Guest Blog

or

"How My Honeymoon Was Almost Longer Than My Marriage!"

a photo reenactment...

On our second full day at San Souci, the Jewel of Jamaica, David and I decided to go scuba diving.

We wanted to do a resort dive, where you trained for about 2 hours and then did a short dive. No problem, mon.

So, we set the alarm for 7am, and had breakfast delivered to our room at 7:30.

Then we strolled down to the water sports area around 8:30 for the beginning of our class. After signing waivers, we jumped in the pool, along with two other couples for our swim test. Four laps, no stopping, no problem mon.

After our swim test, David seemed pretty tired, but it was obviously going to be the most strenuous thing all day, so whatever.

Then we headed back to the water sports building to get fins, masks, BCs, weight belts, etc. It was only a little past nine, but it was already sweltering outside, and standing there in the sun with all of that equipment seemed to go on forever.

Next, we sat in some chairs to learn a little bit about scuba. We talked about what the acronym "SCUBA" means, and about certification. Then, we started talking about breathing. Now, breathing in scuba is pretty simple. Just keep doing it, and don't do it through your nose. No problem, mon. Then we talked about our masks and how to clear them and how to make sure they fit. Pretty simple, yeah mon.

But David wasn't feeling too well. He said he was going to go get some water from our bag.

When he came back, he drank it all very quickly, but was still looking at little woozy. Our scuba instructor asked him if he was ok, and he wavered for a moment before responding. The instructor said, "well maybe you should go see the nurse. I'll go call the van." and David surprisingly agreed. This should have been my first clue all was not well.

Within mere moments of the instructor walking away, David suddenly pitched forward out of his chair. One of the other guys caught him, and when he propped him back up, David's lips were blue and he did not seem to be breathing well. (At this moment, it is possible I panicked. However, this is kind of a scary thing to have happen, especially rather suddenly, and for no particular reason.)

The guys laid David down on a lounge chair and he quickly came to.

We all agreed that David should go to the nurse now.

The van came screaming on to the beach, and we piled in and headed for the nurse's office.

The nurse, a fascinating character study, listened carefully to our explanation of the events. She nodded a lot, but said very little and seemed to ask very few questions. She took David's pulse and blood pressure and announced that David should see a doctor. First she called the doctor to have him come to the hotel, but while on the phone with him, he suggested it might be better if we came to him. This idea did not appeal to us, as the doctor was more than 30 minutes away on an uncomfortable drive, and David was feeling much better at this point. So, the nurse calls the doctor back and gets him to agree to come to the hotel. We head to our room, where David rests on the bed until the doctor arrives.

The doctor comes in a checks all the important things. He pokes and prods and asks questions and takes measurements. Finally, he declares David "perfectly normal" (no jokes, please). And bills us.

All in all, it was an exciting adventure. Diagnosed with heat stroke, aggravated by very cold air conditioning followed by a cold pool, a vigorous swim and then a hot day, David seemed fine for the rest of our trip.

Oh well, no scuba. But we snorkeled the same spot two days later. No problem, mon.

The End.