Casualty of Water

A 'lightie' - that's what they call a young child in South Africa. When I was a lightie I did a hell of a lot of swimming. In 1984 my school gave me a big silver shield, which looks something like the 2nd prize trophy at Wimbledon. I paid a price for all this dedication. For a number of months I had constant ear infections. At night there would an excruciating pain in my ears, and a waxy buildup by the next morning.

I became a connoisseur of ENT doctors (Ears, Nose and Throat doctors). I had an ear operation, and had to chew gum and blow balloons to get my ears passages to work properly. And I suffered constant nosebleeds. The doctors said if I wanted to swim I would have to use a noseclip every time, and I had to put PRESTIK (yes, you read that right the first time) in my ears. They said I would have to do this for the rest of my life. This was after they found a hole in my ear drum. The chlorine had basically eaten a hole into my ear drum as a result of constantly being in the water.

I also developed a bikini line - on my face. The noseclip I wore was attached to a narrow peach-colored leash, and obviously being in the sun, the skin underneath remained white, and the freckles around it just accumulated.

Goggles are less of a hassle, and I think one that all swimmers had to deal with. One problem I had for a few seasons was seeing double for up to 5 hours after swimming. The goggles were so tight that they basically pushed at eyeballs, and so when I removed my goggles, I found I was seeing double. Everything was double. This was interesting at assembly, where I could clearly see two headmasters reading the announcements. The double vision was worse over long distances. And one headmaster, at Grey College, is really enough.

I revisited all this ear trauma again in 2003, on the eve of the Korea Ironman. I was not in perfect health, but I was ready to line up the next day and see how far I could go. But as the sun was closing the last day before race day I played on the beach with two girls, one from Australia and one from South Africa. I was trying to throw sand down their fronts, and they were trying to stop me. One of them stopped me well and good with a knee that impacted me square over my right ear. The impact itself was not bad, but the water trapped between her knee and my ear had nowhere to go but through my head, through the delicate whorls of my ear. If you can imagine the sound of a very wide piece of duck tape suddenly being ripped off a sheet of metal - that's the rubbery skrrrr sound I heard in my ear. Soon blood was dripping into my mouth and out of my ear. I didn't have a very good sleep that night.
I did start the Ironman the next day. The swim was OK, but I only got as far as 100km on the bike before I stopped, totally exhausted. The ear was a factor, but the exhaustion was worse. My heart rate showed that I was ill, and that exertions that would normally put my heart rate at 140 were now getting it as high as 155. But that was only the beginning.

When I saw the ENT doctor in the Seogwipo City Hospital he told me a few things:

1) I already had an infection in my ear.
2) I had perforated my ear drum.
3) There was a chance I could lose the hearing in my ear altogether if I didn't beat the infection.
4) I might need an operation if the infection didn;t clear up and if the whole did not heal itself.
5) He also said I had unually narrow pipes in my ears. This I believe is a kind've adapatation to all the time exposed to chlorinated water. It is like a flower closing when it rains. My father said the same thing happened to him.

Fortunately in Ilsan I was given directions to an excellent doctor and after some skillful treatment the infection completely cleared up.

What is interesting is that the doctors in the 80's said, "You can never, ever, swim without prestik in your ears, and you must always wear a noseclip." Now I swim less than I did when I was a lightie, but it is fair to say that nowadays I NEVER swim with Prestik or a noseclip these days, and I am none the worse for wear.