It might just be a small blip, but a blip all the same and enough to change the course of your life.
The man of the house (henceforth referred to as the Moth ) calls it a sliding door - you have a choice and you can go one way for a result or another way giving a different result.
Not a lot of effort is required for such a change to occur.
Uh huh
In fact, when faced with a potentially life changing decision, you may not even be aware of the gravity of it and so you dive headlong into something unaware of any repercussions!
One such event is the meaning of my preamble.
Some 12 months ago -10th May to be precise, we were happily enjoying the final days of our 2 week trip to Thailand, oblivious to the twist the Universe was about to unleash when disaster struck! Due to a grave error in judgement on my part, I found myself cannoning headfirst towards freshly dug up concrete footpath, arms flailing while the Moth was busy looking anywhere but AT ME.
The result was a badly broken arm and although i didn't know it at the time, a fractured shoulder, torn rotator cuff and torn bicep. I am left handed and yep, it was my left hand of course!
OUCH
I was bundled into the back of a strangers car and whisked away to a hospital in Phuket. Barely conscious and in ridiculous pain, I might add!
Now there are several important lessons to be noted at this point.
1. Always carry your ID, travel documents and insurance details with you when in another country
2. Always (cannot stress this enough) have good travel insurance
3. Have a credit card for emergencies with you at all times
So here we are in another country - namely Phuket and I am in immediate need of surgery. Due to the fact that we had not adhered to lesson 1, the Moth had to grab a taxi back to Patong where we were staying to retrieve said documents, but not before he threw his Amex at the nurse and said "please help my wife"
Fortunately for me the closest hospital I had been taken to was a brand new private hospital - the kind you see on tv where they fix your boobs, nose, teeth etc (hmmmm...)
It was state of the art! Brand new with all the latest gear. Mind you, I was in no state to argue or otherwise complain. By the time the Moth returned (he was frantic btw) I was in a bed, my badly grazed arm was cleaned up and dressed, they had taken blood and were prepping me for surgery.
To say I was scared was understatement!
Im in a third world country, in pain, being put under a general anaesthetic and no idea what was about to happen! the language barrier made things worse and as they apparently have no need for hospital patient files, the Moth followed us down the hallway towards the operating theatre repeating frantically 'don't give her penicillin!!!! Do you understand me???'
I awoke a few hours later with K-Wires protruding from my heavily bandaged arm, but generally feeling much better and far less pain. As a sidebar, the drugs for pain they give you in Thailand are AMAZING!!
My room for the night came complete with a bed for the Moth and 2 very attentive nurses. They even attempted to serve western food.
I was released the following day with instructions to return to the hospital to have my dressing checked and changed before our flight home.
Now, if that wasn't enough, several weeks earlier, we had booked in to Spider Ink to have some long awaited tattoos done.
We kept our appointments, but I had to change the placement of my tattoo from my now bandaged arm, to my leg and in a suspended animation state of Oxycodon felt literally nothing!
Jeb the owner commented on how 'hard core' I was!
Two days later, after being upgraded to Business class for the flight home (never want to travel in anything less from here on in thank you very much!) we arrived back in Sydney. I was taken straight to our local hospital.
The resident orthopaedic surgeons took one look and referred me to a specialist, saying they couldn't attempt to fix it. The shifty glances that were exchanged made me realise i was lucky to get home relatively unscathed and they were sure I would end up with an infection.
I was referred to a consultant specialist who booked me in for surgery.
So on the 20th May, yep 10 days later, the specialist removed the K-Wires and inserted a Titanium plate to join all the broken bones together. The pain afterwards was horrendous and as someone who rarely takes a panadol, I was begging for pain relief.
And so began the long, tedious and very painful recovery. My arm was immobilised for 2 weeks, then the stitches were removed and I had to learn to reuse my hand and fingers. The hand and fingers refused to cooperate and it took much cajoling to see any improvement.
I cannot thank the Moth enough for the way he cared for me during that time, as I was unable to do even the simplest tasks and he did it all with love and a smile. I may have been a bit short tempered, but he understood as I am not one to languish about!
After about 2 months of physio and a hell of a lot of pain, they discovered the damaged to my shoulder, so back to hospital I went for more surgery, followed by more physio.
As a result, I was compelled to resign from work, as I couldn't give a return to work date and as the accident didn't happen at work, they would only accept me back in pre injury state.
I am still and will never be back to pre injury status, as the titanium plate and the amount of damage means I can't get full rotation of my wrist and am unable to drive for more than a few minutes. There are many tasks that I still struggle with - putting on a bra, brushing my hair to name 2!
Life (and more importantly, the Universe) has a way of sending you where you need to go. I hesitate to use the words 'early retirement' however, due to other unforeseen events regarding the Moth and an emergency hospital interlude with a badly damaged and collapsed artery, our little world has been turned upside down.
As I have mentioned in a past post, we had been planning an extended overland trip across Asia, India, Nepal then on to Europe and everywhere in between. Well, the Universe has had other ideas.
That story, my friends, will be my next post.
But in the meantime, remember to be on the lookout for those 'sliding doors' or 'blips' You just never know if your life is about to change!
In this time of Covid19 awareness,
Consider my virtual arms around you all
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