Last Tuesday night, I went to dinner w/ some friends. On my way home, I hit a curb & fell of my bicycle. Nothing more than my pride was hurt that night. The next day, I laughed as I told everyone that I fell off my bike for the 1st time. Just as I was finally feeling good about my bike riding & I go & fall off the bike.
That night, I was leaving my apartment & as I went to cross the street, I realized that I wouldn't make it so I tried to brake. Realizing that I was still propelling forward, I tried to hop forward. Unfortunately, my shoes were slippery & slid forward. I landed on the bike frame & then fell over & the bike landed on top of me in the street.
As I got up, I realized that I had ALOT of pain on my left wrist, left knee, & my upper thigh. I decided to put the bike away & as I was locking up the bike, I put my hand on my leg & noticed that my hand was now covered in fresh blood. I apparently cut myself in the upper thigh area. After realizing the cut was kind of long & deep, I decided to go to the hospital. Thankfully, the friend I was meeting decided to go with me.
There is no 911 system here. There is a 112 system which apparently is run by the fire department & not linked to other emergency services. I also called a couple of 'hospitals' I found on google & all claimed not to have an emergency room. My friend decided to hail a cab & take me to the only hospital she knew of, which was less than 10 km away.
When I got to the hospital, I entered & approached a nurse who looked like she bought her uniform at the sexy nurse section of the porn shop (except she was about 70 years old so try THAT for a mental picture) who told me I needed to wait on the other side of the yellow line. The wait wasn't long & soon enough she called me over where I explained what happened.
One kinda cool thing: There is no need to go to registration or fill out paperwork. The nurse took my CPR # (which is like a social security #) & all my info & medical history (from Denmark) pulled up right away. I was immediately escorted into a room where a doctor came in to examine me in less than 5 minutes.
The dr said that because of the location of the cut, stitches were not ideal & that it should heal on its own in a week or 2. No bike riding for a couple of weeks (or I am thinking possibly never...I haven't made that decision yet) & have to keep a close eye to monitor for infection.
Since then, I have confined myself to self prescribed bed rest because I do feel that infection is a huge possibility. It hurts, I'm cranky, & I'm scared. This is prob the most time I have spent in my apartment since I have been here & I am bored, still cranky, in pain, & scared....and did I mention bored?? BUT, I do think it's healing better than if I were trying to be out & about so I will hopefully be back to my old schedule in no time.
The question now becomes...Will I ever get on the bike again???? That's not a question I am ready to answer yet.
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