Not sinking...

[azurelunatic]

When we first moved into this apartment complex, Little Fayoumis and I went swimming a lot. First he didn't know how to swim. He gradually learned.

While he was learning, though, he wasn't so good at it. He went under, once, and swallowed water. I was right next to him, and I saw him, and I yanked him right out before he had time to be more than startled and a little scared, and I made sure he was OK, and he went right back to learning how to swim, because I hadn't panicked...

I don't think he'll ever know, until he reads this, how close he came to drowning.

Comments

[musyc]

No, not really promptly.

See, what happened was that my girl scout troop went to a local swimming pool. I think I was the only one that didn't know how to swim. I tried to stay in the shallow end, where my feet could touch the bottom. And then the rest of the troop decided to start doing cannonballs. Wave effect shoved me out into the pool.

I couldn't touch bottom. I couldn't reach the woman with her baby who was only five feet from me, her back to me. And I couldn't scream because every time I did, I swallowed water.

Troop leaders did a head count, realized they were one girl scout short, emptied the pool, and saw me on the bottom. I'd been under for three, four minutes. They think I may have hit my head, but I was definitely drowned.

They fished me out, CPR'd me, and got me to the hospital. I remember coming back to myself in the ambulance. Then the ICU in the hospital, where they pumped approximately two gallons of water out of my stomach.

Any wonder I have an extreme fear of getting water up my nose?

[azurelunatic]

Oh my.

Completely understandable.