2008-03-31 - 7:22 a.m.
This happened back in November, but I just took another fall and got a (far less serious) injury to the same area (I�ll talk about why in a later entry). I wanted to recount what happened last fall since it�s kind of amusing. When it happened, Nya said I should explain the scar I had afterwards by saying I got in a street fight. Which I sort of did, but unfortunately it was with the street itself.
I got off a bus by my house. The bus stop is about a hundred feet in front of the corner and I went back that way to be able to cross the street at the curb cut. I noticed there were some work cans (you know, those orange plastic 55-gallon drums with flashing lights on top) on the sidewalk in my way. Hmm. I figured I could maneuver my wheelchair to get through in the space between the barrels and the edge of the sidewalk.
Well. Apparently I judged the distance wrong because I went off the edge of the sidewalk and fell into the street splat. Fortunately it was a red light. A guy walking his dog and a young immigrant from Mexico (probably recent, as he didn�t know much English) rushed over in alarm to where I was sprawled under my overturned wheelchair.
�Are you okay?� the dog-walker asked me in shock.
�Yeah, I think so. Just embarrassed,� I said.
�Oh man! You have a massive gash over your right eye! Are you in serious pain?�
�Not really. I think I might be in the initial shock phase or something. I don�t feel much of anything.�
The dog-walker and the Mexican immigrant turned my chair back over and helped me into it. The dog guy called 911 on his cell. This is a good thing in retrospect. I can easily envision a situation where I tried to play things all macho, brushing off concerns about my injury. No, no, I�m just fine. Then I would have rolled home, passed out from blood loss, and probably died. But instead of that fiasco, an ambulance came and took me to the hospital.
In the emergency room, I can�t imagine my cut put me very high on the triage list. However coming in using a wheelchair draws a lot of attention and seems to make your problems more important. Several doctors and nurses came to check me out. The one who had the most experience with head cuts gave me stitches (I believe I got 8). Until I got them out like a week later, I had a pretty vicious-looking line over my eye. A co-worker who saw it said it looked cool and masculine.
Plus, if asked how I got it, I could say I was in a street fight!
� 2008 Geoff Gladstone
If you�ve ever enjoyed my writing, please donate to the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis and/or the Montel Williams MS Foundation.
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