I had only been a member of the gym for a week, but after an intense arm workout I went back a few days later for some leg fun. I have nothing to do really all day because I finish working at noon, and I've found that physical activity is the only way to keep from getting depressed out of sheer boredom. I have watched movie after movie after coming here, and read from time to time, but mostly I am bored and getting out of my apartment is a must.
2 weeks ago
After my pretty intense leg workout I went back to school in time to play basketball. At the track I watched the students run some races. I got pretty pumped up I guess. When i finished changing i could see the other teachers playing basketball so I started running over. Instead of running around the raised platform the flagpole is on I was going to run over it. (it is like 2 feet high). The next thing I know I was wiped out on top of the platform and I looked down on my leg and there was a gaping gash around 2 and a half inches long just above my kneecap. Deep too, over half an inch to three quarters in the middle. Inside I could see my kneecap and other shit. It didn't hurt though.
Did I try to jump over all the steps? Possibly. I've done that before many times. I was runnning fast and the platform isn't high at all. Did I slip? Could be. Those tile steps can be slippery and they sure are sharp. I have know idea what happened, except that I was running, and then I was wiped out on top of the platform several feet from the steps.
There were other teachers all around me and I started yelling and pointing to get their attention. They saw it and freaked out. I was breathing a little heavy and felt shock... thought I might pass out so I tried to calm down some, which worked. someone gave me a jacket, I was starting to shiver. After a few minutes they picked me up and brought me down to the school minivan. The school nurse put a wad of gauze over my open wound and I got in the minivan laid out over the 2 captain chairs in the middle row, with another teacher squeezed in next to the chair. After a few minutes we were at the hospital and they brought out a gurney which my friends lifted me onto.
The doctor wouldn't look at me until the teachers made a deposit with the cashier. Then he looked for a second and sent me down the hall to radiology. they took 2 angles on big radiology films. A few minutes later I was wheeled back to the ER doc with the Xrays. He said they were fine and took off the gauze to look inside my wound. He said something was wrong with my tendon and sent me to "joint surgery," but first it was off to get blood samples. I complained. Why? I asked. They told me I had to do it.
After getting painfully wheeled through several corridors including sever ramps, one of them so steep that my friends wheeling me around on the gurney had to run to get enough speed to get me over them, I went up the elevator to joint surgery. The doctor put me into a side room, came in, put on gloves, and started rummaging around inside the wound. He told me something about my tendon and that it was partly cut and needed to be sutured together. I needed an operation.
Then they wheeled me back outside into the hallway. They brought me papers to sign.
"Any operation has risks..."
"I don't want the operation, put do I even have a choice?"
"No."
"Ok then." I signed.
They wheeled me out to the ER. Changed me. Almost ready to wheel me in. I had to pee. Debated holding it in. That sounded like a horrible idea. I told them I had to pee. They passed a jug up onto the gurney. 5 guys watched me try to pee. One guy was propping me up. I couldn't pee. 30 seconds passed, then a minute. Noting was coming out. I could not relax. I thought if I could only hear the sound of running water.... Everyone was getting impatient. They decided I didn't need to pee. I insisted they stand me up. They did. I pissed the jug full. Time for the operation.
In the OR I was laid flat on the table. There were nurses washing me up and an anesthesiologist whose English was ok, asking my height and weight. They asked me if I had any medical problems. No. Am I taking medication? No. Do I want local or general anesthetic. Local. ( I always say local, I'm afraid of not waking up from general.) You won't feel your legs for hours. Sounds great. Then they rolled me over and were thinking about injecting me in the spinal cord. Didn't sound like a good idea after all.
"Any back problems?"
"Yes actually. I fractured one of my vertebrae while I was in middle school."
"You should have told us!"
"You didn't ask."
"We need to do general anesthesia."
"Ok then."
One of the nurses said I was cute in Chinese. Then she said I was nice in English. I told her that I understood some Chinese. She blushed and a student doctor told her to use a more complicated vocabulary so I wouldn't understand. The doctors put on the mask and I fell into a quite pleasant dreamland.
