow my nose and it felt like it had water in it all week. I talked to the instructor about this, who referred me to the guy they call the "dive doctor" at the diving shop. And indeed, Dr. Kay has a website you can get to with the URL http://divingdoc.com. He's a GP who himself dives and is certified for undersea medicine, about which he is very knowledgeable.
He agreed to see me on short notice, even though he suspected strongly just from our phone conversation what the problem was. Sure enough, in 12 feet of water I'd managed to sustain barotrauma, which the doctor notes he sees very frequently. Dr. Kay uses a little video camera to examine the inner ear in such a way that the patient can see, too. (If you have broadband, you can watch his video, which shows exactly how the examination works; my ear looks like that of the second woman.) The reason my left ear sounds like it's under water is that it is, kind of; there's fluid buildup behind the ear drum -- like a blister, he said -- that will take a little while to clear.
Prescription: no diving for two weeks. Fortunately, the class is flexible, so I can do my open water cert dive any time in the next year or something like that. As it happens, the instructor has another gang of newbie divers going into open water in two weeks, so unless something comes up, I should be able to do my Puget Sound baptismal dive then.
But there's nothing wrong with Zack, so he went today with the rest of the class. I took him down to Alki, a favorite diving spot in Seattle, and conveniently close to our house. I then hung out to hear what the instructor had to say, even if I could not actually perform all the skills that the class was practicing. Since I was not struggling with all the equipment myself, I was able to take a few pictures of Zack putting on his gear:
When everyone was suited up in 7-mm wetsuits, not only did they all look like cool, like villains in a James Bond movie, but they were largely indistinguishable.
The class did two dives. The first involved only a few skills, since it was mostly about just getting into and out of the open water. Everyone came out exhilarated by the experience and by what they'd seen, which included starfish, flounder, and other fauna. The water temperature did not seem to be a problem. After the first dive, there was an hour-long break. This was mandated by normal dive protocol (nitrogen stuff), but in practice, by the time everyone came out, had a bathroom break and a debriefing, and was ready to go back in, more than an hour had passed anyway.
The second dive involved more skills, like mask flooding, weight belt removal, regulator recovery, and some of those other less-pleasant experiences that the class had done once already in the pool. While they bubbled away under the waves, I bundled up on shore -- it was windy and occasionally rainy -- and read, what else. The second time everyone came up, people were colder than they had been the first time, not unexpectedly. Zack reported that the skills had gone ok, though they were no fun.
Everything was wrapped up by about 2:30. The third and fourth open water dives are scheduled for tomorrow morning, so I'll take Zack down again. As for the boy himself, he came home intending to do some homework. But he lay down on his bed, and as far as I can tell, has been asleep for about four hours. All that cold and activity, it makes Zack a tired boy.
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