Scuba Part II: this sucks

Written September 22th

As soon as I surfaced, I knew something was wrong.  Mario and Knut asked us how we felt and made sure our vests were all properly inflated when I realized I couldn’t really hear them.  When I spoke back to them, it sounded like I had my fingers in my ears and I could hear my own voice echoed in my head.

When I got back on the boat, one of my ears had partially equalized and I could hear out of it but the other one was completely blocked.  The nose spray and medicine I had taken had either started to wear off while I had been under water or the pressure had been too much for my sick sinuses to handle regardless of medicine.  

I told Mario what was going on and he said that I could dive the second dive even if the ear was blocked, but I’d know how to proceed once I got back in the water.  So after our next briefing on the deck and a switch of oxygen tanks, we got back into our equipment and hit the water.  

I tried not to let the feeling of my right ear being blocked bother me.  I got to the descent line with Knut next to me and started to slowly go under water.  Within a few meters, I felt like someone was smashing my brain inside my skull.  Knut motioned for me to come back up a meter or so to equalize before trying to go down again.

I went down again.  Brain smash.  I went up again.  And so it continued until I went a little farther down and felt like not only was someone smooshing my brain but that imaginary person was also stabbing me through the ear and into my forehead.  I screamed into my regulator and came up to the surface.  Through tears, I told Knut that I didn’t think I could do it, that my sinuses were not having it and that I was in a tremendous amount of pain.  Knut got me back to the boat before he went to rejoin the group and I went aboard to take off my stuff.

The crew coming back up after a dive (without me) :(

I sat on the top deck for the next 40 minutes moping and feeling sorry for myself.  I wondered if I’d be able to get my certification if I’d missed this dive and wasn’t doing the required certification skills with my classmates.  When the group came up from their dive, Mario was quick to tell me that I shouldn’t be hard on myself and to just reevaluate the next morning.  If I was okay in the morning, he would help me make up the skills on the next 2 dives.  

The evening was our written final exam and I took it with the rest of my friends while my right ear slowly started to feel like it was equalizing.  Around 5pm, right as we were finishing our exam, POP!  “YAY!  It just popped!” I yelled.  

Again, I hit the hay early.  I took more medicine, prayed to the diving gods that I would be okay for the next morning, and got a full 8 hours of sleep.  In the morning, I still couldn’t taste, but I was hopeful.  We got on the boat and got all of our stuff ready again before Mario’s briefing for our third dive.  He introduced us to Allison, the videographer who was going to record us on our two dives and she starting taping us on the boat as we discussed the skills we’d be doing in the water.

Lisa feeling like a superhero after her dive.

We got our stuff on and I nervously took a breath as we entered the water.  Would I be okay to dive even though there was still a ton of crap in my sinuses?  I got my answer pretty quickly: no.  

The familiar stabbing feeling was back, and despite trying to equalize for about 10 minutes, the fear of busting my ear drum overrode my desire to keep trying.  I went back to the boat dejected and saddened by the fact that I definitely wouldn’t be able to get my certification now.  

I made myself useful for the rest of the morning and photographed my friends getting into and out of the water.  I chatted with Mario in between the two dives and he told me that he would write a referral for me to finish the course later.  

The main problem was that I was short on time and had been planning on heading to the infamous Full Moon party on another island the next night.  I hadn’t planned on coming back to Ban’s.  

Within a few hours, I had reworked my schedule so that I could go to the Full Moon party with my friends the next night and would come back to Koh Tao the following day to try to 3 remaining dives again.  I would have to pay for my room, but the diving wouldn’t cost any additional money due to the fact that I hadn’t really done the other 3 dives anyway.