Just have to take the written test tomorrow night and hubby and I will be certified divers! We had our last class this past Sunday, which involved going out to Catalina on a diving boat and completing three practice dives using all of the skills we'd learned. Simple, right? Mostly yes...but this moron (me) had to take a huge (and very stupid) chance by not buying any seasickness meds for the trip. No, no... Instead I bought these wristbands that are supposed to help the "drug free" way. You know, 'cause I thought we were taking the Catalina Express...the one that gets ya there fast with minimal rocking. And I'm so totally "drug free" ya know. NOT. How dumb I felt when we arrived at the port at 6:00 a.m., only to load up on the much smaller diving boat, the Magician. Oh what spells of puke that boat did weave, lemme tell ya.
So I panicked a little, thinking about my last ocean excursion when I went fishing with my dad and brother last August. It was the same sized boat with about 25 people...almost the exact scenario, except we were on that boat to fish, not dive. It wasn't so bad that time, but I do remember being a little sqeamish throughout the day. I just ate a little bread and concentrated on the horizon. It worked out fine for that trip, but NOT for this one. Those wristbands didn't do a fucking thing. It was only about 15 minutes into the TWO HOUR trip that I spewed the breakfast I'd eaten to try to "settle" my stomach. Word got around the boat that we had a puker, so a nice man offered me some meds. No sooner had I opened my mouth to put the pills at the back of my tongue (a simply brilliant thing to do when you're nauseous), I was barfing again. Like...violently. IT HURT, MAN. Ron was soothing me, even though he wasn't feeling too well himself. I looked up at him, pain in my eyes, drool flying from my mouth and nose and said, "I don't think this hobby's gonna work out..."
I was in complete misery the entire time, wedged between one side and railing of the boat, staring hopelessly at the horizon. I did manage to salvage some of the soggy pills I'd tried putting down my throat earlier. It was disgusting, I had to scrape the bitter sogginess onto the back of my tongue and swallow. ANYTHING to get something down there and working to ease this suffering. I think I'd rather have a lead pipe through my skull than be nauseous, as it is the WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD to me... It wasn't long until I was yelling over the side again, with nothing coming out but the little bit of water I'd sipped. Once we FINALLY got there, I asked the nice medicine man if he could please give me two more pills so I could try to keep them down.
So I was unable to participate in the first dive because I was too sick to do anything but moan, let alone try and wrestle on a wetsuit. I watched as Ron and the others went in groups, trying to forget about my sickies. Then I slowly started to put my gear on. Once I had everything on, I started to feel a bit better. The captain and dive masters told me to go ahead and get in the water, that floating around would help. I got in a tootled around the boat for a bit, until I got cold. Yes, even though I had a full wetsuit, it was coooold. I hadn't put on my gloves and cap yet, so the chillies were seeping in. But by the time I got out of the water, everyone was starting to finish with the first dive and I was feeling much better. I even ate some watermelon.
The two dives I went on were great. Some parts FUH-REEEEZ-ING...but altogether great. I was able to catch up on the second dive with all the tests and practices our group had done on the first dive. So the medicine worked and my day was not completely ruined. I learned a very important lesson from this experience. I will never, EVER forego the seasick meds again! Being able to do something I have always dreamed of is worth a little discomfort but holy HELL...not that much!
Oh, and one more thing I've learned...we need to seek warmer waters for our next diving trip. Catalina has lovely kelp forests and some beautiful waters on some days, depending on conditions of course, but the water is often FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEzing!!! On the second dive I thought my toes were gonna fall off. Then I was cold on the boat ride home because all my clothes were WET. No wonder my head is still stuffy and I can't kick the leftover cough I got from the cold I had last week. *sigh* And I really wanted to get back into swimming at the Y again this week. DAMMIT. Maybe Thursday... I just hope this stuffy head crap goes away and I don't have a relapse.
That's it for now. I've been writing in here on and off all day. Time to end this post and end the day. Gotta go home and rest.
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