CRACK.
It’s amazing how your life can change in a mere instant. You fall on the slippery tile floor. You expect to be able to stand back up until you look down at your knee and realize – oh, that’s not where your knee is supposed to be.
You move away from the busy traffic and hope that someone comes over. They do. You tell them, please call a medic in as calm a voice as possible. People appear and realize the severity of the incident. They’re trying to keep you calm, holding your hand, helping you breathe.
Someone puts a towel over your deformed knee to stop the spectators. It feels like hours, although it’s probably only minutes before the medics arrive. At this point you can’t see or hear clearly and are relying on the kindness of those around you to fill you in.
They’re calling an ambulance.
They need ID, papers and all of your information. Where is it? Not here. Far away. Someone runs to get it. You wait, patiently as you can for the uncertain future. Every slight movement brings pain and dizziness on.
The ambulance arrives. You’ve gone in and out of crying and laughing fits, trying to keep yourself as calm as you can.
They want you on a stretcher. How embarrassing, you think. Every move they make you do sends sharp pains and you can’t help but scream. You’re on. They start peeling the Velcro straps over you, and cushioning your head. They lift. They carry you down the stairs, and you feel warm rain across your face. Someone gives you the shirt off their back to cover you from getting wet.
You cry “please don’t leave me”, and three friends hop in the backseat of a Mexican ambulance. They sit and watch as the paramedics hook you up to machine after machine, poke you with an IV needle and ask you questions. You try to stay calm, but you notice you’re going into shock. You have the shivers and you just want to sleep.
As soon as you get to the hospital you realize that it’s empty and are grateful that everyone is moving quickly to help you. X-rays, doctors, more pain meds through the IV, somehow your knee is back in place. The next crack you hear is the crutches coming out of their fresh plastic.
You hop up and over to the exit.
You (well, not you but someone else) pay your bill, get in a taxi, and return back to the resort. Get into bed. Try to sleep. Avoid moving your knee. Ow. You moved it.
Wake up. Hop around, pack your things. You know you need to go home. Next flight, wheelchairs and finally into the arms of loved ones back home. What seems like forever is only the beginning of the journey to recovery now.
What happens in an instant can cause much longer-term damage. This one second of an accident will cause you at least 6 weeks of being unable to walk.
One slippery second caused me to fracture my patella (kneecap). I am forever grateful to those that helped me that evening and are continuing to help me now as I enter in the next 6 weeks of recovery. I will be posting about the importance of travel insurance and a good phone plan in the coming weeks as I start to feel better.
xoxo, Amanda