This coming Tuesday I will be checking myself in for a Bronchoscopy, a fairly invasive procedure which allows, among other things, a miniature camera to be inserted through the mouth or nasal passage and down into the lungs and bronchial passageways to look for trauma.
Needless to say I am less than thrilled by the idea of this however the sharp pain in my chest every time I sneeze or cough seems to be reason enough to get it done.
The whole thing started in Ottawa around this time last year. Just weeks before the Pacific Cup of Freediving (breath-hold diving) in Kona, Hawaii I severely injured my thoracic airway and as a result was forced to give up my place on the Canadian national team. Not only was I supposed to give up the team, I was told that because of my physiology any further deep diving would likely have fatal consequences.
For the next nine months I stayed out of the water hoping that I would heal sufficiently to be able to at least participate recreationally. In the meantime, in an effort to remain involved in the sport at a high level without the risk of actually hurting myself, I began the process of establishing my candidature to become a judge for the International Association for the Development of Freediving (AIDA).
By May of this year I felt terrific and returned to Ottawa to help coach a freediving clinic where I experimented with some very modest and careful descents. It went great.
In June I attended the Canadian Nationals as a new AIDA judge and, with some trepidation, accepted an additional role as back-up safety diver.
On the second day of competition an organizational error led to a severe blackout at depth. A very dramatic and successful deep water rescue by our primary safety diver was flawlessly executed however, as the back-up safety I was compelled to descend beyond what I was ready for. As a result I suffered re-injury and quite possibly further damage to what I believe to be the tracheal area of my windpipe.
Of course it was ridiculous of me to put myself in that position in the first place but I had not accepted the fact that my ability to freedive was gone for good. As it stands I still want to believe that I will be able to spend time underwater, even if it is at the most modest depths.
Now it occurs to me (after being told a hundred times by my friends and family) that the prudent thing to do here is just let the whole underwater thing go and move on to something less threatening. But I have just received my first AIDA assignment to attend two World Record attempts in beautiful Venezuela at the end of this month. Tell me you wouldn't go...
So here's the plan. I'm a cork. Happy, floating cork-boy in his nice buoyant wetsuit bobbing about the beautiful Caribbean sea. Now doesn't that sound lovely?
Posted by pike at August 31, 2003 11:40 AM