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Good news today!

Katrina — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 22:08:00 GMT

Sarah got to come home! When I arrived today to vist, Sarah told me she was getting to leave. Yay! So we got her some crutches and taxied our way back to Habitat. What a relief! Thanks for all your positive thoughts during our vacation difficulties. Katrina

Thinking back...

Katrina — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 20:53:58 GMT

Sarah's injury has been difficult to deal with. I'm in a country where not so many people speak English. I am mostly at the mercy of others for transportation and language assistance. It has been scary and taxing and there have been some tears of fear, exhaustion and relief. On the good side, Sarah and I hope DAN will write up her injury for their magazine Alert Diver. The symptoms of migraine headaches and decompression sickness can get easily confused and I think the migraine and the fact of her not eating much for the three days before contributed to her situation. It hadn't occured to me how dangerous it was for her to be diving and I count her and I lucky that it wasn't worse than it was. Additionally, I got to spend the past 24 hours being driven around the island by a very knowledgable, funny, giving woman who has helped me in so many ways. I am so grateful. She took me to get take out at a very local type "restaurant", she took me to the grocery store, she took me to get a new cell phone for Sarah that will be able to receive calls from her parents, she sweet talked us into the hospital in the middle of the night, she used all her connections to other doctors and staff who know something about the decompression chamber and got us a lot of good information. Without her I would have been completely overwhelmed. So, Sarah seems to be getting much better. Not sure if she will need to go back in the tank or not. The Doc says she will need to stay in the hospital until at least Friday. Her Dad plans to fly down and help her out after I leave. Who said I wanted a "relaxing" vacation? Love to all! Katrina

And then...

Katrina — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 20:44:34 GMT

Oh yeah, before we went back to the hospital, I called Sarah's parents to break the news. They took it pretty well and expressed many thanks for my help. I also called DAN (diver's alert network) which provides insurance coverage and other help to divers. I got them on the case, so that hospital bill should be paid. Small favors. In the meantime, they decided that Sarah's left ankle was also broken in her fall in the bathroom. She had broken her ankle the last time she was in Curacao. On her birthday. Which was yesterday. Wonders never cease. We stayed with Sarah while she got the cast put on and then bid her bon bini as she was wheeled of to the ward. Got back to the resort about 3am and read for a while. I guess you could say I was exhausted, but very keyed up. I got up and did my two morning dives on the boat and then Tanya (bless her beautiful heart) took me back to the hospital to see Sarah and take her a few things. She is annoyed, but she is largely back to herself. I will visit her on the shuttle again tomorrow taking her a few more requested items and then I'm off back toward home Wednesday morning. When I said I liked adventures, I had no idea what I was getting into. :-) Honestly, I've had a few moments when I didn't think I could do any more, but I've pulled my shit together and taken care of business. I am proud of my mettle today and I'm glad that Sarah is my friend. And I am grateful that I have been safe and had a wonderful time despite the medical drama of yesterday.

Well shit...

Katrina — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 20:36:19 GMT

As many of you know, my dive buddy, Sarah, who I have been diving with in Curacao for the past few days, has been having some trouble with migraines. Well, yesterday, after she had been in the best spirits and physical condition so far (had kept two meals down and done three wonderful dives, Sarah got bent. I came down to her room to see if I could use the computer and found her barely concious on the bathroom floor. Thankfully people on staff at Habitat Curacao came to the rescue fairly quickly. As it turned out, the dive master we had been diving with often during the week is an ICU nurse and she was over very quickly. The 'ambulance brothers' arrived a half hour or so later, saw the sign of marbled looking skin on her hips, back and arms and began to strongly suspect decompression sickness. I got to ride in the front of the ambulance with the sirens and the flashers going. That was an experience. Never in my life have I felt so much expected of me. I went with Sarah into the emergency room, reported about our diving, got her checked in, all her papers signed and the bill paid with her credit card (it costs $167.00 per day here). The neurologist checked her out, the barometric dr. came by and soon the decision was made to "take her to the tank". She was in for 5 hours. In the meantime, I and Tanya, the dive master went back to her place, had some food and I layed down and tried to sleep. At 1am when she was supposed to be out of the tank we went back to see how it went. As far as I could tell the marbling had gone completely away.

Believe it or not!

Katrina — Thu, 18 May 2006 17:58:27 GMT

Edward and I have been married for 15 years today! Woo-hoo! I apologize for the lack of before and after pictures. Maybe we'll get that together for our sweet 16. Yay for love! Yay for patience! Yay for luck and hard work. Thank you Edward!

Hero for a day

Katrina — Tue, 02 May 2006 04:30:41 GMT

This weekend did my first solo dive. I thought I'd never do such a thing, but the situation seemed safe enough. My mother had lost her glasses over the side of a sailboat and asked me if I would be willing to scuba down and try to find them. I went Sunday, eight days after they fell into the lake. The area I was searching was about 2 by 4m and sloped from 2 to 3m in depth. Visibility was about 1.5m This was in a small marina in Siltcoos Lake in Florence, OR. I popped in and started searching near the stern of the boat. I poked through the thick weeds, around half-buried logs which of course kicked up a lot of silt and organic debris. I searched under the entire port side of the boat then turned back around to do another pass further toward the next door boat. Then it occurred to me I really need to be using the Force to help me here so I kind of turned off my search pattern and immediately found the glasses dangling from some weeds almost under the next door boat. This took me all of five minutes. The guy at the dive shop told me my mission was "futile", but that I was a good daughter for doing it anyway. Ha. Katrina's new power: Finder of Lost Things Under Water. Happily accepting further missions as needed.

Tattoo Virgin

Katrina — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 02:08:37 GMT

I'm trying to design my first tattoo. First, I am struck by the incredible amount of detail that goes into many tats. It seems that every line has meaning in some. This is cool since I have a bunch of meaning that I'd like to cram into one image. A few pencil scribblings have carved me a bit closer to a good idea. I think I probably need an actual tattoo person to finalize it. Do people normally take a completed drawing to a tattoo artist? Just a sketch and they fill in the blanks? Any body have a person they recommend in Portland?