Due to snow. Really?? This is Minnesota! Shouldn't the structures here be built to deal with blizzards and tons of snow? Well, I guess the thing is getting a bit old...
Monday, December 13, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The Good, The Bad, and The Really Really Ugly
Almost 3 weeks ago, I was in a taxi headed home from the bar around 1:30 am on a Friday night. We had dropped off my friend at her house, and it seemed the driver was alright - not sleepy, drunk, otherwise distracted. Despite this, he somehow managed to drive off the side of the road into a light pole at a higher-than-posted-or-even-necessary speed.
I didn't lose consciousness or anything, but I hit my head pretty hard. On the center console perhaps. Or the door. Something solid. I got out of the cab and tried to make sure I was alright while assessing the scene, and phoned my friend to get some English contact about what to do. I was pretty panicky I think :( Another taxi stopped just as my driver called the police so they proposed I get a ride to the hospital. I didn't want to wait for an ambulance (plus I wasn't sure how the costs would work out), and I arrived in the hospital 10 minutes later. I stayed overnight, had enough x-rays to kill a small rabbit, and received normal results in a CT scan. My ankle was sprained (again... surprise surprise), my face badly bruised, and my left eye swollen shut. The coming days would reveal a deep, painful bruise on my knee, sore limbs & joints, a great limp, and rapidly darkening double black eyes. Hot.
Aside from the ankle and bit of soreness, I felt fine so I really considered myself lucky. I stayed home from work for a week so I could hold the ice pack to my swollen face and pop Tylenol ER after every meal. Some of my friends suggested I try to sue the pants off the driver, but his car insurance has paid for everything from my hospital admission through my follow-ups. My school paid for my sick time, so I haven't had any inconveniences. I felt it would be more trouble than it's worth to try to sort out translation or English legal services. (Most cases I've read people only do that if they've broken bones, suffered long-term effects, or at least spent more than a week in the hospital.)
I have a lot of photos I took and I'm thinking about putting them in a big, ugly collage and post it here. I'm not sure if you want to see it though!
I didn't lose consciousness or anything, but I hit my head pretty hard. On the center console perhaps. Or the door. Something solid. I got out of the cab and tried to make sure I was alright while assessing the scene, and phoned my friend to get some English contact about what to do. I was pretty panicky I think :( Another taxi stopped just as my driver called the police so they proposed I get a ride to the hospital. I didn't want to wait for an ambulance (plus I wasn't sure how the costs would work out), and I arrived in the hospital 10 minutes later. I stayed overnight, had enough x-rays to kill a small rabbit, and received normal results in a CT scan. My ankle was sprained (again... surprise surprise), my face badly bruised, and my left eye swollen shut. The coming days would reveal a deep, painful bruise on my knee, sore limbs & joints, a great limp, and rapidly darkening double black eyes. Hot.
Aside from the ankle and bit of soreness, I felt fine so I really considered myself lucky. I stayed home from work for a week so I could hold the ice pack to my swollen face and pop Tylenol ER after every meal. Some of my friends suggested I try to sue the pants off the driver, but his car insurance has paid for everything from my hospital admission through my follow-ups. My school paid for my sick time, so I haven't had any inconveniences. I felt it would be more trouble than it's worth to try to sort out translation or English legal services. (Most cases I've read people only do that if they've broken bones, suffered long-term effects, or at least spent more than a week in the hospital.)
I have a lot of photos I took and I'm thinking about putting them in a big, ugly collage and post it here. I'm not sure if you want to see it though!
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