Sci Fi Story

Ok, so I'm back...I had written this out in its entirety on my create an entry, but when I went to submit I had to log in again, and all of the story was lost. I am saving entries on word now, and then copying them into my blog.Ahhh where was I.... oh yes quick refresher...

I was in New Zealand for work, went for a drive, stopped at a beach and went for a walk. I hurt my knee and staggered crawled back to the trail up the cliffs to get off of the beach. Ok, how's that? It should get us all back to speed.


I sat down on a boulder, trying to put my boots on, but each time I bent forward to put my boot on my now slowly swelling leg extreme pain would shoot through my knee. I gave up after several tries and opened the boot up as far as possible, stood up and forced the foot into the boot. I would have to leave it untied.

My next obstacle would be the five foot drop at the bottom of the trail. I hopped along dragging my bad leg behind. Once to the ledge, I had to find the lowest point to climb up it. The rock face here was a weak sandy limestone which crumbled when I put any force on it. I had to find a spot where I could grab some shrubs and use them to pull myself up. The whole time I was dreading losing my grip and falling back on my knee. The attempts to walk were painful enough, I couldn't erase the thought of a jarring fall from even what I considered the low height of five feet. Eventhough a couple of plants were shredded or pulled from their roots, I did finally manage to get up the first ledge.

I staggered up the crossing meanders of trails back up to the road, and eventually to my car. I don't use a watch, but I estimate that it took me an hour at least to get to this point, and now I had a 2.5 hours drive back down the highway (driving on the left side of the road). I couldn't find a drugstore that was open as it was now late afternoon on a weekend, so I just grimaced through the whole return trip.

I crawled up the spiralling stairway to the hotel I was staying at, took 3 pain pills, drank some water, and collapsed. The next morning my leg was so swollen I couldn't pull pants over it. I put on a baggy pair of shorts, and called one of my co-workers. Raniab took me to the hospital, where I had x-rays, a visit with a doctor, and then a doctor in training (student/nondoctor) was brought in to learn how to drain the accumulated blood and fluid from my knee. The surgeon told him to get a large syringe, the student disappears for 5 minutes and comes back with the syringe I can only call King Kong. It was enormous. The doctor looks at him quizzically and says, "You couldn't find one a little smaller?" The intern defensively replies, "You told me to get a large syringe, that was the largest I could find. Ok, now I have to brace myself while the doctor demonstrates to the intern how to remove the liquid from my knee with a needle the size of a pencil, aka... a knee-kabob-ectomy.
Oh yeah, the doc is smooth as he removes the first syringe of blood, now its the manglers turn to be gentle....ahh, I can still feel him ramming the syringe into the space between my knee and wiggling it, then under my patela and finally poking it all around the fluid filled cavity that was my knee. Eventually, the equivalent of 3/4ths of a soda can was drained. X-rays showed no broken bones, so I was sent back to the hotel with the equivalent of regular strength Tylenol.

There is much more to the story, but I'll just quickly summarize it...
I was sent back to the US ten days later, and the insurance (provided by work) refused to pay for any of the bills because I was out of the US when I hurt myself. I ended up going to a Veterans Hospital in Wisconsin with long waiting lists. The MRI showed that my ACL was gone, the MCL was gone, and my meniscus was torn. I spent 8 months rehabbing my knee, gained 30 pounds, went through a long depression, was released by the worthless company I worked for, and am now back at work wearing a brace everyday.

Oh well, going on days off on Friday, back to Wisconsin.
Ciao
B