The One With The Accident

You know how people say that when you’re in an accident, your life flashes before your eyes? I got a taste of that on December 6th. John, Paulo and I were on our way back to Bacolod from Cadiz when we were involved in a car accident. Some idiot decided it was a good idea to cross the main highway wihout looking to see if there was any traffic.

John (who was driving) swerved to miss the idiot and crashed into a parked truck. As it was happening, my life didn’t really flash before me. Instead it seemed like everything went into slow motion without any sound. I didn’t feel the impact and the next thing I knew was Paulo asking if I was feeling alright. I wasn’t feeling anything but when I sat back my right arm started hurting, exactly how I imagined the phrase “I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck” to be. John and Paulo had sore muscles and sme bruises but I apparently had the most pain. Paulo took me to the hospital (which thankfully was about 300 meters from the accident site).

The first thing that happened to me when I got in the ER? I was placed on a weighing scale. Yes, indeed. My arm is hurting like a bitch, I’m about to faint and attendants want to take my weight. I’m placed on a gurney and the whole ER routine starts – what happened, who am I, do I have insurance, where’s the pain, etc. The doctor sends me for an x-ray – getting off the gurney was incredibly painful so after the x-rays are done I elected to stand rather than lie back down.

While waiting for the boss to arrive to pick us up, the doctor decided to put my arm in a sling as the x-rays showed a fracture in my right arm and a dislocated shoulder. I hit the back of Paulo’s seat during the crash. Since there weren’t any slings, he fashioned one out of a sack cloth. Within a few hours, the boss arrived to bring us back to Bacolod. The drive home was exruiating – I felt every single bump and pothole in the road and just when the pain was so numbing I wasn’t really noticing it, we were reaching Bacolod.

At the hospital in Bacolod, the doctor reset my shoulder. In fact he did it three times when the second x-rays showed my shoulder was still dislocated. John and I had to stay overnight in hospital for observation.

Thankfully our injuries weren’t serious. Having seen photos of the car, it could have been a lot worse.