It is now almost
48 hours since I had the first serious
road traffic accident of my life. I was coming home from a housecall, when on some harmless bend some bloke tried to overtake some other bloke and failed to see me, crashing full frontal into my car with myself in it.
For some reason or the other, that day I didn't drive my usual commuter car, a 1953 Morris Minor, but I was in my "long distance" vehicle, an enormous monstrosity called a Mitsubishi V3000 Executive which was Mitsubishi's answer in the mid nineties to Mercedes Benz's S-Class. With other words, a humungous limousine that I picked up for almost nothing on the local equivalent of ebay. That baby saved my life. Even though the impact was at a cumulative 180kph, the interior of the car almost didn't get altered by the impact, saving my limbs. Unfortunately I sustained a deep laceration on my knee and patellar tendon was ripped out of it's socket, but I'll have that re-attached next week. The miracle is that I escaped any neurological damage like tetraplegia or an intracranial bleed. Apart from the knee injuries I sustained a harmless fracture R ulnar styloid, 4 cracked ribs and the most beautiful blue man boobs (through the impact of my chest on the steering wheel and the resulting haematoma), causing my new nickname Bluetit. I'm sure I could use an A-cup bra.
After being admitted, examined, xrayed and stitched up by a colleague of mine (that's the problem with small town hospitals: you end up being looked after by your own friends or patients) I was kept over night for some observations but discharged the next day with an appointment to have my patella reattached in a few days. Now I am sitting in my easy chair with my legs up (I still can't move my left leg on my own, resulting being a bit helpless when it comes to dressing and getting up), but my s.o. got compassionate leave from her employer and by some mysterious trick of kismet the wonderful Paraclete is currently staying in our sleep-out, using it as a base-camp to explore the beauty of North Otago.
That means I have two women fussing over me. Yay!
I feel incredibly lucky that I am still able to type this node. As a doctor I would have expected a patient involved in a crash at these speeds to have significant neurological injuries, but both me and the chap in the other car made it out more or less allright. Yay for the development of safer cars.
The only thing that bugs me now is that I had to cancel my flights to Euope and cant' see my brother and parents and can't atttend the East End Nodermeet.
On the other hand, then I can go in January or February and don't have to fly with Korean Air.
Phew.