Well the month of May was a big one for the Young family. It marked my 5 year anniversary of finishing my chemotherapy and my return to something I love. One of the drugs I had been given for treatment came with the promise of never scuba diving again. I was told there would be no chance I would ever dive again after receiving Bleomycin, in the Dr's words "either way you won't be scuba diving again" Meaning dead or cured with Bleo, either way it wasn't happening.
For the past several years I just accepted that as fact and never questioned it. I had done a bit of research and found quite a bit of information supporting the no dive rule, so that was that.. Or so I thought.
After living down here in the Keys and seeing all the wonderful reef, with it's staggering corals, tropical fish and wrecks to explore, I began to question it again. What I found was most of the information about diving after Bleo treatment was from the 80's. I dug a little deeper and was able to find several articles most recently from 2011 that stated an otherwise healthy male that received Bleo treatment without radiation would be very low risk for an incident. I also searched DAN (Divers Alert Network) and found backing information there. After looking at my accumulative dose I made an informed decision to pursue getting certified. I also decided this would be something I would do with Colby.
With my Dr on board and after some tests Colby and I went down to our local dive shop and signed up.
The instructors were amazing and Colby did great, he was a natural. We breezed through the class and now have our PADI Open Water certifications. This allows us to dive to 60ft, fill tanks, etc. We are now signed up for the Advanced Open Water class which will include a dive to 120ft, a wreck dive, a night dive, underwater navigation, and another elective dive. This doesn't make us advanced divers, but it does build on what we learned already. An advanced diver only gets advanced from the number of dives not a class. We have been diving several times since getting our certs and Colby has found something he loves, it's nice to have that to do together. He's a built in dive buddy!
Here is a video with clips of our 3rd open water dive including our CESA (Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent)
The next video is from a diving trip taken with our friends Dan and Lupe, we checked out Flagler's barge and then some deeper reefs. We ended up getting the biggest fish while freediving at 40ft, not on scuba.
After Advanced Open Water Colby will be moving on to the Rescue Diver course where he we have to wait until he is 18 to get his Divemaster or Instructor certification. Colby might very well turn this into a career or integrate it into his career in Marine Biology. He's got plenty of time to figure it out, but either way Jess and I figure it's an ace in the hole for him. His Grandfather has also been extremely supportive of his interest in diving and has helped get him gear and pay for some of his instruction. With our Achilles and 20hp Yamaha, getting out to the reef to dive is a quick trip. We can throw our tanks and gear in the dinghy and head out just about any day, even on days I work there is still plenty of daylight left.
OTHER NEWS
To be honest our day to day life leaves very little to write about, but lets see what I can dig up.
The kids are almost done with school for the year, they have done a great job and have really stayed on top of their learning. This summer they will be spending a bit of time with their Grandparents in Michigan both my Grandfather and Jessica's parents.
Our latest project is still the arch that is being built, tomorrow a template will be made and then the finishing touches will be put on before installing it. I will make sure to post several before and after shots of the install.
Things have slowed down at the marina as boats have made their way back north, we can make left turns again and the grocery store is finally a place you can go without experiencing cart rage.
There is another piece of exciting news, however I'm not at liberty to let the cat out of the bag until I get the ok. I will say it involves music becoming a part of my life again ;-)
Till next time. .
S/V Thin Line
