stayin' alive

I normally write in this blog thinking that nobody is likely to read the entry but there's an off chance that someone will, so what I'm writing is somewhat affected (as opposed to my diary, which I'm assuming nobody will read... I hope). This post may change all of that, as I'm actually pointing it out to people. Perhaps you'll find me posting here a little more often from now on.

Anyway, I'll get to it. Actually, before I do, perhaps I'll direct you to this entry from a little while back. Think I didn't see the car coming?

Back to this entry, perhaps I should start talking about Wednesday night before I forget and start rambling on about other things. Wednesday 13th October, 2004: I'd just been to one of our co-op dinners, which was very unusual in that I did not finish my main meal. I tried my best, but I just couldn't get it all down in time. Everyone else had finished ages ago and they were all busy talking, but I was still there chewing slowly on my food. Though it may yet be a good idea, I hadn't suddenly decided to take up 'eating meditation' to encourage mindfulness. I'd had all four of my wisdom teeth taken out the previous Friday, and Wednesday night was actually the first time since the operation that I'd attempted to chew anything. The recovery was taking a lot longer than I'd hoped, I'd already missed out on my basketball games this week and had not gone to the gym at all. I'd skipped two days of work, I was taking plenty of pain-killers, and I'd lost a couple of kilos. Not the best week. Not being able to take full advantage of a free expensive dinner didn't help things. By the time I was heading home, my jaw was aching pretty badly. I wasn't in a bad mood though. After the main meals, Woo and Tania were nice enough to say that they were either full or lactose intolerant, so I got to eat their desserts.

I didn't have to wait long for a bus, which was nice. My jaw felt as though I'd been trying to chew a car tyre all night and I was looking forward to getting home.

There were still quite a few people about when I got to my stop at around 11pm. My bus stop is outside a shopping centre so it's fairly well-lit. Most of the people that were out and about were all dressed up and it was still pretty warm, so there was quite an active atmosphere. It didn't feel too late. Sometimes it takes ages for the lights to change at the crossing I was at, but I didn't have to wait too long for the little green man to appear this time around. I was almost all the way across to the median strip in the middle of the road when I suddenly got the feeling that things were going to be horribly different from now on. Getting smacked by a car does that to you. One second I was walking along with tunes humming in my head, thump and smash, next second I was out of control in the air. "Damn, I've been smashed by a car" is basically what ran through my head, though I think I expressed myself in even simpler terms.

It felt wrong in the air, like I'd been flipped. It was several moments before I hit the ground. I can't remember exactly how I landed, but I remember facing the car expecting to feel something sickly off with my body. But nothing felt wrong. I had my hand on my head, I don't remember any sensations of pain. I suppose I was too shocked to feel much of anything. I was lying on the ground and I could start to hear the panicked people. "He's hit his head!" I heard someone say. A lady had rushed up to me a was putting drops of liquid in my mouth. I spat it out and said, "What are you giving me?!"
"Oh no! No, no, no!" she almost cried, "It brings dead people back to life!"
She looked distraught and was pleading for me to take the stuff, "Havn't you heard of it before? Please, please just let me rub some on your skin". I told her she could, but she wasn't doing much to make me feel reassured. Another lady had told me that she knew first aid, "Just so that you know". I remember a lot of panicky questions, and I remember saying "I'm fine" a lot. Someone angrily said, "The woman went straight through a red light!". The lady with the 'magic potion' had come back and was asking for my contact details. I gave them to her. She'd told me that I was blessed, and that someone was looking down on me. I did sincerely thank her for being so concerned. I remember asking for emergency to be called. "It's been called, it's been called". There was a man next to me with a phone, and I remember him saying, "What's the number for emergency again?". I said, "000", but I'm not sure if anyone paid attention. I could hear a lot of fidgety talking from a lot of people, and I could hear the man calling emergency.
"Um, ambulance? Yeah, ambulance."
"His shoe flew over there, I bought it back."
"There's been an accident, um, car, one person hit."
There were so many people talking that I had to ask if anyone minded if I called my parents. My phone was still in my pocket. "I'm just calling my parents now."
"I can do it for you, I'll do it for you" a man said. "What's the number? I'll do it for you". I told him that I'd rather have them hear my voice, and he let me call. I'm very glad that I made the call, I knew how concerned my mum would be hearing a stranger tell her that her son had been hit by a car. I talked to her and I think I must've sounded all right. At first she thought there weren't buses running at that I needed to be picked up from somewhere. She was shocked when I told her I'd been hit, but seemed to take the news well enough and said that she was on her way.

A man who seemed to know what he was doing then started checking my back and chest. He told me to turn my head left, then turn my head right. I think he asked me if I could move my hands. "What are you doing?", someone almost yelled.
"It's alright, I'm a doctor" he replied, which was acknowledged with some assenting comment.
The man then asked me if I could get up, which I did. "Get down! Stay on the ground!" people were saying. They looked very worried. Someone told me sit on the median strip. I heard someone else say, "The doctor told him the wrong thing!". I then heard, "He's not a doctor!".

It was only after I'd sat down that I really saw the car that had hit me. There were people talking animatedly in front of it, but I don't know who they were. The windscreen had been smashed. It looked like someone had thrown a bowling ball at it.

I then realized that a lady was sitting next to me and I think that she was telling me what had happened, and that she knew first aid. It might've been the same lady that told me she knew first aid before. She said something like she'd stick around for as long as I needed her to, and she seemed pretty calm. I was very thankful.

I think that seeing all the panicked people had initially made me act more calmly. I felt as though I had to keep my cool because nobody else seemed to. After I'd sat down for a few moments next to someone who seemed calm, I realised that my heart was racing and that I was really shocked about what had happened. I thanked the lady for sticking around and helping out, and I think the delusional accident victim began to come out after I'd shakily sighed and said, "I can't believe I'm not hurt..." The lady smiled. I then said, "Sorry, who are you? Are you the driver?"
"No!" she said, "I know first aid, and..."
"That's right. Sorry, sorry, I'm just a bit confused right now."

It wasn't long before the ambulance came. They treated me like a person, not an 'accident victim', and were very kind and friendly. They asked me if I could move my arms and legs, and I told them that if my face looked swollen, it was probably because I'd had my wisdom teeth out. They found a bump on the back of my head. I heard them asking for details from people, and according to what witnesses said the car was travelling at around 45km/h and I flew about 5m in the air. I was able to walk to the ambulance, and I realised how sore my right leg was. I was put on a stretcher in the ambulance and I asked the paramedics to keep an eye out for my mum, "a little Asian lady", before leaving. One of the paramedics was a plump, friendly looking lady with greying hair. "Here's mum", she told me within a minute or so. My mum looked justifiably worried but she seemed to be fairly composed. The paramedics let her in and she was saying, "Poor boy, he's just had his wisdom teeth out and has been swollen all week!". She then did the 'Bowen emergency procedure' on my back. They put a neck brace on me as a precaution and told me that it might be a little uncomfortable, but it felt fine. They then organised for my mum to follow the ambulance to the hospital.

I only started to really pay attention to how my body felt when I was lying on the stretcher in the ambulance. I was being given oxygen and was starting to relax somewhat when the paramedics began asking me questions. They found that I could move my hands and feet, and I could push up and down with them fairly firmly. The paramedics said that my back felt fine when they checked it. They said that I had quite a big lump on the back of my head, but there was no bleeding. My right leg was the only part of me that really felt sore at all. They laughed when I said that my wisdom teeth felt a lot better. At some stage, the male paramedic said that I should go buy myself some lottery tickets, something that I've been getting a bit of lately. It was real nice hearing it the first time around. I tried not to think too much on the way to the hospital, and just concentrated on my breathing.

I spent most of the night at the hospital getting checked out. They x-rayed my head, my whole spine and my right leg but couldn't find any broken bones. My blood tests were all fine, or put another way, I was perfectly sober. Despite not having had much sleep, most of the staff at the hospital were very friendly as well.

It's Sunday now, and I can't believe how well I'm feeling. My neck had been a bit stiff but it's definitely on the mend, and the bump on my head's just about gone and forgotten. My right leg in particular was pretty swollen at first and there was a nasty looking lump just below my knee-cap, but all the swelling's just about gone now and you can hardly see any bruising. I have a couple of grazes on my knees and I lost a bit of skin just above my left big-toe, on the foot where my shoe came off, but everything's healing up real well. I can walk without any pain. Normally if I felt like this I'd be right to play basketball, but I think I'd better give it another week. I can't believe how lucky I am, it looks as though I hit the car in all the right spots to avoid any serious injury.

I'm not sure what's happening with legal issues and what-not. I have to give a statement to police on Monday. Apparently 5 or 6 people gave statements on the night and the driver's been breath tested and questioned. She wasn't drunk. I'll find out a little more tomorrow.