Well, I returned from my sky diving trip to Illinois with my head hung low and my dreams shot down in flames.
So here is the story, first, terrible plain trip, in everyway possible, 2nd, it took me the better part of 7 hours to drive 120 miles because of the holiday traffic around Chicago.
Those were just the bad things that started the trip, after I got to sky dive Chicago, which is in the middle of Illinois, the bad things just seemed to snowball into one huge monster of a bad week.
Once there, it rained, for about 2 days, this means no jumping, then, when the rain stopped, I actually got to do my first solo jumps, I did 6 the 1st day, WOO HOO.
The next day, I woke up early, went to the hanger and got ready for another day of jumping, once suited up and safety checked my instructor and I boarded the plane.
It took off and I was totally exited and fully relaxed, then, at about 6000 ft, my ears started to pop, which they usually do between 5 and 10 thousand ft, but they were not popping right, it was weird, I didn't think much of it, and as the jumpers in front of us piled out of the side of the plane my instructor and I took our positions at the door, and jumped.
The only cool part about the rest of this story it that it was partly cloudy this day and I actually flew through a cloud, it was sweet.
Well, after my, not that amazing, freefall I through out my pilot shut which opened my main canopy and watched as my instructor shot past and below me, I kept an eye on her for a little longer than normal and watched her disappear into a big poofy white cloud, then, disaster struck...
As I was looking up at my chute and making sure it was safe to land, my left ear decided to explode, not really, but it felt like it.
My left ear popped harder than I have ever felt and would not pop back, there was instantly a huge pressure build up and the pain in my head was so strong that I was actually disoriented, which is a terribly dangerous thing in sky diving.
After trying my hardest to get my ear to pop back, I finally realized that about a minute had gone by and I was flying in the wrong direction, so I pulled my self together, blocked out the pain as best I could and started looking for some familiar landmarks.
I finally spotted the drop zone directly behind me, after a quick altitude check, I turned towards the drop zone and put my chute at what we call half brakes, which basically means the chute flys forward with almost no decent, I kept checking my altitude and the distance to the drop zone and decided I could make it.
At this point the pain was still just as strong as when it first happened and it was wearing on my ability to focus, just fyi, if you don't make the correct actions while landing a parachute, you will hit the ground goin about 30 MPH down and forward, it CAN kill you.
I tried to execute my landing pattern but kept making weird turns at the wrong time and at the last minute had to pick an alternate landing area in a bean field to the north, I actually landed flawlessly and after a few more attempts to pop my ear, headed back to the hanger.
My instructor was trying to go over the jump with me, but I was so disoriented that I couldn't even keep my focus long enough for her to finish a full sentence. I explained what happened and decide to go to the ER.
The doctor looked into my ear with that weird peep hole thing and said "wow, your ear drum is really red, and it looks like there is some blood and fluid build up on the inner side of it, it is probably putting a lot of pressure on the ear drum and that is why it hurts." She then continued to tell me that the cause of all this was an ear infection that I must not have been feeling the symptoms of yet, the fluid and blood came from that and also caused the pain and loss of hearing.
They gave me antibiotics for the infection, and told me not to jump until the ear gets better, they said it could take a couple of days or a couple of weeks, I decided to wait it out and see if it would get better. Four days of camping at sky dive Chicago, without skydiving, later, I went for a follow up, the doc said it was getting better but wouldn't be back to normal for a few weeks, let's just say I wasn't happy.
I went back and packed up all my stuff, gave my instructors, who were amazingly supportive throughout the whole thing, the bad news, got a partial refund and drove back home.
That is how my vacation went, oh yeah, and my uncle Tom got run over by a truck while driving his motorcycle in Wisconsin, luckily he is OK and will be fine, and my best friend from AZ, who happens to be piratestich, he lost his job, and another one of my friends from ILL he also lost his job, and all of this happened on the same day!
So, I find my self with no personal, vacation, or sick time available at work, I am out a whole bunch of money and got nothing in return for it, my ear hurts constantly, my uncle tom is all messed up, my friends are unemployed and I am...
Well, I am alive, I can't complain about that, I am just thankful that my ear didn't pop about 30 seconds earlier when I was still in freefall, had that happened, well, lets just say you wouldn't be reading this blog.
-fin
So here is the story, first, terrible plain trip, in everyway possible, 2nd, it took me the better part of 7 hours to drive 120 miles because of the holiday traffic around Chicago.
Those were just the bad things that started the trip, after I got to sky dive Chicago, which is in the middle of Illinois, the bad things just seemed to snowball into one huge monster of a bad week.
Once there, it rained, for about 2 days, this means no jumping, then, when the rain stopped, I actually got to do my first solo jumps, I did 6 the 1st day, WOO HOO.
The next day, I woke up early, went to the hanger and got ready for another day of jumping, once suited up and safety checked my instructor and I boarded the plane.
It took off and I was totally exited and fully relaxed, then, at about 6000 ft, my ears started to pop, which they usually do between 5 and 10 thousand ft, but they were not popping right, it was weird, I didn't think much of it, and as the jumpers in front of us piled out of the side of the plane my instructor and I took our positions at the door, and jumped.
The only cool part about the rest of this story it that it was partly cloudy this day and I actually flew through a cloud, it was sweet.
Well, after my, not that amazing, freefall I through out my pilot shut which opened my main canopy and watched as my instructor shot past and below me, I kept an eye on her for a little longer than normal and watched her disappear into a big poofy white cloud, then, disaster struck...
As I was looking up at my chute and making sure it was safe to land, my left ear decided to explode, not really, but it felt like it.
My left ear popped harder than I have ever felt and would not pop back, there was instantly a huge pressure build up and the pain in my head was so strong that I was actually disoriented, which is a terribly dangerous thing in sky diving.
After trying my hardest to get my ear to pop back, I finally realized that about a minute had gone by and I was flying in the wrong direction, so I pulled my self together, blocked out the pain as best I could and started looking for some familiar landmarks.
I finally spotted the drop zone directly behind me, after a quick altitude check, I turned towards the drop zone and put my chute at what we call half brakes, which basically means the chute flys forward with almost no decent, I kept checking my altitude and the distance to the drop zone and decided I could make it.
At this point the pain was still just as strong as when it first happened and it was wearing on my ability to focus, just fyi, if you don't make the correct actions while landing a parachute, you will hit the ground goin about 30 MPH down and forward, it CAN kill you.
I tried to execute my landing pattern but kept making weird turns at the wrong time and at the last minute had to pick an alternate landing area in a bean field to the north, I actually landed flawlessly and after a few more attempts to pop my ear, headed back to the hanger.
My instructor was trying to go over the jump with me, but I was so disoriented that I couldn't even keep my focus long enough for her to finish a full sentence. I explained what happened and decide to go to the ER.
The doctor looked into my ear with that weird peep hole thing and said "wow, your ear drum is really red, and it looks like there is some blood and fluid build up on the inner side of it, it is probably putting a lot of pressure on the ear drum and that is why it hurts." She then continued to tell me that the cause of all this was an ear infection that I must not have been feeling the symptoms of yet, the fluid and blood came from that and also caused the pain and loss of hearing.
They gave me antibiotics for the infection, and told me not to jump until the ear gets better, they said it could take a couple of days or a couple of weeks, I decided to wait it out and see if it would get better. Four days of camping at sky dive Chicago, without skydiving, later, I went for a follow up, the doc said it was getting better but wouldn't be back to normal for a few weeks, let's just say I wasn't happy.
I went back and packed up all my stuff, gave my instructors, who were amazingly supportive throughout the whole thing, the bad news, got a partial refund and drove back home.
That is how my vacation went, oh yeah, and my uncle Tom got run over by a truck while driving his motorcycle in Wisconsin, luckily he is OK and will be fine, and my best friend from AZ, who happens to be piratestich, he lost his job, and another one of my friends from ILL he also lost his job, and all of this happened on the same day!
So, I find my self with no personal, vacation, or sick time available at work, I am out a whole bunch of money and got nothing in return for it, my ear hurts constantly, my uncle tom is all messed up, my friends are unemployed and I am...
Well, I am alive, I can't complain about that, I am just thankful that my ear didn't pop about 30 seconds earlier when I was still in freefall, had that happened, well, lets just say you wouldn't be reading this blog.
-fin
purrrgatori:
dear god... i'm sorry. that all sounds like way too much to be happening at once. hope it all turns around for you!