Disaster struck in the Maldives

I’m in paradise. No, really, I haven’t seen more beautiful tropical scenery in my life before. The Maldives has hardly any land, the few little islands in a turquoise sea are stunning with the whitest beaches, the greenest palm trees and the most idyllic little cottages that make the resorts that has been build on the islands. The sea has the most beautiful coloring from a deep blue to a fresh light green close to the islands. And the diving, it’s absolutely amazing, the amount of different species of fish are numerous, the visibility is great and in the first 6 days I was here I saw everything I wanted to see. From graceful Manta Rays to a school of Eagle Rays, sharks, a whaleshark (!) turtles, numerous schools of fish, brightly colored nudibranches and a great wreck. Everything was still fine at my birthday, my day started out great with a card from home, a funny dive with Laura singing happy birthday to me in the blue at 27 meters. My right ear was a bit irritated after 6 days of diving 3 times a day, but I was happily using acid ear drops and it wasn’t even as bad to start using my antibiotic drops. The next day my whole stay here turned 180 degrees.

I descended to about 20 meters and equalizations went well, no problems there, I didn’t even had a slight irritation at that time. Until I equalized at depth and I felt this funny feeling in my ear. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but when I ascended a little I felt it again and my stomach turned as I realized there were bubbles coming out of the outside of my ear. I had Laura come over to take a look and when I saw the horror on her face I knew enough; I had just perforated my eardrum without feeling the slightest thing..
We immediately ended the dive with me holding on to Laura as I was feeling a bit dizzy and thought I might have a mental breakdown under water. I’ve never cried under water before and I’ve got to tell you, I can’t recommend it. Back on the boat I was devastated ‘cause I know what it meant.

Two years ago during my divemaster traineeship in The Netherlands I had an inner ear infection which broke through my eardrum and caused me to drop any scubadiving activities for 5 months. I knew there was no diving for me in the Maldives any more. Even though Bas kept telling me he’s seen people diving again after 5 days, I couldn’t believe it. Straight after I went to a doctor on one of the local islands who gave me antibiotics, nose drops, painkillers and ear drops after telling me there was a ‘minor infection on my eardrum. I didn’t use the ear drops as they appeared dangerous when having a perforated eardrum.. He couldn’t see the hole himself. His conclusion was that I would be back in the water in 5 days. Although I didn’t believe him immediately I was a bit relieved that this time it might be different. But unfortunately, it was not. I developed a serious inner- and outer ear infection but as I was taken antibiotics I thought that should cover the infection. 4 Days later I was still in a lot of pain (no way paracetamol helps in that case) as my Eustachian tube was completely blocked (so far for the nose drops) and the hole in my ear probably wasn’t big enough to release the pressure so every now and then I could feel it breaking through my eardrum again. I didn’t finish the five days of antibiotics as I was able to see another doctor at one of the resorts on the fourth day. This guy told me the antibiotics I was taking were for people allergic to penicillin and not as strong as I needed. He couldn’t see my eardrum as it was completely blocked by the infection fluid but when he cleaned it out a bit he said the fluorescent green color that was coming out told him it was a serious infection. Conclusion; an extra 14 days of antibiotics, strong painkillers and stomach protectors and a total of 3 months without diving. I can’t even get my ear wet, I have to have a piece of cotton in my ear at all times and I’ve got to be careful with wind blowing in my ear. Let that be all there is on this boat; water everywhere and wind.

It has been almost a week now since this happened and I’m a bit more at ease with the whole situation. I sleep, read and sit in the sun during the day, when I get a bit better I’ll be going out on the dhoni (the dive boat) again to accompany the rest of the people. My big relief is that we have great people on board these first 2 weeks, Laura who I already met in Thailand and Els and Marina, two Belgium women. Els has some problems of her own with her eye which means she can only go snorkeling which is sad for her as well. And of course Bas is here and I’m so glad he is. It’s going really well between the two of us and he takes very good care of me. I don’t want anyone to get really worried about me, I’m still doing okay and enjoying my time here, it’s just a bit different than expected. Sometimes when we’re close to an island we can get half an hour of wireless internet but I never know when that is, so I’ll still be unreachable until the 8th of may.
I’ll keep you posted,
Kiss