Plowed into by Bike Messenger (posted 4 days after event)


So I got in an accident today at 4pm and went to the emergency room, etc. What happened was, on my way to get a latte, a victory lap for fixing a couple of server outages over the past few days, a bike messenger drove right into me. I flew back and hit my head pretty hard. Ended up being a 2-inch laceration that required 12 staples! The EMTs take my vitals and I decide (bad judgment there) to go via ambulance. Good news is that I got to cut in line at the local hospital. Bad news was that I didn’t stop by work and get my purse/phone/wallet/housekeys. The ambulance driver was like, we can’t stop by en route to hospital. So in the car we chatted a bit and realized I am on the same basketball league as one of the EMTs! As you can see, I’m totally lucid at this point all that. I suffered from a little nausea coming out of the accident, and was worried that I should either lower head below knees, but didn’t want to bring more blood to the site (there was a whole lot of blood going on.) Starbucks staff gave me a big wad of ice and a towel to hold on the wound while waiting. Anyways, enter hospital, had to wait for a bit anyways, and started realizing the gravity of the situation (because of boredom?) and got quite upset. When the doctors did finally see me I now had to talk through sobs about what had happened.

(warning: gorey bits) They ended up irrigating the wound, giving me shots of a numbing agent (word??) and then staple-gunned it. Very odd feeling. I was still trying to calm down a lot, doing deep “ujai” breathing, this yoga technique. I’m also wearing a hoodie pull over sweatshirt (with blood bits all over). So, there are more staples than she (the doc) thought, but other than that a “scrape”. I guess with head injuries it’s either incredibly serious or not. I don’t know if you all know, I have a friend that suffered a very serious head injury where they induced a coma for 5 days, so that was running through my head during this entire ordeal (she is great by the way).
(end of gorey bits)

One more side note about hospitals etc: the nurse pract. That was cleaning it out was kind of oblivious to the fact that my hands and face were covered in blood, and I asked for some toilettes to clean up, but it was a little weird. I guess when they just deal with so many people it’s just an assembly line of wounds. I had a lot of time to think about having a career where you work with so many diff. people and in that environment. Moving on… got a tetanus shot. Walked back to work to retrieve purse etc. I had a small window to wash out my hair (more blood) so I really wanted to get home (and also just go to sleep).

(actually Thurs, Oct 28th)

Still recovering from shock/trauma and just scared shitless to be frank. Crying, walking through union square, crying, going to work, getting into the lobby where the guard lets me in and up the elevator… to a locked door. I bang on it for a while and realize, it being 7pm and 3 hours of my life lost to this injury, that everyone has gone home. I sit around the lobby for, oh, an hour, waiting for the guard. I end up testing the intercom equipment yelling his name, interrogating everyone leaving if they’ve seen him, etc. I do have access to a phone on his desk, with only local access (all my relatives are in outlying areas!) so I have memorized just ONE friend’s cell phone, and luckily she was in her car! Nearby! And willing to help me out. I also ended up calling some building managers and office managers and managed to get in and get my stuff. Went to the police station to file a report (the hospital folks recommended this) but I don’t’ need to, I guess, unless it’s a hit and run or they “are an asshole”. Ha! We’ll see if the insurance likes that.

I feel much better and am actually still thinking of into work tomorrow, but we’ll see how it goes. I’m on the watch for a serious headache (so far 2 ibuprofen have made me feel tons better) and other signs of infection; fever, etc.

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