Back in the Saddle Again...

On Firday afternoon, I graced the inaugural trip of the boat with a couple of scary falls. I took 2 vicious spills on the wakeboard...I mean vicious. Faceplant vicious - twice. On a wakeboard, it is very, very problematic to have your weight shift forward. Unfortunately, I had picked up quite a bit of speed in the short duration of those runs, and hit the water hard - twice.

If I were a betting woman, I would bet that I probably ruptured my right ear drum on the first fall. I was pretty shaken up, but knew that the best thing to do was to try again, right away. So, I did...and the same result. I got out of the water after that.

As the night continued, it was very obvious I had damaged my right ear. It was draining fluid, and hurt like the dickens. I was trying to think of a good story for my ENT when I called on Tuesday to see if I could get in to see him. I resorted to a bag of frozen green beans and a pain pill from my surgery to deal with the throbbing, sharp pain in my right ear. Thankfully, those remedies had an impact and my ear is much, much better (and have determined at this point, I will not need to visit the doctor for my ear...phew!!).

So what did I do today? Yep, you guessed it - got back on the wakeboard. I won't lie - I was terrified. The first three times, I did not make it up. My friends Amy and Gerrie knew I was in my own head, as I have never had any problems standing up out of the water, either on the wakeboard or skis. But I was terrified - I could feel myself falling forward, and panicked. But finally, on the 4th time, I got up. Went down at my own choosing, and decided to try again. Again, I was successful - again, I went down at my own choosing. It was a really big deal - I was really tempted just to put the skis back on, but knew that I had to get back on the wakeboard to get over my fear.

So ridiculous, I know. I mean, it is a stupid wakeboard, nothing at stake...but my own stubborn competitive streak. You can take the girl off the field, but can never take the field out of the girl...or the competitor out of oneself...