9th August 2006

I got my very first serious injury from climbing. And I hope it's the last.

Was lead climbing a 6A route at Diamond caves. I have already clipped in the next runner but I was too tired to put the rope through it. I was damn damn scared because I have only done one lead fall in my whole lifetime and that was during the level 2 course. Usually I'll downclimb but I couldn't see a proper foothold so I shouted "falling" and fell. I fell 3 to 4 metres in total and my knee hit the wall first. I tried to keep my legs out but I think I was too scared so I sort of rolled myself up and yes I know that's really bad. So my knee hit some rock on the wall and the next moment when I got over my shock from falling I looked at my knee and I saw a HOLE there slightly bigger than a 500ml bottle cap. And then I see something white. Freaking hell it was my BONE. I was damn freaked out and I screamed and they let me down and the blood just gushed out from the puncture.

And it doesn't help that when I was finally on the ground when my friends looked at my wound they gave me that "holy shit" face or said "oh my god". They tied my leg to a stick to keep it straight and then bandaged it up real tight to stop the blood from flowing out. And then I almost cried when someone said that there's no hospital in Railey. It was destroyed in a tsunami last year. So they had to carry me onto a boat and then we took a car to the nearest hospital in Ao Nang which was like 1 hour journey away.

Anw I was damn damn scared coz when they were carrying me down the slope my right leg went numb. Then Ruth asked me if I could still wriggle my toes. I did and she said that as long as I could still move my toes I'll be fine. And when I got on the boat I tried wriggling my toes again and I couldn't move it at all. And when Jess tried to tickle my feet I couldn't feel anything. It was as if my feet had "detached" from my leg and you won't know how scared I was. I was so scared the blood couldn't flow to my feet then my tissue would die and they had to amputate my leg coz the journey to the hospital was so freaking long. Jess tried to massage my toes and feet but it didn't help. I was so scared that I kept holding onto Jess and Weizhong but I tried to be strong and held my tears back.

So 1 hour later we reached the so called "hospital" in Ao Nang. I remembered the first thing that Jess said was "harh? this one?" and then she and Eugene gave that constipated face which made me worry even more. It was actually a clinic I don't even think it has got wards. No air-con somemore. And then the doctor did an X-ray for me and thank god my bones are fine. When I think about it it's quite scary you know. It missed my knee cap by like by a bit only. If it had hit my knee cap instead my whole leg would have been gone. And then the doctor gave me 3 jabs for LA and 1 jab for tetanus (is that how it's spelt?). The injection was super super painful la. Then he cut away some of my skin and stitched the wound up. Damn. Now got scar.

When I was on my way back to Railey Weizhong and Shawn had to take turns to piggyback me coz I couldn't walk at all as I sprained my left ankle badly too. Think that one will take like 1 week to recover. I told my mum that I had a "small cut" think she'll scream at me when she knows I had to stitch the wound when I get back to Singapore.

Anw the internet here is so expensive. 3 baht/min. That's about 7 to 8 SGD per hour. My medical bills were like 200+ SGD. Luckily I bought the MOST EXPENSIVE insurance!

I am just scared of wound complications. Like infection. Or maybe the doctor didn't do a good Xray scan. Dunno la but come back Singapore still must go remove stitch, go for more tetanus shots, go for another xray and alot of follow up shit. Then gotta claim insurance and do all the proper procedures. Luckily Weizhong got my insurance policy number coz I didn't bring mine then he settled all the insurance stuff for me. I really don't know how to thank all of them... Eugene, Jess, Shawn and Weizhong for my "speedy evacuation".

When I go back to singapore on Sunday my parents sure nag at me one. Sure tell me not to climb anymore. And I sure will tell them I'll want to climb. Then we'll quarrel. Oh no. Sigh but I think I'll have phobia of lead climbing already. I'm damn scared I'll fall again. And the natural rocks are so much sharper than the artificial walls. Just imagine how sharp the rock gotta be to actually puncture my skin and make a deep cut into my flesh. I hope I'll recover fast fast if not when school reopens dunno how to make my way to school also. I'm like half a handicap now. Left ankle damn bad sprain right leg cannot bend yet. And whenever I think about what happened yesterday it still scares me. Alot. I can never forget the moment I saw my bone. Was damn scary. And how I couldn't feel my feet anymore.

Now the rest are climbing at Tonsai which is a 30 min trek away. I am staying in Railey alone cos if they brought me along the journey would prob become 2 hours. Now I'll just stay here and rest and hope I get better before I get back to Singapore so I can tell my parents that it's "nothing serious" so they wun worry too much. Oh well... I better go back and take my medicine. All the antibiotics and muscle relaxant and pain relievers.

And then I'll sleep =)

You know my previous post about life? It seems more meaningful to me, like more in-depth too now for me after this accident. It's like you really don't know what will happen to you. What if I had hit my forehead against the wall instead?