An unexpected trip down the stairs!

I was not actually going to post this, but Daniel has persuaded me that it has a worthy place on my blog as an unusual experience on my trip, and part of the overall adventure. But its not pretty!  To think that I travelled through South and Central America for 7 months, climbed mountains, rafted the Amazon, trekked to the Lost City only to come to New York and fall down a flight of stairs!  Damn!

I was a bit ashamed to tell anyone, but it is inevitable that people will notice the scar on my nose and  my more observant friends will notice other residual effects.  Fortunatly I had rather an astoundingly rapid recovery in the first week, going through an interesting range of stages (and colours!).  I am also now getting rather used to the changes and I do not look as bad as I thought I would. My nose is  bigger, and not very even, but I am remaining hopeful that it might still continue to go down. My left eye definitely looks different, but it is not so noticeable with glasses on.

Here is the guilty spot! Looks harmless, right?

I went down the first flight of stairs, aiming to turn right, and slipped on the last step  (I was wearing sandals and had not bothered to do up the heel strap properly).  Falling forward, I put out my left hand to break my fall, but in front of me was a low window sill with flowerpots on it. 

My hand hit a pot, ripping a gash on the 1^st joint of my index finger. The pot fell and I fully face planted the edge of the window sill, plus another ceramic flower pot.  The result being that I smashed my nose and split it open, got a large protruding bump on my forehead, broke off my front tooth and smashed my top lip.  I also got a big bump on the top left of my head that makes it hurt to brush my hair.

Needless to say there was a lot of blood.  Apparently it looked like a murder scene. It certainly took a bit of washing to get it out of my hair.

My poor brother had to accompany me in the ambulance to the hospital.  My nose had to be stitched and I requested a plastic surgeon.  When he finished I asked him if he was going to stitch my finger and he said “I don’t do hands!” — ??? weird!   When he wheeled me back to my little cubicle, the other doctor had left! (maybe because I would not let him stitch my nose?)…  so my finger did not get seen to.  I still maintain it needed stitching, as it is quite deep and right on the joint. Every time I bend my finger, I rip it open again.  It is over 10 days and it still looks terrible. Meanwhile my nose scar looks amazing, although my nose itself has some hardened swelling on both sides.

I had to go back to the hospital two days later to the emergency dental ward. There a dental student did a remarkable job rebuilding my broken tooth with some sort of compound that he added crumb by crumb, hardening it with an infrared torch.  I thought they would cap it, but apparently that needs to wait until the tooth settles down. The compound used to rebuild the tooth should last until I get back to Singapore, if I am lucky. Both my front teeth are a bit loose, but I am assured they will settle into a firm position with time.  There is no damage to the roots, according to the x-ray. However out of all my aches and pains, these 2 teeth are still very very painful – so painful that an accidental brush with my tongue is quite excruciating, so eating is not easy.

The bump on my forehead is still noticeable and has been through a gamet of colour changes.  The bruising from my forehead and my nose spread downwards, providing me with interesting eyeshadow and facial colour.

However it is still remarkable how quickly things changed from the initial gruesome look I sported in the first 2 days. Day 2 was the worst as the swelling reached its peak. After day 4 I became distinctly yellow!  You will also see that towards the end in some photos I tried using makeup – the covering up kind! Foundation and powder courtesy of “Mac”, but the eye colour is all a la natural.

In these situations it is necessary to have a sense of humour, although it took me a few days to find it. I look at it as me giving gravity a helping hand in making some facial adjustments.  In some areas the swelling has actually puffed out some wrinkles, so its not all bad!

So are you ready to see the damage?  Some images are far too disturbing to dwell on…….. you’ve been warned! Hah!!

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Music track:  A.O.K  by  Primary 1