Well…its slow going as I type this. Who knew the pinky finger was so vital in the process.
If you hadn't heard I was in a motorbike accident last week 🙁 I'm okay now, but it has been an interesting week!
It all started on Thursday as I was driving home from work. A car backed out suddenly, in front of me, on the road (not so strange in Thailand), and I, as a usual and not uncommon action while commuting, slammed on my breaks. Only this time, the breaks locked up and I skid into a car parked along the road and after I hit on my left, was thrown into the road on the right. Luckily I had no passengers and it was a fairly small road with not much traffic, so less chances of being hit. I laid in the road for a while, shocked, and then finally got up. Weakly, I tried to pick up the bike, which of course I dropped as I grabbed my ribs and practiced breathing.
As a note: in Thailand, people are generally cautious to approach anyone who has been in an accident because of bad karma and it can become a liability for them. Luckily for me, a few caring people came out to the road to help me.
One man lifted my bike and moved it, while his wife and daughter helped me get out of the road. Several women came out of the hair salon and started inspecting the scene. Well, to make a long story short, hardly anyone spoke any English, so in my shock and broken Thai I tried to explain the situation. The family stayed with me for a long time, I made some calls, and I spoke with the woman who's car I had hit and who was in the middle of getting her hair done.
After two hours of standing there, with what I was pretty sure was a broken finger (and trying to convince the woman I needed to go to the hospital), the insurance guy got there and we talked business. My boyfriend and our friend Ray also came and helped out. I'm so glad they came, because for some reason I thought I could handle it alone, told them not to come, and explained to the Thai family that I would drive myself to the hospital on my broken bike, with my broken finger. Bad idea.
Anyway, I ended up just paying the woman $200 to fix her car and headed to the hospital.
Smiling despite all the drama, this picture was too good to not take…
And then the results from the hospital…
YUP. pretty sure its broken 😉
BUST! Well, the doctor thought I would need surgery (which optimism didn't allow me to believe), but the hand surgeon 2 days later agreed with him. Since I've been planning on having foot surgery for several months (old/ chronic injury) I decided I might as well make it a joint party! (get it? booooo I know).
Getting prepped! Might as well make the best of it! Its not every day you have surgery in Thailand 😉
Much to my surprise, I was awake, with no general anesthesia during the surgeries. They did a general anesthesia on both my foot and hand so I didn't feel a thing. In fact I chatted with the doctors and nurses throughout the whole surgery. I bet they've never experienced such a chatty patient.
It was actually rather funny at first, because the nurses didn't know I could speak Thai and one of the male assistants was talking to the other ladies and wondering if i had a boyfriend (a pretty typical question young Thai guys have for foreign girls I have found). I thought maybe they were asking me and so I answered. Every just looked at me a little surprised and embarrassed and started exclaiming and asking if I spoke Thai haha! Oops…The rest of the time it was nice though because once they realized I could communicate with them they started chatting with me and keeping me entertained. (pretty nice to have distractions when you can hear the drill that is putting pins into your finger).
During my foot surgery I chatted with the anesthesiologist most of the time in English which was nice. They took this picture for me at my request during the surgery so I could see what they were doing. This picture is mild…you should see the ones they took when my foot was open! It was crazy because the doctor took off a bone spur and I could hear him using a hammer and chisel. Luckily for some reason I thought it was pretty cool instead of being freaked out.
After my surgery I was greeted my a few lovely friends and a reminder to not "be scared of motorbikes." 😉 Afterwards i was feeling pretty good because everything was numb so we went out to Mexican food!
Praise God everything went so well and even though I had some pain over the next few days, my pain meds worked really well and I haven't even had to take them in 24 hours. After a few days, my left should loosened up (I could hardly lift it at first) and my bruised ribs are still getting better day by day- though I absolutely loathe sneezing now. (On second thought, I should have posted pictures of some epic bruises too! but…I'll spare you ;))
Such a sad little "cast," hiding three pins. The doctor says 2.5 months. I believe it will be healed much sooner 🙂
and there's the foot! I will get the stitches out in about 2 weeks and will start walking! That's so crazy to me! Wahoo! Should be fully healed in 6-8 weeks. Though you know what I think of that 😉
God is good. Thanks for all of your prayers 🙂
Much Love,
Aimee D
