tell me more

Good news first. My friend from high school just had a baby. She isn’t even the first: we have another fellow Class of 2000′er who became a father in September. Granted, these are both Mormons, but as Aziz Ansari put it best “please stop having babies you people! It makes the rest of us feel old!”

Bad news second. This week, someone up there somewhere is playing a game called “Let’s see how many times Shan can injure herself.” I sprained my ankle badly Saturday night. My first thought was “would I still be able to snowboard?” By the time Tuesday rolled around, I was up on my feet and walking around, so I went snowboarding. Only to re-sprain my ankle. Today (Thursday), I went back for more snowboarding, and finally got everything I ever asked for.

Warning: the following may be graphic … ? (though I wouldn’t really call myself a graphic writer)

Here are my discrete recollections of the events that transpired tonight: Conditions are icy. I am not a good snowboarder. I am made even worse of a boarder with my bad rental boots. I change my boots. I still do not like ice. I fall a lot. Other people around me are also falling a lot. With my good fortune, other people, who happened to be riding my tail, have no time to react when I fall. I look up the mountain just in time to see a guy coming down on a board inches from my face. I duck. I feel sharp pain in my right leg. The guy flips over me. I grab my leg in pain. I lay on the ice, unable to get up. I lay for a long time. Pain subsides.

I try to get up. I see blood. Lots of blood.

I lay back down, elevate my leg, apply pressure, call for help. (or rather, my friends Leonardo and Cathal and Barry call for help). Thank goodness for friends who stayed with me on the mountain. Leonardo, Cathal — I cannot thank you guys enough; you are truly rock-stars. I’ll owe you guys beers any day of the week.

Ski patrol arrives. They roll back my ski pants. I see a 3-inch-long gaping hole in my right thigh (like a gushing mouth, the Ski patrol later describes). I want to freak out. I’m on the verge of freaking out. I elevate my leg some more. I feel dizzy (loss of blood?). Ski patrol dress up the gaping mouth in my leg. At least I get to ride down the mountain on a stretcher-on-skis thing. I get carried on a bus bound for MIT. I make two phone calls (guess the two people whom I called). I go with ambulance to the hospital. My high school friend whom I drank with on New Year’s Eve happened to be my EMT in the ambulance.

Nurse in ER undoes my dressing, asks me to bend my right knee (to “check” for broken ligaments, she says). I feel blood gushing. She is satisfied. Doctor reveals my wound. flesh literally dangles out of my leg. Doctor numbs my leg with what feels like lemon juice on gaping wound (the irony of anesthetics is that they only work after first inducing severe pain). I watch as the good doctor douses my leg with iodine, saline, and whatever else, and goes to work. I watch as the good doctor cuts away at “extra flesh”, punctures my skin repeatedly with his suture needle, and ties knots using suture thread and what looks like two pairs of scissors. I no longer want to freak out. Things are under control. I feel like I am watching Nip/Tuck.

15 stitches, and some forms where I signed giving away my soul, later, I am discharged. I need to wear a knee brace for two weeks. I can’t do anything that requires bending my knees for two weeks. I can’t exercise for next two weeks (to my get-fit team, I am so so sorry). I can’t snowboard anymore. GSC ski trip is in 8 days. 8 days is less than two weeks. I get no ski trip.

Good news last. I am overally a-okay. I had some wild thoughts running through my head tonight, such as how unfortunate it would be if I were to lose a leg at 23. Luckily for me, the cut, despite being extremely wide and deep, did not hit anything major. I should be back on my feet in about two weeks.

I cannot express enough gratitude for: Leonardo, Cathal, Ryan, Zach (and his EMS team), Linda the nurse (even if she made me bend my knee), and Dr. Shaffer. Thanks for making it so I didn’t freak out, and so that I still got to keep my leg.