Accident – and NOT on my motorbike

This past Monday evening I was running along a small side street, and a pickup truck came around a curve too sharply.  He wasn’t going toooo fast, and I thought he had plenty of time to see me.  But, he didn’t move, so I thought I could run around him. (I run going opposite traffic so I can see what’s coming)… so I ran to the side of the road and stepped on a metal grate in the ground.  Usually they’re welded together and fairly sturdy. These ones weren’t, though, and they were loose plates so when I stepped one wobbled and I fell and did a little roll.  I think the first points of impact were my right knee and left hand.

The guy stopped and got out of the truck and asked in English if I was ok, so I thought that was nice.  I tried to smile and said yeah and finished my run… this was 4 minutes in and I ran 23 more minutes after.

All in all, my right knee is scraped and bruised.  The scab is going away fairly fast, the bruises are not.  My right wrist and hand got a little scratched but didn’t bleed.  At first I thought my left knee escaped unscathed, but I had just a little bit of skin shaved off and two big bruises. My left shoulder has two scrapes from the grate I fell on and a rather large bruise that isn’t going away too fast.  My shoulder was sore for a few days too.

My left hand/wrist got the worst.  I got a little scraped and it bled a little, but a blood vessel inside popped or something, so around the main tendon in my wrist was pretty swollen.  It started hurting after I got up and started running again.  that night I went to see Sam, an Evangel team leader and a nurse by professon, and she went with me to the pharmacy to get some wraps and a wrist brace, and some ibuprofen for the swelling.  Sam said that if there’s a broken bone it would hurt in one place.  I kept it wrapped and in the brace all week.  Frustrating, to say the least.

Well, before today, it was just all sore from my muscles in my hand. but now my muscles aren’t as sore and it’s not so swollen and it hurts in one place.  I decided… hm, maybe I have to go to the hospital.

So today Sam and I went to the hospital to have an adventure and x-ray.  We navigated the system pretty well I think, and successfully had an x-ray and saw the doctor.

Result: NO DEFINITE FRACTURE SEEN.  Praise God!

So I left the hospital with a large brown envelope with two x-ray films in it as a souvenir.  The bill was all of 700 baht (roughly $20), and we were in and out in just over an hour.  What a fun cultural experience.  😉