Did you ever think you were going to die? (Sort of trip report!!!)

[Melora]

OK..so this is a weird thread but when I saw another thread about scuba it reminded me of when we were in Hawaii last April and I tried to snorkel.

We were on an all day catamaran adventure and had been out at sea for about 3 hours when we anchored near a cove to snorkel, something I had never done before. I also started feeling seasick, something I else had never done before. I should of stopped with the feeling seasick and left it at that. One unique experience a vacation is a good motto.

Most people in our group set out right away but it took me awhile to get situated since my tummy wasn't feeling great. I figured it was better to be in the water then rocking up and down on the boat and feeling horrible. So I wiggled into my fins and my smashed the mask onto my face and climbed down the stairs into the water.

I had asked Sarah (17) if she would stay behind and swim over to the cove with me. She said sure....I guess she realized I should be supervised since I looked green and not really together enough to "go it alone"

I slide into the water (man it so much colder than it is back on the nice safe beach near our hotel). But I realize how much better I feel. The cool water makes my tummy relax.

"look in the water mom"

I stick my face into the water and suddenly realize I am 10 stories above the ground.... I'm flying. I hate flying. I hate heights.
All these things might have been better realized while I was up on the boat. Even if I was queasy, I was at least safe.

I realize I have floated away from the steps and under the catamaran. I figure I will head to the back stairs and that will be the end of my adventure.

This is when I suddenly realize I cant swim with swim fins..

I've never done it before. Its not as easy as it looks. The way I am using them, I realize I am dragging myself DOWN under the water. I begin to panic. I mean really really panic! I am nowhere near any place I can grab and Sarah has swum around to the other side of the boat and isn't in my sight.

Yeah... way to go Sarah... lets see if I ever let you baby-sit the 3 year old again. You were supposed to be watching me!

Now this is where I realize what I wuss I am. I do not yell... I do not scream... why? not because my mouth is full of water but because I am too embarrassed....

I just keep paddling with my arms, trying not to swim in circles and just get to where the other stairs are My legs are hanging beneath me, useless, because every time I start to kick them I start to pull myself under the water.

I manage to (somehow) get myself over there and by this time I am in a complete panic, my heart is beating harder than it ever has before and I am certain that the only way I have not drowned already is out of sheer will power and adrenaline.

I get to the end of the boat and there is a small ledge at the bottom of the stairs but it is completely slick and there is nothing for me to hang onto or pull myself up with. The water is also very choppy so the ledge keeps bobbing up and down and I cant hold onto it.

And I cant tread water because my feet have lead weights (aka swim fins) attached.

I managed to keep my head above the water just long enough to call to Sarah to come help me. She swims leisurely over to me, smiling and rolling over a few times showing off her skills. All the while I'm clawing at the ledge, hoping it doesn't hit me in the head and knock me unconscious.

She must have seen the look on my face because suddenly she got real serious, real quick.

"Please get these fins off my feet" was all I could say spitting water all over the place. I had swallowed a ton and was feeling like I might throw up.

She grabbed the fin and I swear it had suctioned cupped itself to my foot. She struggled for quite some time to get it off, then the other.

"Please PLEASE help me out of the water" I was literally begging as I asked her.

She got behind and under me and gave me a colossal shove and I pulled with all my might on the slick, slippery ledge and managed to get myself most of the way out of the water. I lay there like a giant fish someone had caught and tossed onto the deck, twitching slightly to show I wasnt fully dead.

"Are you Ok mom?"

"I don't know... I'm just really really scared" (Truer words were never spoken)

As I crawled up the rest of the way onto the ledge, the captain suddenly appeared above me and looked down and smiled.

"HI" he called "Everything OK?"

and you know what wus girl said? "Yes I'm fine.... just didn't quite make it all the way to the reef.. I'm just gonna sit here for awhile"

"No problems" and off he went

I looked at my arm and under the upper side, where I had hauled myself onto deck my arm was already purple and bruised.

At that point I didn't care if my whole body looked like that I was just happy I was alive.

Never in my life have I ever really truly felt like I was going to die. I will never forget that and am eternally grateful for Sarah for having been there to boost my butt outta the water.

 

[preshi]

I was pretty sure I never wanted to snorkel or scuba and that just clinched it for me! I am glad everything turned out ok!!

I have felt that way once. Talk about being young and stupid!! My "friends" and I decided it would be a good idea to take a bunch of Vivarin when I was like 13. I took about 3 of them and washed them down with some Jolt Cola. My best friend at the time did the same thing and started hallucinating. My heart was beating so fast I really thought I was going to die. When I got home and was laying in bed I was so afraid to go to sleep because I was sure I wasn't going to wake up. I was praying and praying that I would be ok.

So not only did I think I was going to die but that was the stupidest moment of my life. Peer Pressure is something else.

 

[KimRaye]

Panic/Anxiety attacks. Been there, done that. Change the scenario to WHATEVER you want, and that was me just a few years ago. Worst one was when I THOUGHT about something stressful at the time, and next day, about 18 hours later, I was in a Dr's office, still having that feeling, but FINALLY being diagnosed as having a panic attack. I tell you, for me anyway, getting a justification was the start to me controlling my fears, really. I did have some temporary meds to relax me and I keep a very small supply on hand for future incidents, but just being diagnosed and treated was a HUGE difference for me.

I still suffer from some occassional low-grade anxiety, but I can usually think thru it, and breathe thru it, without the meds.

I hope you'll see your Dr. and get some help.

 

[poohandwendy]

I hate threads like this, but somehow I can't avoid reading them...LOL.

I once thought I was going to die. A few years ago, after being dxed with a heart arrhythmia, my cardio kept changing my meds to try to get one that worked best for me. After they found a combo that seemed to work really well, I was sent home from the hospital.

The next day, at work, I started having chest pains and was sure I was having a heart attack. It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest and I couldn't breathe. (totally like I have heard HA's described) Ended up that they said I had something like a pulmonary spasm (Bronchiospasm? I can't remember the technical name for it) due to my medication. It was a very SCARY and long ambulance ride. The EMTs told me I wasn't having a heart attack, but I didn't think they were being honest with me .... I thought they were just trying to keep me calm. I kept thinking, "Then WHY are you giving me oxygen and rushing me to the hospital?"...

All ended well, they changed my medication...but truly scary moment....

 

[legs22]

I thought I was going to die when snorkeling off Key West. My snorkel had a leak. I kept choking on water. I got so exhausted that I understood why people drowned. Luckily my husband at the time saved me.

The other time I thought I was going to die was right before we hit another car head-on. I saw it coming.

 

[Pooh93]

Years ago, our family went on a cruise to the Caribbean and I went snorkeling off of St. Thomas. Thank goodness my cousin's husband was there to help me, because I couldn't get the fins, or the breathing thing going with the snorkel and I was about to hyperventilate! He saw I was in a panic and talked me through it. I have never snorkeled since and I know I will never scuba dive because I am too claustrophobic. All I know is that drowning is not the way I want to go out of this world!

 

[Melora]

This was an experience I never want to repeat! The girls keep telling me that we'll go somewhere where the water is calm and I will love snorkling.... but Im not buying it.

If I hadnt been so seasick I would have gone with Jeff, Jeffy, Emily and Alex who went on this little powerboat and went dolphin watching. They saw a school of 50+ spinner dolphins who came and swam alongside the boat for 10 minutes, jumping spinning and just hanging out.

They had fun and I had a near death experience.

 

[gallaj0]

Back when I was 5, I ended up in the hospital for a week with spinal meningitis. At the time, I just thought i was really sick but after I got out of the hospital, I found out how close to dying I actually was, it was pretty unsettling. Now that i'm older, everytime I hear about someone getting meningitis, or dying from it, it reminds me about how close it was.

 

[caitycaity]

i was in a really serious car accident when i was 19 and i really thought we were going to die then. i'm usually pretty good in emergency/stressful situations, but i just lost it that night.

 

[coliebird]

Flying home from Disney we lost an engine on the plane. Watching flames shoot out of the wing, I was convinced that this was it for me, my husband, my sister, her husband and our cousin. I kept thinking that my poor parents were going to lose both of their daughters at once. The plane managed to make an emergency landing in Georgia and we got off the plane safely. Of course, we had to get on another one to get back to New York. I think that had to be the single scariest moment in my life.

 

[minniepumpernickel]

Oh my gosh, that is some story! I once dated a guy that is afraid of the water. He made me stay with him in a pool, and not leave his side. It was awful, because he weighed atleast 250 and I thought that he would drag me under!

You should always take a lesson before going out into the sea. Or perhaps the sea sickness, just did you in. It is a little harder to swim with the fins, they take some getting used to.

I was asked to teach a water aerobics class at my pool. I may do it, I'm a little nervous because I've never taught before. it should be an experience.

 

[Melora]

Originally posted by coliebird
Flying home from Disney we lost an engine on the plane. Watching flames shoot out of the wing, I was convinced that this was it for me, my husband, my sister, her husband and our cousin. I kept thinking that my poor parents were going to lose both of their daughters at once. The plane managed to make an emergency landing in Georgia and we got off the plane safely. Of course, we had to get on another one to get back to New York. I think that had to be the single scariest moment in my life.

I am always scared of flying..I think I would have had a heart attack right then and there!

 

[honeywolf7]

When I was six, I went swimming with a day camp that I was in. We went to a lake and the lake had grass in the middle. I got my foot caught in the grass and couldn't get my head back above water. Luckily, one of my counselors saw me and got me, but it was very scary and I was sure at the time that I was going to die.

 

[Princess_Aurora]

Near-death experiences can be scarey.

I had one just last weekend. One of my friends managed to talk me into doing the sky coaster at Six Flags...you know, the thing where they put you in a harness, hook you up and drag your like 200 feet in the air or something and then drop you and you just kinda swing back and forth for a while. Well, never trust a Six Flags employee...that was my lesson. He didn't put that harness on me tight enough and when they started to pull me and my friend off the ground and up into the air, I started sliding out of my harness. Now, as my friend pointed out to me AFTER we were safely back on the ground, I was in no REAL danger of falling out...but the feeling of falling out of the harness was bad enough. Scared the crap out of me. We actually have a video of it and you can see me having a panic attack all the way up to the top.

Once we dropped, it sure was a lot of fun though

 

[kasar]

Twice, actually. The first was a car accident. I was travelling down a snowy road and a plow ran a red light and crossed right in front of me. There was no way I could stop and slid right into the side of the truck. I was in a little car and if I hadn't hit his tire (inches!) I would have gone right under the truck (one of those huge sanding/plow trucks).

The second one was delivering my second DD (and last!). During the c-section the anesthesia stopped working and I could feel everything! There was screaming (me), lots of running around and then they just clamped a mask on me and put me out. I really thought I was dying and leaving my two babies without a mother. I wasn't dying, not even close, but it sure scared the heck out of me.

 

[100%Disney]

I felt that way when I was dealing with my gall bladder attacks. I got to the point where I didn't think that my life would ever be pain free again.

 

[ladycollector]

This is sort of near death. But just last memorial day....

We were tubing on the boat on lake lanier, and i was holding the rope so as they got going it wouldnt get tangled ya know, and somehow my finger got wrapped around the HUGE cord and the boat just kept slowly gaining speed! I was screaming! It was like a force of nature and I just couldnt stop it, it kept pulling. There was nothing I could do. I thought either my finger was going to cut of by the pressure or I would get pulled off the back of the boat and chopped into the propeller. It was scary. Everyone thought I was crazy. But they didn't see it. He did stop the boat in time. He finally heard me screaming. I had a red/blue mark around my finger for about a week. Gah.