Dug up using the Wayback Machine. With that I was able to get to the Diary-X site as well, and even to take the tour still! Amazing. If you are interested in what was all available, go here: Diary-X on the Wayback Machine.
Here is an old entry from my Diary-X journal, dated the 6th of May 2004, where I explained about my swimming career and how I got to be deaf due to medical mistakes.
quote:
I remembered what it was like learning to swim. With the cork belt on and the hook underneath the tummy, that is how I was taught. Later on I learned to swim on my back. That was an experience in itself and I learned it by a misunderstanding on my part. Back then we had a teacher, who, when we didn't do things on our own after a few tries, would strip down to his swim gear and join us in the water. I still remember standing there with the little yellow corkboard behind my head and all I had to do was lay back and float, and then swim with just my legs.
Of course I didn't dare, and I was standing there contemplating what to do and being scared of doing it in general. Then out of the corner of my eye I suddenly see the teacher strip down. Oh shit. That could only mean one thing: he is coming in the water to help, and then you -had- to do it, because he made you, helping you along with his hands. Eek, no freaking way is that going to happen! So, what did I do? I took one big breath and laid down on my back. And while I was lying there, I saw he was moving to help someone else, not me. I had freaked and had flopped on my back for nothing. Well, not for nothing of course, in hindsight, because that little incident did get rid of my fear of swimming on my back, but I felt mighty silly then.
Later on I started competitive swimming. Mind you, I was only about 7 or 8 years old at the time. I quickly developed a little group of friends around me and together we went to the training sessions. I can't remember much of them but I do know some things still. We went to an open water at Hank at some point in time. A recreational tour was organized, a certain distance had to be swum and you would get a little medal stating that you had participated and made it.
One girl was always and had always been the slowest one of the group. We didn't mind that too much though, she was nice, and that is what mattered. But in that cold open water, it kind of did matter, because we wanted to get out of there again after a while. The weather wasn't the best, and the wind was blowing against our above the water parts, which made things even more chilly. We started joking around a little with her, and then all of a sudden I decided to tell her that there were fish in the water. She wasn't too fond of live fish, especially not when they could touch her while she was off her guard. Well right after I told her, she screamed a little and then swam like there was no tomorrow. We had to give it our very best to keep up with the girl. Sheesh, could she swim, when she -had- to *laughs*
A little while later I started my training earlier than the others, somehow I was transferred to a different group, and when I was there early I had to wait for the "starter license" people to finish their run. There was this guy in that team who was the best swimmer of the club at that time. He was in his late teens, if not his really early twenties, and boy could he make a flying start off the blocks! We had a 25m pool, and when he pushed himself off the block he wouldn't land until he was about half way across the pool. By the time he could get up and get a breather, he already had to turn again. The pool was just too small for the guy. Later on I think he got transferred to a different club, or at least started training in a bigger pool (the 50m ones). I think he has swum on the nationals as well, but I would have to check on that. In any case, he was an amazing swimmer. Come to think of it, the guy must be in his early 40s by now sheesh, how time flies.
I swam a lot of competitions, and at some point in time the club championships came along. They were age-grouped. There was this one girl who everyone hated. Really, she was a true bitch. Always putting people down, saying how good she was. It was just plain old irritating. I believe we were waiting to get in a swimming pool area to start some more races, when it was announced who the winner was. With a very smug face this girl looked up at the person announcing the winner, and it was not her. Nope, it was me! The look on her face was something I will never forget. If looks could kill I would have been dead and buried by now *laughs* Boy was she pissed off, I had never seen her that angry before. All I could think was something similar to neener neener. She deserved that setback alright!
Later on I was introduced to the starter license group, to go and train with them if I wanted, but their level was so high that I didn't do it. I just couldn't keep up with it and I did want some fun in the water still, not just pulling lanes all the time, so I went back to the recreational group and stayed there until I finally quit swimming because of my ear infections.
That is also how I became deaf by the way. I had gotten an infection from something, which started the whole issue. We went to the doctor at the hospital and then I was given tubes in my ears. The doctor told my folks that it was alright for me to keep swimming, no problem. That was a big mistake! When you have tubes in your ears there is an open connection between the outer ear and the inner ear, and swimming pool water is one of the foulest kind around. Do not swim with tubes, ever!
The infections got worse and worse, and I think I have suffered a ruptured eardrum a few times, considering in how much agonizing pain I have been at those worst times. Infection upon infection, and days of lying on the couch in agony, with extremely dirty goo oozing out of my ears, which also stank, and which literally bit in the skin below the ears. I still flinch when I feel a slight sting in my ear; it brings the fear of those pains back again.
After a while my folks got more of a mouth against the doctor, and they figured out that having me keep swimming, with the tubes in my ears, was the most harmful thing that could be done to them. They immediately pulled me off the swim club, and though I hated it that that happened, it did stop the infections.
I can still remember us leaving the doctor's office the last time, when the doctor removed not one, but two tubes out of one ear. That was the last mistake he was allowed to make on me. I never went back there again.
The infections had done their job well though. I couldn't hear properly anymore, and was diagnosed with losing half of my hearing, in both my ears. These days I am coping with two hearing aids, but with the continuous degradation of my inner ears I am getting deafer with the years that pass. Right now I have under 50% left of what a normal person can hear, and I have to get my aids adjusted soon, because my hearing dropped again.
All that loss (both the competitive swimming career and the hearing) because of a doctor who screwed up. We tried to sue him later on, when I got older, but the files had magically disappeared, and there was nothing that we could use to prove the malpractice.
These days I live with my lack of hearing, like someone would with a lack of sight, by wearing my aids. However, there is nothing more irritating to me than mishearing what someone says, and that is the most embarrassing thing really. Not the fact that I am deaf, but the fact that I get confronted with it all the time.
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