"Scuba back" I dub thee. A lingering condition all apprentice scuba divers are afflicted with after a weekend spent weighed down by far more gear than strictly desirable. Sunday night I was okay, but when I woke up Monday morning I felt like someone nefarious had bolted a small anvil to my left shoulder blade. After a hot shower I prevailed upon my dive buddy from some elbow-related assistance, and felt far better. Unfortunately, the sore spot returned on Tuesday, and though much-diminished, it lingers on even into Wednesday afternoon.
Malaya's got a matching area of concern, but hers is on the right, and it's up higher, just above the scapula.
Fortunately/tragically, we're going to get a while to rest and heal up, since after spending Sunday night, Monday morning, and most of Tuesday feeling like she had water in her ears, Malaya went to the doctor Tuesday evening and found out that... she did have water in her ears.
Swimmer's ear, they call the condition, and it's basically a bacterial inflamation that must be treated with antiobiotics. And obviously enough, you can't go back into the water until it's all gone. At least two weeks, Malaya's doctor told her.
If you're wondering, wearing ear plugs or something like that is not an option when scuba diving. You have to keep your ears open since you are constantly equalizing the pressure in them (usually by pinching your nose shut and blowing hard), and if you don't do that you will rupture your ear drums, as well as experiencing agonizing pain due to the pressure changes in the air inside your head. And that's just one of the many playful aspects of immersing your body beneath more than a few meters of liquid!
Since we were supposed to finish our (initial) scuba training this weekend in Monterey, and Saturday arrives in slightly less than two weeks, that's off. Happily, our two dive instructors are very nice guys and they say it's no problem. We can finish our training with another instructor, or come along with them in a month or two when they next take a group through open water training. I would have liked to get it over with this weekend, but I must admit some relief at the prospect of not having to get up at 5am this weekend. And now that we'll be home this weekend, we might even have time to finally go see
V is for Vendetta, as we've been itching to do for the past two weeks.
Labels: scuba
