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Adventures in Diving--or Should I Say MISADVENTURES??

HAPPY TO BE ALIVE!!

On the first day of diving
With the opportunities we have for tropical travel and adventure Susan and I decided to sign up for scuba diving courses.  I have had my Open Water PADI certification since 1977 and did some diving in the Pacific NW initially, then in 1991, I dove in Roatan Honduras with Cheri Berri Lesh.......then it was 20 years later that I did more diving while working in the Caribbean this past January.  I loved it and really could not wait to get back to Australia to do more diving as we live right across from one of the top 10 dive spots in Australia.  Susan had done 2 dives in her remote past without certification and decided she wanted to get her PADI Open Water class done so we could dive together, so we signed up for classes. Susan is taking her Open Water and I signed up for the Advanced Open Water as I wanted to do some deeper diving (up to 40 meters, but typically not over 30 meters).

I need to get a total of 5 dives in focusing on different elements, like "deep dive", "navigation", "drift dive", etc.  We went out with a group of 18 other divers on sunday to the Solitary Islands (group of 7 islands and we dove off of the Lighthouse Island.)  It was Susan's first dive and I wanted to dive with her just to offer support, plus it gave me a chance to get my buoyancy down with new gear.

Another photo from day one

 Susan did great, I had a good dive and when I came up I was ready to get on with more adventuresome diving, so I went with a different group for the second dive.  We had a lovely dive, easy, lots of great fish, relaxing and interesting.  I must admit I was pretty disappointed with the water clarity, it reminded me of the PNW diving with murky water, but at least we were in and under the water!
We returned the next day for more lessons. The weather was not as good as the day before and when we got out to the island, the seas were really choppy with moderate swells, the type of seas where you just need to get under the water ASAP as you get too beat up on the surface (actually hammered!) and when the boat rose with the swells you could see a great deal of the bottom of it!
I was in the "deep dive" group, there were 4 of us plus the dive master.  The plan was to dive down to 30 meters and do our nitrogen narcosis check (by following specific tasks, and  playing a child's game), then we were going to swim through the chute where the grey nurse sharks hang out.

Entrance to the "chute"
(Photo from my dive buddy on day one)

 I was prepared top side on what to expect with the sharks, where to swim in the chute and how close they swim to us (close!, but these are docile sharks:).  So we all jumped off of a perfectly good boat again, but once we were down underwater our dive master decided there was too much current to do the narcosis check and decided to cut over to the chute. When we got to the chute she went in first, I followed, then my buddy.  It became really clear that the current was wild there, pushing us down to the floor and twisting me sideways on occasion.  She decided we had to turn around as the current was vicious. It was impossible to swim against the current so we literally had to claw ourselves back out by grabbing onto rocks and pulling ourselves along, kicking our fins did nothing.  My buddy stayed with me the entire time (he is a trained dive master too--the gods were taking care of me to say the least!). We were down around 26 meters in the chute.  When we came out, the rest of our group was there, as was another group from the boat. They were planning on going in to the chute as well but the group had a change of plans when the dive master saw all of our bubbles only going sideways, not up.  As we came out I saw the other dive master doing a head count and he discovered one of his divers was missing!  A young german woman was waiting with her group, turned around and got pulled away in the very strong current.  When she was swept away she had no orientation as she could not see other divers, any walls or bottom, so she did the right thing and surfaced. Not knowing where she was, our dive master (the most experienced one) took off to look for her and left our group to hook up with the other dive master. We ended up swimming through some very difficult, strong currents, then the dive master realized we needed to surface as well.  The dive was truly aborted by this time!  My buddy stayed with me and made sure we did the correct decompression time before surfacing as we both still had plenty of air, then we surfaced together.  When we got to the surface, the seas were horrible, tall breaking swells with the constant beating of waves.  There was a buoy in the distance and we were told to swim towards it so we would have something to hang on to for a rescue.  Unfortunately the buoy was against the current and I had far too little experience to make a different decision.  I was pretty frightened by the fact we were free floating in such rough conditions with the surface current, but was determined to make it to the buoy as I felt like my life depended on it.  I was kicking pretty hard and not covering any ground, then I realized, I could not get enough air in through my regulator to compensate for the amount of exertion I was using, and my near panic set in! You HAVE to leave you mask and regulator in place as long as you have air, but I could not get enough air, so I tried my snorkel and that did not help.  The amount of air the regulator allows through could not keep up with the level of exertion and breath I needed, so I started taking my regulator out to inhale in an attempt to catch my breath, then I became aware of how tight my weight belt felt, and began to get sea sick on the surface. ANXIETY was increasing. I was a bit behind the rest of the group and my buddy asked me if I was OK, and as hard as it was, I knew I would not survive the way I was going, so I said "no", I was not OK.  He came right over, told me to layback and he kept ahold of my tank as I tried to rest and tried to catch my breath.  While I was on my back I continued to take in water on occasion as I still needed to take my regulator out to get enough air and  I laid there and could hear every bit of air that went in and out of my lungs and felt like I was suffocating still as it was really hard for me to calm myself.  I started thinking about what the f**k I was doing out there, my family, and it felt so unreal, I had to remind myself it was really happening to me and not just some drama that would end happily ever after!  I had to make a clear decision to stay on top of my fear and do whatever it took to live.  I am not a person to ask for help and I felt guilty at the time that my buddy was having to work harder, but really, I had to give that up and just thank god he was with me. It seemed like forever and I kept trying to kick my fins to help us get to the buoy and when I asked how we were doing and looked around we were much further away from the buoy and there were only three of us together not ten (our original surface group size).  At this point we stopped  trying to swim and just floated in the current and my buddy blew up his rescue marker which is a bright orange balloon, about one meter tall.  Did I mention I would NOT let go of my buddies hand? EVER??  We are in the open sea by the way, not on a reef. We were on the windward side of the island and we were carried along heading north.  The other part of our group had been swept further out by the current and we could only catch a rare glimpse of their rescue marker if we were both on top of a swell.  As we came to the northern end of the island, we were a bit more out of the wind and the seas settled a little bit (at least it did not feel like a washing machine on fill and agitate cycle).  I calmed down A LOT at this point and actually caught my breath by now and could interact with my two buddies. I was still scared as hell, but had more confidence that I was not going to drown, I had no idea how long we would be at sea, but had hopes that the owner of the dive company and the skipper of the dive boat for the day, would realize we were late in surfacing in rough conditions and was hoping he was worried about us!

As we drifted to the northern end of the island (yes, I was still holding hands) the current started to sweep us back around the leeward side a bit!  I thought a saw a fishing boat in the distance (as it turns out it was our dive boat) and found my emergency whistle and began to blow it (sorry, buddy, I know it hurt your ears)  The other floating group responded with their whistle, but the boat did not hear us or see our emergency markers!  Susan at the one hour mark asked if the divers should not be back yet and was told that we should have been, but at this point he was not anxious to look for us.  He even asked Susan if she wanted to try and get down under the water again and Susan said "no" she would rather find out what happened to the divers that never surfaced at the boat!  He then asked a different dive master who had just surfaced with a beginner diver what time he had dropped us off at the the other side of the island (we were suppose to swim through a chute/underwater arch that divided the island to where the boat was moored).  By this time I believe an hour had passed, our two floating groups somehow ended up meeting and then I think he saw our rescue balloons and speed out to pick us up.
I was so grateful for the boat, to take off my dive gear and just be safe.  I could not even talk to Susan for awhile and it took some time for me to breathe more normally as I had salt water in my chest and was still sitting with a ton of fear.  I was feeling extremely shattered inside and realized that I had just been given a new chance at life.  The other dive master and german woman were still stuck on the windward side of the island taking a huge beating in the wave as they were still on the roughest side of the island.  They had been hanging on for over an hour.  The dive should have been around 30 minutes  I believe (because of the depth), so we were over 30 minutes late for even beginning to think about a rescue.  After we were all on the boat, there was no debriefing, we were  offered  tea or coffee, just like the day before.  It felt like an altered reality.  Had I just about drowned? Had we just been rescued?  Why is no one talking out loud about it?  I had decided that I was not going to go diving, either forever or for some time.  BUT, my dive master came up and started talking to me about the second dive of the day and gave me the pep talk about "getting back on the horse as soon as possible".  I wanted to not be so afraid to dive again and was resistant but she assured me it would be an "easy, shmeezy" dive.  Next thing I know I am suited up again and falling, semi-willingly over the edge of the perfectly good boat!  When I hit the water and got bounced around again, it brought back the exhaustion I was feeling when I got battered on the last dive.  I made it off the surface and descended but it took some time for me to really relax.  There was a bit of surging back and forth, but we had a pretty good dive with huge turtles, tons of fish, but the visibility still was not good.  We stayed down for 55 minutes, and at the end of the dive there was another struggle against currents and my anxiety picked up again.  As we  surfaced the seas had kicked up more and there was no line going from the mooring to the back of the boat! (there is suppose to be a line there to take the divers to the ladder to get out of the water)  I was feeling dead and just did not have it in me to fight the current and seas to the back of the boat, so was rolling over to try and relax again and slowly kick myself to the ladder.  Susan, was watching from the boat and made eye contact with my dive master and let her know I was not doing really great and she came and helped me to the boat.  Needless to say it was a very bad decision for me to do a second dive with how exhausted I was after the first one!  


There have been a ton of lessons in this for me.  I am still trying to sort out everything and weigh what parts of this I own and what parts the dive company own.  I know we never should have been put down at the first dive spot, I know there was not enough safety practice to make me comfortable.   I have little diving experience to draw on and I realize that the dives I have done in the past have all gone very well and have been in wonderful conditions.  I had nothing to prepare me for what rough seas are really like and this had made me realize that I NEVER want to fall off of the sailboat in rough seas!  NO snorkel or regulator, just sea water---NO thank-you. I will always remember to have "one hand on the boat".  I am grateful for all my family my life, my friends.

I need/want to complete my course, but am just going to wait awhile and sort things out with myself and the dive company as I am going to be writing them a letter soon.  I want some answers and some safety checks in place before I go out with them again to complete my certification, then no more diving or business with them again.

Not So Sure

This blog might be a little dry for my non-medical friends!

I have worked 2 shifts now at the local private hospital.  First thing I must say is that my feet have had it good until now!  Standing and walking on concrete for 8 hours is a form of torture to my feet and it usually peaks after 5 hours or so. I did buy extra insoles for my "Hush Puppy" shoes, but clearly I need to go and buy new shoes.  Let's see, the work........ hmmmm..   hmmmm...... it is not what I had in mind exactly.  I did not really know what to expect, but as an RN I envisioned I would have NAs and LPNs (AINs and EENs in OZ)  to help with the patients and to take care of the bedpans, urinals, transfers, bed baths, etc.  As it turns out, that is not exactly the case.

I have NO experience working on a "ward" or a "floor" in a hospital (only emergency), so I am trying to stay open to learning new things. The work on the medical ward can include the 5 palliative care beds if that is your end of the hall to cover.  For my first shift I was assigned 8 elderly medical patients.  Some of these patients had been here for many weeks either waiting for a nursing home bed or if they are a veteran or spouse of a vet, they can stay until they die or get better. No hospital criteria to meet.  I basically had to do the total patient care, including medications, getting ready for bed, answering the call lights, handing out bed pans, urinals and collecting them! (I must confess a nurses' aide did come in for 4 hours and help everyone on the floor get the patients ready for dinner and ready for bed, but there was only so much one person could do.)

They do have some interesting equipment here, I think it is from the 1950s.  Not much is disposable, for example the bedpans and urinals are made from very thick plastic and once "used", are taken into the dirty utility room and put in this machine (WITH all of the donated bodily contents). You then push the START button and magically the bedpan or urinal (aka "bottle" here) is transformed in to a sterile unit that is then handed out to the next needy soul (there is a separate machine for the wash basins). This system is nice (is that the right word?) to not have to empty the pee and poo into the toilet and then try to rinse out the disposable unit to give back to the same patient (at least this is what I think happens in the USA).

Let's see, back to the 8 patients and my first day of work......  I was briefly oriented by another RN, who by the way, is from California and had the same "yank drawl" as me! There are a few things that really slowed down the dispensing of medications. Here are a few: narcotics here have to be signed out by two nurses and both nurses must witness the patient swallowing the drug, and any injectable antibiotic and all anticoagulants must be double checked by a second nurse as well. So I was frequently being called out of trying to establish my own medication routine to assist the other nurses and vice-versa (not to mention all of the call lights going  off).

After a few hours at work I was told by the other nurse that I should go to "tea". Well, I said, "OK"! Then I realized I did not know exactly what she meant by "tea". Was I supposed to take a 10-minute coffee break or was I supposed to go to dinner?  I had to ask the charge nurse what she meant by tea. Tea here is a dinner break and a cuppa is a cup of tea or coffee.

I did meet some lovely elderly patients who asked frequently about "where I was from". At times we struggled with the accent differences.... I wasn't sure whether a patient was asking for a "pan" or something for "pain". :)  That made for a good laugh for both of us.

My next shift on sunday evening was more of the same, a different patient load, but I got into more of a routine.  Somehow I am not really looking forward to my future shifts (now about 3-4 days a week) of floor nursing, I know once I get there I will put my heart and soul into taking care of the patients, but I must say it is not my "cuppa", but it will work for now as long as my feet can keep on keeping on.

Being an RN in Australia

OK, I am going to start my first job here in the land on Oz tomorrow!  It only took me 13 months to get my basic RN license here--go figure!  I have been an RN in the USA since 1978 and a Nurse Practitioner since 1981.  I never enjoyed or wanted to work on a "floor" (ward) in the hospital and so I worked in the Emergency Department or ICU.  As an NP I worked in Family Practice most of my career at Group Health and LOVED the work.  So now is a new chapter in my work life-----back to an RN, working in the medical/palliative care ward in the local private hospital.  I just completed several hours of on-line learning in prep for the work, it was a great review on medication dosage calculations and IV drip rate calculations (I think I will need to carry a cheat sheet with me until I have done it a few thousand times).  Back to wearing a uniform too!  Only I don't think I have to wear white shoes :).  When I first started my nursing career I wore a white nurses dress, my white nurses cap, white nylons, white shoes, the whole 9 yards, as it was all required.  Thank god those days are gone.  Nurses at this hospital even wear long legged shorts and no nylons.  My uniform will be navy blue pants and a white shirt until my uniform tops arrive.  I was told to order a polar fleece jacket for the winter time, which makes me wonder if there is no heating in the hospital (not unusual here, as the chill does not last very long)  I hope they have a blanket warmer for the patients!  I will let you all know how it goes, tomorrow is orientation, then I work the weekend doing the evening shift.  I pray the nurses are good to me as I have little idea what I will be doing.  The work is "casual", which means that I will be only working on-call as there are shift openings which is just what I want.  Ideally working 2 days a week will work just fine!

OTHER JOB POSSIBILITIES
I also applied for work as a nurse in the outback with Northern Territories Medex.  I am hoping to get "relief assignments" of 2-3 week duration in the aboriginal communities.  I understand my first assignment will need to be for 8 weeks but I have not heard back from them yet (I only mailed my app off one week ago)  The job requires you be very independent with seeing patients, suturing, splinting, providing general clinics as well as emergent care (until the Flying Doctors arrive to transport the patient to a hospital).  I have plans to return to the USA to work in my previous job at Group Health doing vacation relief this summer (AND visit with my family and friends), but I might need to cut that short if I am offered an assignment in the outback.
I guess my days of slacking here in OZ are over!

2010 - What a Year!

What a Year!  Kunghur Creek living, Cruising in Mexico and Alaska in March, April, May,  working and playing in the USA in July and August, and moving to Coff’s Harbour in December

Yes, our heads are still on but they are spinning at times.   We really enjoyed living at Kunghur Creek for 15 months, but I have to admit I got very tired of bush living once the wet weather set in and would not leave. The front and side yard have major drainage problems and the mud was relentless. No matter had careful we were with walking to the cars, we would soon have mud splashed onto our clothes and look like country bumpkins before we ever made it into town.  The one thing we really enjoyed about Kunghur was the old Queenslander house, the space we had and the great bush hike up on the hill behind our house. Buddha loved it as well with all of the Roos around, they kept his nose busy and our arms strained as he pulled against the lease to chase them.  The old house was wonderful(feel like I have to say that so it is not all negative at the end of our time there), but after the bush rats decided to make their night time journeys into our kitchen, bathroom and bedroom, and the snake and goanna in the ceiling space above our bedroom kept eating the baby Rosella chicks in the middle of night above our heads, my thinking about bush living changed.  Funny how that happens!  Needless to say, we were more than ready for a change, PLUS, we both decided we wanted to live around more people and not be so isolated.  So the search for where to move to began and we ended up in Coff’s Harbour, NSW, about 3 ½ hours south of Kunghur.  We are actually living in Sapphire Beach, just 8 Km north of Coffs. We are currently renting a beautiful, brand new house right next to the beach.  Talk about altered realities, no cows mooing day and night here, just the steady rhythm of the cars/trucks on the Pacific Hwy and the ocean waves breaking on the shore.  It is a five minute drive in to town on roads without potholes!  Maybe our car tires will have a chance to make it to 60km before we have to buy new ones?

Our Sapphire Beach House

Our kitchen and dining room

Our veranda, beautiful ocean views including Solitary Island and the lighthouse.

There are so many little stories to tell about the last 9 months. The sailing stories are on our other blog “Melonie and Susan Afloat”.   Well, keep checking to see if I really keep writing!

Laurel is Married!

Laurel and Craig Crisafulli

My baby girl is now a married woman.  Wow, how did that happen?  Seems like in the blink of an eye she slipped into adulthood.  I have found the experience of seeing my daughter married a major passage for me as well.  I see in my minds eye, Laurel as my beautiful young child/baby and now this beautiful married woman. They are one and the same, shaped by her childhood and upbringing and metamorphosed into her own womanhood, making the choices in the her life that she feels suits her the best.  What a privilege to be allowed to see this happen with Laurel. It is bittersweet for me as the loss of this for Jonah is even more acute.  It makes seeing Laurel grow in her life even more of a blessing. Laurel married a great guy, Craig Crisafulli.  Laurel organized the entire wedding and she pulled it off wonderfully.  Craig's family were great support and organizers as well. Here are a few photos.

Laurel at the Bachelorette party....I wonder if she ever wore this sexy nighty??

Laurel waiting for the ceremony to begin.

Laurel and Craig posing for the post wedding pics!  I love this shot.

Laurel and Craig at the alter.  It was a beautiful August summer day.

Laurel and her cousins, Kevin, Kari, Halle and Maddy.

Radiant Laurel

The support team!  Kari and Susan with Laurel. 

OK, I had to put one in of Laurel and me.

Melonie Signing Off for Now

OK, I leave for San Diego in 48 hours for our new adventures at sea....for more details see our new blog.  I guess the Down Under site will be pretty quiet for the next couple of months.

Kunghur Creek Python

Holding on to the empty snake head

When we returned to our home in Kunghur Creek from the airport, Susan found this snake skin under our back stairs. When I picked it up, the skin was still moist and coiled up (It was a bit smelly also). I uncoiled the snake skin and it turned out to be over 7 feet long. The pattern in the skin looks like a Carpet Python. YES!! It is good to have this snake around as they keep the bush rats under control around the house, which also keeps the very poisonous brown snakes away, as there is no food for them. I took the flashlight under the house in my quest to see the real thing, but could not find it. It might be up on the roof. I hope to get a look at this beauty soon. Susan still has not touched the skin!

My Daughter is Getting Married!

Laurel is getting married on August 28, 2010. This is huge news and she is busy putting together the plans for the wedding. Craig Crisafulli is the luckiest guy on the planet, and I get another SON! Laurel is very happy, and I am so excited for her as she moves on with her life.

Laurel and I bought her wedding dress two weekends ago (NO, I cannot post the photos of her trying on her wedding dress before the wedding, but believe me I will post them after! And like a proud mom, she is BEAUTIFUL) I am learning more and more about weddings and also trying to stay out of Laurel's way and what she wants. I found out I need to buy a "mother of the bride" dress for this afternoon, summer, outdoor wedding,...so off we went to the shopping mall. We never found ANYTHING that either one of us liked, but we had fun pulling out the ugly dresses and laughing.

Here are some photos of our fun with the dresses!

This looked like a "respectable" mother dress, so we thought we would try it on. We did scare Craig when we told him with both bought the same dress to wear to the rehearsal dinner.... :)

NOPE!!! Looks like I will need to look at other respectable options! YEA!

Laurel looks much better in the old lady dress than I do!

OK, we had to keep going, this is one of many BAD photos I took on the many BAD dresses we saw. NOPE this one won't do either!

I am looking forward to sharing this wedding experience with Laurel and to expanding our family. Welcome Craig

8+ Years of S and M

It seems fitting on Valentines Day to put together a blog of photo history of part of our 8+ years together!

First Date on a hike at Mt. St. Helens. Fall, 2001

Pacific Beach Hike, Fall 2002

Kakadu, Australia. April, 2003

Portland, July 2003

Mexico, Oct 31, 2003

Lake Tahoe, February, 2004

San Francisco, Calif. Feb. 2004

Mt Rainer, July 2004

Washington DC. Fall 2004

Whitsundays, Australia, January 2005

Seattle to Portland Bike Ride July, 2005

Olympia, Wash. Summer 2005

Mt St Helens Summer 2005

Amazon Peru January 2006

February, 2006 (Boston fundraiser for Amazon Promise)

Oregon Coast Fall 2007

Byron Bay, Australia. April 2008

Olympia, July 2008

New Years, 2010 Australia

Happy Valentines Day!!

My Tan is Quickly Fading!

My home and property in Olympia

Back to the Beautiful Pacific Northwest!!

Grey skies with the occasional hint of blue, accented with lots of rain.

While Susan is back home in Australia stomping grapes, I am living in my fifth wheel trailer again in Olympia while I am here for five weeks of work. I have settled back into the grove of M-F work schedule. I am very grateful for my job with Group Health and my ability to work when I return. I LOVE using my brain again, critical thinking challenges and seeing the frail old folks again who so appreciate the care they receive. With this said, I am also looking forward to sleeping in again when I get back to Australia! I only wish I had the ability to work there as a Nurse Practitioner or for that matter even as an RN. I will keep the blog posted with my nursing registration quest in Oz!

Winemaking -- The First Step

Hi everyone, this is Susan. I feel a little responsible for keeping up the Down Under blog while my beloved Melonie is in the U.S.

Tomorrow I'm going on a solo road trip. Yay! Anyway, I couldn't bear the thought of all those beautiful volunteer muscatel grapes out the back going rotten (or being eaten by the carroway birds!), so below are some photos of my first attempt at crushing grapes ... all 11 kgs! ... the hope being that I'll have time to take the frozen juice I made and turn it into some organic red wine. Yum! At least, that's the hope!

Picked and ready for washing and de-stemming.

It took some time to get rid of the stems and separate the unripe green muscatels. Hoping the greenies will ripen off the vine and I can crush them, too, in a few days.

Sanitized the bucket, washed my feet, and climbed on in. The first step was the squishiest! Lovely! Friend Sabi turned up just in time to take the photo!

I must admit that around this time, I was thinking about my old life in Seattle, wondering about all my friends working in offices while I was in the Aussie bush playing with grapes! (BTW, that's Buddha's teddy, not mine.)

Super juicy! Got about a gallon after we poured this through some clean muslin. Not bad for free grapes! And the vine is still laden with more yet to ripen. Ho boy, tho, very time consuming and messy!

Now I need to find the right recipe for a nicely alcoholic, preferably dry red. I might wait for Melonie to return before taking next steps. You know, for some extra confidence. It's a bit hot to start fermentation right now anyway.

Say, thanks Karen and Sara for your advice and inspiration!