Dodging Bullets

I should have known better than to go wakeboarding on Friday the 13th!

It was about 8 pm and I had just figured out how to catch air off the wake while carving on my heel side. After landing a couple I went for bigger air, just barely clearing the opposite side wake, but landing too far forward on the board. My front end caught, transferring all the momentum to my upper body, which then slammed the left side of my head flush onto the water surface.

Everything went dark and quiet and then my head was spinning from the cold water rushing into my middle ear and my entire sinus cavity ached. I knew I had done something bad to my only good ear!

I was up most of the night in camp with a head-splitting ear ache and blood draining out of my ear! The scary part was that everything was so quiet.

What if I blew my whole eardrum out? What if I had to have surgery again? What if my hearing never returned? I would have to be out of work for at least a month...etc. I accepted the possibility that I may lose hearing in both ears. The moment I accepted that, I realized that things were not that bad, and that life would go on.

Monday I got in to see my ENT Dr. He said that he has seen a lot of ear injuries from wakeboard wipeouts lately. When he saw it was my "good" ear he grimaced. When he looked inside he first said, "Ahaah...Mmmmmm...then he chuckled a little and said smiling, "Well, you dodged a bullet!" I said what do you mean? He said that the eardrum was severely bruised, but not compromised. He said there was a tiny perforation where the blood had been draining out, which was already pretty much healed. He said it would take "a while" for the swelling to go down and the blood and fluid behind the eardrum to be reabsorbed, and my hearing would then gradually return. He said no heavy lifting for a couple of days and then back to work Wednesday.
By Wednesday I was doing a bit better and back to work. There was a slight improvement in my hearing, but I could tell that it would take time for my eardrum and middle ear to fully heal and hopefully completely regain my hearing. By mid-day I was a bit nauseated, light-headed, and had a dull headache - but it gradually improved each day.
I did notice that everyone I regularly listen to on the radio or TV sounded higher-pitched, like they were sucking helium! After experiencing this for multiple media personalities, I realized It was probably due to my ear drum healing - not everyone's voice changing.
I realized that I was probably also experiencing a serious case of airtime deficiency syndrome...

Airtime: about 10 cumulative seconds...